Get Inspired – Prison Through a Pinhole

June 5, 2015 Kier

Editor’s note: The daily pinhole photos are curated and shared to inspire and elevate the pinhole photography artform. Do you have a photo you’d like considered? Tell us about it.

Today’s featured pinhole photo is a beautiful confinement.

Prison Through a Pinhole
[singlepic id=169 w=600]Prison Through a Pinhole, ©Mark Doxey 2015[/singlepic]

To nab this photo, Mark Doxey actually snuck into this derelict prison in Armagh, Ireland. By donning some hi-vis construction clothes and a hard hat, he was able to get by security by looking the part. It’s a risky maneuver, but appears to have paid off! (ahem, our lawyers want to note that the editors of ƒ/D officially do not condone trespassing.)

More of Mark’s work can be found on Flickr.

Inspiration

Get Inspired – Bull Island

June 4, 2015 Kier

Editor’s note: The daily pinhole photos are curated and shared to inspire and elevate the pinhole photography artform. Do you have a photo you’d like considered? Tell us about it.

Today’s featured pinhole photo is a gentle view on a sunny day.

Bull Island
[singlepic id=168 w=600]Bull Island, Reality So Subtle, Kodak Ektar, ©Fran Morrin 2015[/singlepic]

Using a Reality So Subtle wide angle camera pointed at the sun, Fran Morrin captured this warm scene on Bull Island. It’s an image that stirs memories of perfect summer days with nothing to worry about.

More of Fran’s work can be found on Flickr.

Articles, Technical

Paper Negatives: Refining the Process

June 3, 2015 Kier 3 Comments

If you’ve been following ƒ/D closely, you’ve probably seen that we’ve featured some of Marko Umicevic’s images before (here and here). His images of Croatian scenery carry a distinctive smoothness in tonality and transitions that suit the subject matter expertly.

Marko often relies on paper negatives. It’s a medium I’ve personally used a little, and have always been intrigued to learn more about. I was surprised to see a particular aspect of Marko’s process notes: R09 1+100. I thought it was a typo, and then when I saw his Under the Trees, I saw that it was R09 1+200, and I had to pursue this further. R09, the modern incantation of Rodinal, is more often than not a film developer. Moreover, when used for paper, the recommended dilution is usually 1+10 or 1+20.

Over the course of a few emails, I got the chance to quiz Marko about his Rodinal paper development technique further. I’m pleased to present the highlights of that conversation here.

Marko, when I look at your images, and consider that you’re using Rodinal in 1+100 or 1+200, it appears that you get a longer tonal scale than you’d normally get from a paper developer. Is that accurate?
You are right. That’s what Rodinal does in comparison to standard paper developers when used at higher dilution than normal! At 1:200 it works very slowly, doesn’t penetrate deeply inside the paper base and reduces silver mostly on top. This “flat-top” procedure (similar to water bath) evens out the contrast more efficiently since it contracts highlights that are prone to blow out when development starts! (And highlights are something to keep in mind when dealing with paper negatives) Rodinal works as an excellent paper negative developer and allows you to fine tune contrast of your images. Unfortunately, at higher dilution it’s quickly exhausted and that requires extra precaution at development sessions.

Wide tonality of some of my images, beside highly diluted Rodinal, is partially result of fiber based grade 2 paper I’m using (conventionally: normal grade paper). Lower grade gives lower contrast, i.e. better or wider mid-tone values while fiber base due to its higher amount of deposited silver brings to overall picture depth. Same effect can’t be achieved with VC/RC paper!

So, it’s a balance between Rodinal dilution, developing procedure and graded FB paper I’m used to and know very well. Not to mention the importance of exposure that needs to be as exact as possible.

Are you using any agitation in your process? Or is it stand development?
It’s usually a stand development with very little agitation or if any. In the case of Under the Trees – due to high scenery contrast – negative was developed with almost no agitation at all. The thing is, while proceeding with stand development, if I see that developer is exhausted or near exhaustion and works extremely slowly I would agitate it if necessary. This would bring some power to it but results wouldn’t be the same as with stand development done with freshly mixed batch.

Are you pre-flashing your paper negatives first?
When working with pinhole camera and paper (and I do both almost exclusively) I try to keep the whole process as pure as possible. Pre-flashing paper can slightly increase the emulsion speed and consequently help one keep the contrast inside normal/usable scale if exposure is based on shadow values and measured under difficult or harsh lightning. However, for me if the light isn’t just right – soft, subdued and kind of “touchy” with mostly open shades – I’ll try not to do the picture. That makes pre-flashing in my case irrelevant. Also, I try avoiding the use of any sort of filters, be it color or UV.

