The film used in the 3d printed pinhole camera is known as 120 film. I will add videos later on how to load film, but I figure that you could find various solutions to this via Youtube. I want to focus more on my own experience in processing some prints using the pinhole camera. I must admit: the only times I have ever used a darkroom was back at Del Mar College as an undergrad. I now fully appreciate the fact that everything was set up for us there, as I quickly found out that using the correct chemicals is a daunting task in itself.
I hit the jackpot when it came to making prints, really. I adjunct for a school called South Texas College, and happen to know a guy named Eduardo Quintero who adjuncts at both STC and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I took a shot in the dark and asked him to ask the photography instructor there to help me develop prints. Eduardo put me in contact with Marilyn Carren, the photography instructor from UTRGV. Not only did she agree to help, but she ended up making prints for me from start to finish. I helped with the first roll, but I think I just slowed her down more than anything- a real pro.
I hit the jackpot when it came to making prints, really. I adjunct for a school called South Texas College, and happen to know a guy named Eduardo Quintero who adjuncts at both STC and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I took a shot in the dark and asked him to ask the photography instructor there to help me develop prints. Eduardo put me in contact with Marilyn Carren, the photography instructor from UTRGV. Not only did she agree to help, but she ended up making prints for me from start to finish. I helped with the first roll, but I think I just slowed her down more than anything- a real pro.
We began by loading a piece of photography paper into the camera, and leaving it out in direct sunlight for five minutes with the shutter closed. The paper was then developed to check for any light leaks. There was a bit coming in from the edges, but nothing that would prevent at least a single exposure, which at the time was my aim.
We then went on to load the first roll. The viewfinder on the rear of the camera had been painted shut, so there was no way we could look inside to see where the roll of 120 film began. We guessed nine turns to start the film and three turns to advance the frame. We went out back and bracketed some exposures with a meter value of EV16 from 1/4 to 1 1/2 seconds. This was Marilyn's idea, as I am more of a shoot and hope for the best type. She correctly stated that the reason you want to document your exposures is so that you can 'learn' your camera.
We were able to shoot about 6 exposures before the spool no longer had tension, meaning we had reached the end of the roll. We took the film back inside to develop using the time required by the film manufacturer. I will post more about how she developed the film later. I learned a lot.
It worked!! I was very excited to see that this device which existed as a computer file, printed on a machine, assembled by us, worked so entirely well. Marilyn pointed out a few things that I hadn't bothered to notice in my adulation. The film was showing signs of light leaks when we advanced the roll. I later found out that we forgot to place the plastic washers where the film winders sit on the cap. Also, we obviously were advancing the film too much.
We then went on to load the first roll. The viewfinder on the rear of the camera had been painted shut, so there was no way we could look inside to see where the roll of 120 film began. We guessed nine turns to start the film and three turns to advance the frame. We went out back and bracketed some exposures with a meter value of EV16 from 1/4 to 1 1/2 seconds. This was Marilyn's idea, as I am more of a shoot and hope for the best type. She correctly stated that the reason you want to document your exposures is so that you can 'learn' your camera.
We were able to shoot about 6 exposures before the spool no longer had tension, meaning we had reached the end of the roll. We took the film back inside to develop using the time required by the film manufacturer. I will post more about how she developed the film later. I learned a lot.
It worked!! I was very excited to see that this device which existed as a computer file, printed on a machine, assembled by us, worked so entirely well. Marilyn pointed out a few things that I hadn't bothered to notice in my adulation. The film was showing signs of light leaks when we advanced the roll. I later found out that we forgot to place the plastic washers where the film winders sit on the cap. Also, we obviously were advancing the film too much.
I happened to have two rolls of film left, which Marilyn agreed to shoot on her own. She also shot an extra roll of her own, which was very kind of her to do. You can see from these negative samples, where she is still working with the slide spacing on the first two rolls. She managed to get the spacing down. Give it (advance the film) a full turn and a quarter, and you'll get perfect spacing. She also covered a portion of the camera with gaffer's tape where she had suspected there was light leaks.
