How To Make a 6-month duration Pinhole Camera 

For all you Canadians out there wanting to make a six month pinhole camera, gaffer tape is duct tape in our world :) thanks for the great videos Justin, loving this.

This must be the best RU-vid tutorial I have ever seen. This got me motivated to try it

After browsing through hundreds of woodworking videos I must say I love your comment when you tear off the gaffa...

Love this video. You should do more! You're a great teacher, and i'd love to see more vids. Thanks!

Absolutely brilliant! I plan to build one, and put it on the balcony of my flat (which I haven't visited for ages--the balcony, I mean). Even better, I get to have a beer first. ;D

This is awesome thank you for sharing. I teach high school adaptive special education and I am always looking for artsy activities to do! I believe my students would think this is pretty neat.

00:07 Can preparation 01:03 Light-proof cap 03:54 Pinhole 04:44 Light-proof shutter 05:20 Loading the paper 07:31 Darkening demonstration 08:58 Sealing the camera 09:45 Final touches & Warnings 10:59 Film pot version 11:25 Taking down & Scanning

I took down my first can today and the photo turned out great! I'm trying different exposure times so there are still several cameras out there :) Thanks for the video!

Great video (and fun to watch!), me and my housemate have just put two up today!

Hey Justin, great vid. Could you post a link to a recommended retailer for the paper at all?

What is the recommended ISO or speed of the paper?

Subscribed just after watching this video, very informative and an excellent teacher you are!

Amazing! That is so cool. Now I need to get my hands on the photographic paper, wow, thank you!

Thank you so much for explaining the process!!!!!!! When I first saw your images I thought you processed them in chemicals! This is awesome! I want to try to do a long exposure pinhole photo!!! Yay!!!

thanks Justin that was great, I will try pinhole photos soon.

This video is wonderful. A very well done tutorial. Thanks for sharing!

I come from a film background for my pinhole photography. I've never used photo paper the way you've described. I'm very surprised that there are no hard and fast exposure times for the paper. A usable image can be made with an exposure time of a single day up to a full year of light exposure? Have you tried this with Ilford's direct positive paper?

Thank you for this demo. My question if you want to save or keep the photo, how you can do that??

Well done Justin

you would not believe it but it works! Quite well! He is using foto-paper , so you can not use an enlarger. To invert the image you can use - as shown- a scanner and the free software "gimp" e.g. the problem is only the correct hole size and its accuracy.

Wow. I'm sooo trying this in summer.

Exposure time is not just seconds/minutes?

What happens if you use colour paper?

Lovely! I plan on doing this. Is there a need to secure the paper inside so it does not rotate in the can and obscure the pinhole?

This is absolutely amazing.

help! there is a street light in front of my camera which turns on at nights. is it going to burn the paper and ruin the image?

Can you scan using a photocopy scanner please?

Any recommendations on making this work for 1 year instead of 6 months? Would this design overexpose?

Please explain. You put photosensitive paper in the can in full (not sun) light, you leave it out for 6 months....... what is the shutter for? Those few photons making it to the paper while you place it will not make any difference compared to what happens/happened will it? The idea however is awesome. Will do this.

Bought my supplies today :D Thanks for the video!

Wonderful... I'm going to find my can and get out there! Thank you

Thanks for this lesson in my late 30th. ) A little bit envy novadays chikdren can get such great classes.) Keep going! )

Thank you so much for sharing this. ♥️♥️♥️

Really really great Vid. Thanks a million for sharing.

So when you put up the camera, do you take off the piece of tape you put on the pinhole, or do you leave it on as sort of a filter?

If the image is scanned straight in as opposed to developing with chemicals, will it fade over time?

What size of photographic paper would you recommend suitable?

There are tons of people on youtube making the same pin hole cameras and doing 20 second exposures. What is it that is different that allows them to go for 6 months?

JustinQuinnell i maked my one pinhole camera from a box but i need the right photographic paper. Does ilford paper work? And can i scan that paper afterwards?

can I use any type of scanner? does it matter what type of light it uses?

What site did you get the paper from? I've done some searching and come out with the paper you print things on.

and what scanner do you have ?

wow! this is great! doing this tomorrow! :) thank you!

What is the use of the shutter? When it is installed do you just leave the shutter open?

Brilliant

beautiful! two questions: does it work with shorter time like a week? and is there some way of using / showing the original paper from the can ?

This is the best. You are the best!

Fantastic video 😍✌️

So don’t use gaffer tape across, so you use less gaffer tape. Three seconds later, because you’re obviously now obsessed with gaffer tape, you might as well just unnecessarily use another strip on top again…

Will Kodak Endura (RA-4 process) paper work?

wow...... that's so amazing sir!

Do I need to buy "photographic" paper, or "photosensitive" paper? reason i am asking is because i thought "photographic" paper will get messed up as soon as light hits it.

Hi, all the videos ive watched for this uses cans. Is it possible to do it with boxes? Or would that affect the way the light hits the paper in some way? Thanks.