What ISO do you generally find works best for this configuration?
I usually rate my paper (FB Fomabrom grade 2) at ISO12

Speaking of exhaustion, roughly how many negatives do you find you can develop in a batch of Rodinal 1:100 or 1:200?
In my experience, 1L of developer solution at 1+100 is roughly enough for 3 sheets of 8x10in paper, while at 1+200 one can count for 2 sheets. Keep in mind that we are speaking of double weight FB paper! Considering exhaustion, highly diluted Rodinal in a tray has full working life of roughly 25 minutes at 20°C. So, when developing at higher dilution I try to bring picture to life very slowly, but starve to finish the procedure fast. With practice and confidence this quickly becomes a routine and a method.

For those that aren’t familiar with the Development by Inspection technique (as opposed to time and temperature), can you describe the process? How do you know when to pull the print from the developer?
Basically, developing paper negatives is very similar to developing enlarged prints in a standard darkroom processing. But, unlike standard paper developer and standard procedure that mostly urges for fixed time, developing paper negatives in Rodinal is less restrictive and more open to process variation at the development stage. Higher Rodinal dilution brings even contrast at prolonged development time allowing one to pleasently observe, control and eventually modulate picture tonality under the safelight. Decision like „should I agitate or not“ or „can I stop it now“ are all made under inspection! Also, when working with Rodinal one has to keep in mind Rodinal’s „single-shot nature“ genuinly formulated for film and not for paper! Issues of this old chemical formula comes to life at stand development in a tray that in my configuration often lasts between 8 to 20 minutes. Paper fogging from safelight or developer oxidation are expected difficulties that I need to count on. You would rarely experience this with standard paper development in standard darkroom procedure – be it print or negative.

In Rodinal my paper negatives are usually developed as follow:

Firstly, I push the paper with the emulsion side facing down inside shallow tray filled with developer and with the help of tongs try to keep the paper beneath developer surface until I feel its thoroughly soaked. Then I slowly (!) agitate the tray for a brief moment.

After first minute I flip the paper upside so I can see how the picture is coming out. At 1:100 properly exposed highlights starts to occur after about two minutes. Keeping an eye on highlights when developing really starts and observing the speed they are coming out makes help in evaluating final contrast and gives signals for further agitation if necessary. Developing is finished when shadow details are fully developed. That’s the point when I pull the paper out of developer tray.
Dilution and Rodinal developing time in a reference to desired negative contrast are evaluated on my expectations and sometimes by the notes I write on the exposures and scene/subject light values. Experience in working with paper and darkroom materials I’m familiar with plays great key of roll in my processes. Usually when I standardize the procedure (exposure/paper/developer combination) I can count on timing what makes developing by inspection – at least for the sake of contrast control – not so necessary. Still, I enjoy it very much to watch how picture is slowly drawing itself and this work of magic can be quite thrilling on larger sheets of paper!

Mirror Meditations, ©Marko Umicevic 2015

More of Marko’s work can be found on his Flickr page.

Inspiration

Get Inspired – 10_4.5_p

June 3, 2015 Kier

Take in today’s featured pinhole in a place of quiet beauty.

10_4.5_p
[singlepic id=167 w=600]10_4.5_p, Zero Image 4×5, FOMA fomapan 100, ©De Ferschter 2015[/singlepic]

De Ferschter made this quiescent scene using a Zero Image 4×5 with a single frame added for a focal length of 50mm, with Fomapan 100 film. The way these trees stand apart, like 5 good friends, makes for such a strong composition.

You can find more of De Ferschter’s work on Flickr.

Inspiration

Get Inspired – Atlantic II

June 2, 2015 Kier

Today’s featured pinhole image is a calming shade of blue.

Atlantic II
[singlepic id=166 w=600]Atlantic II, Twinings Tea tin cam, Kodak Ektar ©Artūras Meškauskas 2015[/singlepic]

Artūras Meškauskas, a Lithuanian photographer from the city of Panevezys, made this wonderful image with his homemade pinhole camera that he fashioned from a Twinings Tea tin and expired Ektar 100. I’ve got to say his appears to be the best tea tin camera I’ve seen. This scene was captured in 2014 on an autumn holiday in Gran Canaria.

You can find more of Artūras’s work on Flickr and Facebook.

Site News

May Recap

June 1, 2015 Kier

May 2015 saw some great pinhole action at ƒ/D! In case you missed it, here’s what happened:

May 1: We highlighted Jan Geisen’s work that focused on stormy action both inside and outside of the camera.