Photo Credit: Marilyn Carren
She went the extra mile and made a few prints from the negatives. Stunning! I hadn't expected it would work so well. One thing to note from these pictures is that we were probably using the wrong sized pinhole, which would effect the clarity of the shot. I incorrectly assumed that we were using the 0.30mm pinhole, when in fact the pinhole had been guessed at. I hate to micromanage things like that, but hey, we were lucky enough to get a print! There is also something called the butter shutter that would be less invasive when moving the shutter up and down, and might provide for a clearer image. Even with that said, I was completely impressed. Thank you Marilyn Carren for these lovely pictures!
She went the extra mile and made a few prints from the negatives. Stunning! I hadn't expected it would work so well. One thing to note from these pictures is that we were probably using the wrong sized pinhole, which would effect the clarity of the shot. I incorrectly assumed that we were using the 0.30mm pinhole, when in fact the pinhole had been guessed at. I hate to micromanage things like that, but hey, we were lucky enough to get a print! There is also something called the butter shutter that would be less invasive when moving the shutter up and down, and might provide for a clearer image. Even with that said, I was completely impressed. Thank you Marilyn Carren for these lovely pictures!
In the spirit of DIY and the spirit of being kind to our planet I wanted to take this project a step further and try out something I had only read about. According to Wikipedia: The Technical Photographic Chemistry Class at RIT in 1995 led by Dr. Scott Williams developed a method of developing photographic film using standard household items. The tested mixtures of tea and coffee combined with agents to balance the pH and successfully made printable images for exposed film. At the time they did not call it "Caffenol", but the methods they developed later became commonly called Caffenol.
Caffenol is simply a mixture of these things:
Caffenol is simply a mixture of these things:
Coffee, Soda Ash, and Vitamin C. Some recipes call for potassium bromide which can be substituted by salt, but I didn't have salt on hand and it still worked. You can find various recipes online and many would suggest consistent measurements. Some even measure using scales. I saw that the coffee and soda ash mixture was roughly the same and the vitamin c was substantially less grams. I filled an old metal container (the metal may react, but this was just a test) with about two liters of water, poured in nearly half of the coffee, about the same about on soda ash, and a few shakes of vitamin c powder- very scientific, I know, I mixed it all up and found out quickly what everyone was mentioning. This thing started to smell like a wet sock, in a gym bag, at the bottom of porter potty.
I took a dab of the solution using my hand where there should have been a glove (the ingredients are stinky but non-toxic) and rubbed the solution on a piece of photo paper that I had left sitting in the sun for about five minutes. What do you know? It worked! I loaded a piece of photo paper into the pinhole camera. I have no darkroom equipment, so the room had to be pitch black. Luckily I had already cut a few pieces to the required 6X6 cm from the previous test. I set up a still life and first tried a one minute exposure.
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Nothing. Except for black rectangles. I figured those must have been the overheard lights since I was still making negatives even though this was on photo paper. I developed in total darkness and only turned on the light when I was ready to take the picture. The picture begins to darken after about a minute or so when exposed to indoor lighting. The caffenol is still active since I wasn't using a stop bath or photo fixer. Photo Paper has a slow ISO, so I thought I would go on the high end and try ten minutes. Still nothing. It was my final try try produced good results. I exposed the photograph for ten minutes as in the previous attempt, but this time, I used a lamp to illuminate the subject more directly, essentially making it brighter. I developed the image in caffenol for about ten minutes, agitating every minute or so.
Bingo! The image is a bit blurry. Perhaps because of the long exposure, or perhaps because I used a dslr handheld on manual focus to shoot the picture of the picture. My aim was to see if it actually worked, which I feel was an absolute success.
Shoot me any questions you may have about what I did or samples of your own camera build and prints.
-Luis Corpus
Shoot me any questions you may have about what I did or samples of your own camera build and prints.
-Luis Corpus