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Voting closes on Friday 28 June for the RPS Trustee election 2024.

DIY Pinhole Kit
CREDIT: Alan Hodgson ASIS HonFRPS

Pinhole photography - sort of

Inclusive stuff for an indoor project

I like to do twilight photography. That is available to me as I have a garden to walk into. Others are not so lucky in both those respects.

I have been taking photographs of the planet Venus, in particular for my work on starbursts. That is again because I have access to a clear western horizon at sunset. The clouds have now rolled in and Venus has moved too close to the sun. But again, some were not so lucky to be able to access this, either through geography or capability.

So now we are all in the same place and the next step is a little more inclusive. How about doing this indoors? Here is something that will work anywhere and even if for whatever reason you are cannot venture out for your photography.

I was using Venus as a bright point of light on a fairly dark background. That is something that is easy to construct indoors with commonly available items. This is how I do it.

Take a piece of aluminium foil, either from a roll or a food tray. With a needle put a small hole through it. Shine a torch through the hole and take a picture. You can now replicate the work I was doing in the twilight for my Aperture project.

So rather than taking a picture with a pinhole camera this is taking a picture of a pinhole using a camera. I did this for the RPS Good Picture 2016 event. The images are really small so blow them up so you can see the pixels. Different lenses and different cameras give different results. Try a little defocus and overexposure.

The results are instructive and rather creative. Build stuff with a new take on still life!