May 6: We covered some baseline information to help you choose the type of pinhole camera that you might like to build.

May 8: We published our interview with Paul Barden, and learned about what drives his wonderful vision.

May 13: We covered some tips on how to be more mobile with your pinhole gear, because having your pinhole cameras with you is the first step to pinholing more!

May 15: Luca Baldassari showed us his sublime photos of the North Cape.

May 20: Guest author Delio Ansovini contributed a wonderful article about camera geometry, and how understanding it can help you get a grip on your composition.

May 22: We shared Nicolas Turlais’s exquisite vision of backcountry aloneness.

May 27: We shared a conversation with Eddie Erdmann about his mastery of the changing light of the low sun.

May 29: We published our conversation between associate editor Libby Selinsky and pinhole photographer Diane Peterson, where she provided great insight into her creative process and the path she took to her unique style of photography.

Finally, we’ve been delighted to continue promoting some of the best pinhole photography available:

[nggallery id=6 images=35]

All images on this page are copyright protected by the respective artists.

Inspiration

Get Inspired – Crazy ’bout a Mercury

June 1, 2015 Kier

Today’s featured pinhole photo absorbs us in a time gone by.

Crazy ’bout a Mercury
[singlepic id=165 w=500]Crazy ’bout a Mercury, Zero Image 6×9, Portra 160, ©Collin Orthner 2015[/singlepic]

Collin Orthner made this wonderful image while traveling through Alberta. It has a great backstory from Collin himself:

This old Mercury truck was found on an old farm south of Brooks, Alberta, near Rolling Hills. It was a creepy place too! My travelling partner Michael Chesworth went exploring the old farmhouse and discovered old bank deposit slips from the early fifties, and an old shot up television that had only the original dial that let you choose one of thirteen channels. I remember being a kid watching our old B&W TV that had this same sort of dial, unfortunately, we couldn’t even make use of the dial as we had the luxury of getting only one channel! So, if we didn’t like what was on we were back outside riding our bikes or playing hockey on the local rink, depending on the season of course. Anyways, back to this farm, there was no sign anywhere at the start of the dirt laneway indicating “No Trespassing” so we felt OK checking it out. This truck was one of three in the yard and the one I liked making images of the best. I made a lot of close-ups of the patina of the metal with my digital camera, but really felt a pinhole image would add a sense of being in a dream and also would give some indication of how I was feeling in this farmyard. It really makes you think about who it was that lived there and why it was left in the state it was. Someone had a full life here and we only got to see a few remnants of it. I would have to think it wasn’t a creepy existent either, but just the way things have gone since whomever it was departed, left us feeling a bit unsettled. This image was made with a ten minute exposure with my camera mounted to my tripod and awkwardly arranged just inside the cab of the truck. I thought my meter was out to lunch indicating such a long exposure, but here you are, and it was rather dark in the shadows of the cab. An hour or so later we hit the highway to a new destination still heading further south.

More of Collin’s work can be found on his personal website.

Inspiration

Get Inspired – WWPD

May 30, 2015 Kier

Today’s featured pinhole photo is a ghostly self portrait.

Paul Griffin made this image in the bottom of an abandoned swimming pool using his Eight Banners 6×9 loaded with Kodak Portra 160. As indicated by the title, he made this for WWPD. He made this image using what he refers to as “Photoshop in camera”: overlapping the 6×9 exposures as he moves through the 120 roll. This gives him a slight bit of unpredictability while also providing a fair bit of creative choice in which images to use.

You can find more of Paul’s work on his Flickr page.

Interviews

ƒ/D Interview: Diane Peterson

May 29, 2015 Libby Selinsky 3 Comments

We here at f/D love bringing great photographs to your screens. Our goal is to take you away from where you are at your place in time and deliver you to a place of inspiration and exploration. One of our favorite ways of bringing you into our world is by speaking directly with the photographers who create the works that we present on our site. We search carefully to find people who truly love the work. These people love to share their stories and views on photography. After all, a photographer is also a story teller who uses the waves of light to replace their words.

This week’s featured artist was a pleasure to speak with. Diane Peterson’s photographs are saturnine with an ethereal tone. Her images are striking yet soothing. I hope you enjoy her perspectives as much as we do. It is much to our pleasure to share with you our interview and her works.