Is gaffer tape "duct tape" to an American?

ok i have a question, its probably a stupid one but, do you have to use photo paper, like is there a way to use regular blank paper and use that for the pinhole camera, cause im confused

Thank you :)

Try a photo webshop which sells analog and/or darkroom material. bhphotovideo in the US and processuk in the UK

Would ILFord Pearl Multigrade be fine?

here i got " canon photo paper plus glossy II" that comes free with my printer....would it be fine? thanks

could I use sheet film instead of paper?

so.. you put the camera somewhere for 6 months and then just scan it?

but where do you ge that film and wich film is it couse he just said the size not the name or iso and so couse the iso must be super litle for 6 mounth in my mind so where can I get it adn what name has it

amazing! Thanks!!

Would someone explain to me why i can't develop the image?

Is there a way to get a 4 hr exposure? (it sounds stupid i know)

Thanks!

Fantastique !

thanks

that's awesome!

tnx man!

They charge these for £16, called a solar can when u can make this at home...

You take it off and leave it off for the duration of the exposure.

If any of you are going to make this and need to know what photo paper to buy here is a link. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/755287-REG/Ilford_1168309_Multigrade_IV_RC_Deluxe.html

wow

Gaffer tape is the most horrible item to clean up after. I do like the beer can. Thanks

Never mind. I found an opener that does the trick :)

Hundreds of years? Photographic paper has only been around since the late 1880's, when dry plates were developed.

This is a very easy tutorial but plz someone make a tutorial to follow this tutorial

It is duct tape.

What kind of people dislike this video, they must have a shitty, frustrated life... Great video, solargraph make beautiful "photo".

Fantastic training material. But I have attention. Photosensitive paper placed on the concave wall of the can causes distortion of the image. I suggest trying to put the photosensitive paper on a flat surface, on the opposite side of the hole. Use a shoe box as a "camera obscura", for example. It used to be negative film, now the transducers are flat.

Back in the mid-50s when I attended YMCA summer camp, the science cabin guy showed us how do put paper in a glass and wood frame with leaves on top of the paper then expose it to the sun. Were they called SolarGraphs? I want to think he somehow permanently fixed the images but don't recall after over 60 years. Like you said, if someone developed the paper it would be black or if they used fixer, the image would go away. Is there a way to permanently process the images?

You won't get the cool swirly lines leaving it out short term. The longer you leave it out, the more rotations the sun makes, therefore, the more cool swirly lines you have on your final image. It just depends on what you're trying to capture.

Excellent project and tutorial! This was a fun video to watch, and it'll be fun to do with the kids. Developing the paper is the only reason we haven't done pinhole photography with them yet-I've never just left photo paper out, so I had no idea it would darken without chemicals! One thing I'd recommend (at least in the States) if you're planning to leave it in a public place, is to not attach it to park benches, play equipment, etc. Wouldn't want anyone to think it's a dangerous device someone placed (especially if it's partially hidden). Around here attaching it to a bench leg like that would result in a guest appearance by the bomb squad. I'm excited to browse through the other videos here! This one was super cool, thank you for sharing your design!

Thanks for the great demonstration, I've learned all I need to know about making a solargraph and will have a crack at it when I get some photographic paper :) . I wondered how these solargraphs worked given such long exposures, never thought they didn't need developing too. Cool to see a Fosters beer can in the the video, that beer is almost non-existent downunder, seems to be more popular overseas than in its country of origin lol, Victoria Bitter and Tooheys New are the top selling beers here in Oz.

Hi all! This is great and I am ready to try it, but am just curious. What type of photo paper would be better for this - fiber based or resin coated? Thanks! John.

I would like to do this with my class for a science experiment. Would a 3-4 month period be sufficient?

Very nice. But I kinda winced when you were so casual about handling the paper in normal room light. I can just see someone doing that then ruining a whole pack of paper that could have been used for normal darkroom enlarging work.

I'm so excited to try this! Thank you! :)

helping me in my science project

A 1mm aperture is way to large for that focal length

How do I fix the image? Is it enough to just put it in the fixer or throw it first into developer?

Hi, all the videos ive watched for this uses cans. Is it possible to do it with boxes? Or would that affect the way the light hits the paper in some way? Thanks.

I would say scanning these lumen prints works fine, but most scanners give slight scanning lines, and don't pick up all the subtle detail. I've got better results copying the prints with a DSLR - even better if you have a macro lens. Use Raw, rather than Jpeg, for proper control to bring out all the lovely tones, in either Lightroom or Photoshop.

Thanks for the lesson Justin, I know you said B&W paper but would it work with color photo paper?

Was fantastic to see you on the George Clarke programme just now! With a modernisation of the development technique 😁

I’m hoping this isn’t a dumb question. I’m building a few of these now and assume that you take the shutter tape off once it’s installed and ready to capture an image?

Pretty cool! Great video. Do you have any comments on placement of the camera, for the duration of months? Thanks.

Any chance you have a copy of the directions you would send home? Will be trying with my MS students this Spring.

Amazing tutorial learned a lot, will it work with cyanotype or x-ray Filim with the same technique???