[singlepic id=149 w=200 float=right] [/singlepic]Looking at your blog many of your photographs depict the anthropomorphization of characters and animals – see your post from July 2, 2014. What interests you to create pinholes with these subjects?
In my “Perfect World” I would have numerous humans both adult and children ready to step in to my make believe world and take on the persona of whatever character I want to photograph. However, we live in a relatively isolated area without neighbors and I don’t really have people I can call on to fill in these rolls. About five years ago I realized I could build life size mannequins to use in these situations. I have a background in costume design and clothing construction so whatever I didn’t have in my personal wardrobe was easily created to dress these “people”. Making the mannequins in my size saved me a lot of time and work with outfitting them. I do however keep my eyes open for vintage garments. I started making my own dolls at the age of eight so this is just a natural progression..bigger dolls! I also made dolls with animal faces, masks just make this process a bit quicker and easier. There are so many photographers out there shooting images of beautiful people and I have never liked the idea of doing the same thing as the next guy. Quirky seems to be my forte’. To me photography is about seeing the hidden picture, something that doesn’t seem obvious..sure, there is a beautiful dress but what is it about the creature wearing the dress, standing in a forest or by a falling down building. I have a very active imagination and these are the kinds of things I enjoy. Some would be totally oblivious to what is happening, so for those my work would probably be boring or strange. Although the mannequin idea came about several years ago it was only a couple years ago I got the idea to add a mask to these “girls”..I think the popular Portland based TV series “Grimm” had a lot to do with the mask idea.

[singlepic id=152 w=200 float=left][/singlepic]Many of your photos vary on whether you are using paper negatives or different types of film. Do you have a preferred medium or do you like to try a little of everything?
When I first started doing photography I wanted to use film.. At about the same time I started seeing references to “pinhole” cameras and seeing incredible work being done by a few photographers, with some mention of “paper”, I had no idea what they were talking about. After a few searches on the internet I was excited to get started. However I was entirely ignorant to most of what happens with film and paper and how they become the finished product. I found the name of someone using paper in her pinhole images , took a chance and wrote her asking if she could give me pointers on how she used film paper. She responded by sending me a large roll of 4 inch wide stock..yards and yards of it! There are some incredible generous people in the photography world. I now use paper in about 95% of my pinholes. I also use paper in some medium format cameras such as Holga ,Diana and my Agfa Clack. I like to experiment and cutting small pieces of paper and positioning it with bits of scotch tape lets me do this without wasting and entire roll of film.

[singlepic id=158 w=200 float=right][/singlepic]Storm Warning, ©Diane Peterson 2015[/singlepic]Your pinholes carry striking and sometimes startling emotion yet there are nearly no human faces in the photos on your blog. Why do you choose to communicate without living faces?
Many people have said this exact thing to me! I think many of us derive emotion from things totally unexpected. I know I do. For instance, I take a lot of pinhole images of laundry hanging on clothes lines. For some reason this creates a sense of well being with me. I have taken these kind of images in Ecuador, in Greece, Iceland, Great Britain, France, Italy..and all have a similar feeling for me. The patience of standing somewhere and hanging out the laundry..what could be simpler and yet many people comment how much they like these shots. So it does speak to many of us, probably drawing back to a childhood memory. I have a favorite deserted, falling down farmhouse not far from my home that I love taking pictures of..mostly pinhole, other times a normal camera. I never tire of it, and it always makes me feel welcome. How that can be when no one has lived there in probably seventy five years is amazing. This also comes from what I mentioned above, not having living faces, so I am somewhat compelled to find interesting places with lots of character that have the ability to elicit some emotion from the viewer. Probably a good thing my photos have this ability as I don’t really have a choice and I have become so use to this style that now it seems second nature to my work.

[singlepic id=159 w=200 float=right] [/singlepic]What is it about the pinhole camera that you love versus a glass lensed camera?
Where do I begin! From the first time I made a successful image using a pinhole camera I was hooked. I first read about pinhole cameras in maybe 2006 in an issue of the British publication “Black & White Photography”. There was an incredible spread of articles highlighting several people using pinholes at that time. I can honestly say that I still go back and read those pages several times a year. I wanted to know everything I could about pinholes, how to make my own cameras, what these people were shooting, tips on exposure, etc. I have always been the type of person that when they want to know a thing they pursue it to whatever length they need to, and this was no exception. Honestly, with all the incredible cameras out there today most anyone can make a beautiful image. I am not really about the “beautiful” perfect image, with me it’s about doing something “different, even unusual. My work definitely qualifies, and that OK with me. Not everyone will try pinhole. Most people are intimidated by it I think. And it could not be simpler. Everyone has their own methods of getting their desired exposure for instance. I use a handy little app called “pinhole assist”, and I can say that it never lets me down. You put in the information and it comes right back with your exposure. And, my gosh, you can make a pinhole camera from almost anything that can be made light tight. That cookie tin that might get thrown out can easily be turned into the most perfect pinhole camera. How could someone not love that! I have many, many glass lensed cameras but I use them rarely, always returning to one of my pinhole creations. I have several beautifully made commercial pinhole cameras but using a left over cigar box, cookie tin, drink can really delights my sense of creativity. I also make my own pinholes with pieces of brass shim and micro drills I order from the east coast of the U.S. I get requests from all over the world from people needing the pinholes. The bottom line is this..you take a tin can, wooden box, discarded container and make it light tight, add a pinhole and some photo paper and leave it out in the light for a bit and the result is a wonderful image. How could you not love this process!

[singlepic id=155 w=200 float=left][/singlepic]Do you process your own photos or do you send them out for processing? Why?
I have processed my own work for years. When I was first starting out in photography, a friend at the time taught me to develop my own film during a long telephone conversation. Luckily my husband was listening because he remembers details better than I, so I could just ask him what step I was missing and he would know! That was a long time ago. Now I could do it in my sleep. And developing paper is the simplest thing in the world. I have our extra bathroom set up as a darkroom with the overhead light being a safelight. We added a piece of black foam core over the window and instant darkroom. My biggest problem being to remember shutting off the safelight when I am finished! For paper you only need a paper developer , stop bath and fixer. I first started developing paper with Dektol and then tried caffenol. I now also use Rodinol which I really like. There is just something about putting your exposed paper negative into the developer and watching it transform into a tangible piece of art that delights the soul. And the most important reason for doing your own developing..how could you possible wait to have someone else do it!

The motion in the sheet music in your photo from Feb 19, 2015, conveys an energy in the music in a way I’ve not seen before. What was your process, creatively and technically, in creating this photo?
Ah, yes! Sometimes I find great props but then have to wait for just the right time to use them..I wanted to “hang” the sheet music in a way that I could capture several sheets at a time like when an orchestra has several musicians playing at once..without lots of music stands around I decided to run a piece of hemp across the back of a vintage truck bed and layer the music across. This called for a wide angle pinhole camera with the proper focal length to capture the sheet music close enough so the viewer actually knows what it is. Mind you it also had to be a fairly overcast day, though not too dark so the exposure would be so long as to lose the movement… with just a bit of wind to get the swaying motion I wanted…long but not TOO long. .the old record player was thrown in just for fun, just in case someone missed the fact that this was about “Music”!

[singlepic id=147 w=200 float=right] [/singlepic]Many of your cameras have a distorting effect to them. Can you tell us about how you introduce this distortion to help with your message?
As I mention before I use a lot of created or handmade pinhole cameras to make my images. When I first started out with pinhole I saw images made from circular tins as opposed to square flat “cameras”. This fascinated me. I was eager to try this style of making pinhole images. Just to think one merely had to change the pinhole image taking device positioning from horizontal to vertical or place at a forty-five degree angle to get an unusual picture was incredible in my mind. The curvature of the pinhole tin depending on its diameter can radically change your image. I love distorting the image because it makes the viewer see things in a different way..Not necessarily “better” but just different. And “different” is good with me. I should add that I read just about everything I can find regarding pinhole imagery. Two of my favorite books are “Adventures with Pinhole and Home-made Cameras by John Evans, and Pinhole Photography, by Eric Renner. I would so recommend these books as a creative primer to anyone starting out in Pinhole Photography.

[singlepic id=151 w=200 float=left] [/singlepic]We all have a voice that we use while we are expressing our creative selves. Do you believe that you have found your voice?
Most definitely! I mentioned that my background was in textiles and much of my work had been photographed for newspapers etc., but never really thought much about being the person behind the camera. While traveling in Europe with my daughter and granddaughter many years ago I started noticing the incredible images captured by my 10 year old (at the time) granddaughter! I started thinking that perhaps I should be doing this. I started looking at architecture and ruins in an entirely different way. I first tried digital imagery and was turned off by the “flatness” of the images and turned to film. But when I discovered pinhole I knew then I had found the answer to “what I want to be when I grow up” I feel amazingly fortunate to have found this “voice”.

May 2015 saw some great pinhole action at ƒ/D! In case you missed it, here’s what happened:

Finally, we’ve been delighted to continue promoting some of the best pinhole photography available:

Exploring the Art of Pinhole Photography