Back to Basics...Pinhole Photography with Ilford Obscura

Pinhole photography is the most basic form of photography possible. If you want to remove everything between you and your subject, a pinhole camera is it. I love my digital cameras with a great number of buttons, but I also love the simplicity of my old analog cameras.  But it is now time to go a bit further down the simplicity spectrum.  

I have been looking at Ilford's Obscura camera for some time and finally found one during a recent trip to Perth Australia.  I purchased it as quick as I could and brought it all the way back to Jakarta.  I then put it on my shelf and began thinking what to use it for.  I picked up my Edward Weston book and decided to try to photograph some peppers.  Let me explain why, but first some of the technology employed. 

The Kit:
​This kit is fantastic.  It has virtually everything you need minus the chemicals.  The directions are well written, although they could use some diagrams to make it even simpler.  ​It includes a two piece box camera held together with magnets. It is perfectly sized to fit the 4x5 film and the magnets hold is sealed shut. The shutter is a manual lever also held in place with magnets.

It comes with film and paper, either can be used to make images. 10 sheets of each is included.

It also comes with a wheel exposure calculator with simple diagrams of different lighting conditions.  I have also downloaded an iPhone app called "Pinhole Assistant" which uses the iPhone camera to measure the light. Amazingly both the wheel and the application gave the same result. 

If you want to give an artistic person the perfect gift, I would HIGHLY recommend the Ilford Obscura, a film changing bag and some developer, stop & fixer.  Below I explain what I used.  This will give them everything they need to make some amazing art in a unique and hands on way.

The Subject:
Now let me explain the story of the Pepper.  It all began around 1930 (don't you just love stories that start that way....) when Edward Weston had followed his muse/lover to Mexico.  Edward was taking some amazing nude photographs but his lover pushed him to shoot some still life as well. I am sure she was sick of posing for him. 

He shot some of his most famous work including an image of a pepper that is, in my humble opinion, the best photograph ever taken.  Below is a the image in question, and it is called "Pepper #30".  You see, Edward was working hard on capturing the image of a pepper perfectly and had made various attempts with different peppers.  

He finally got his hands on a wonderful pepper, and put it in a funnel to direct light evenly.  He was using a view camera, which is problematic for close up shots because it has a very shallow depth of field. In order to get the entire pepper in focus, Edward had to stop down the lens beyond what it would normally do.  He modified it and dropped it down to an f/260 to 300.  

So his image required an exposure of 4-6 hr!  It too a few attempts to get it right and below is the result of the endeavor.  The worlds best photograph of a humble pepper.  

People have tried to read into the photography as if it was a work of modern art. The issue is that Edward was in his "straight" photography phase and he just wanted to take a wonderful picture of a pepper.  The great news is that he wrote in his journal about his time in Mexico and explained the origin of the pepper and how the picture came to be.

Fast forward 87 years, and there I sat in Jakarta Indonesia with a pinhole camera wondering what I should shoot.  I decided to capture a pepper, not in the same way Edward did, I tried that for years and never succeeded, but a different pepper and a different goal. I want an imperfect image of a pepper.

The Set Up:
I could not find a perfect pepper, so I used the pepper I could find and cut it in half. I set it in a reflective bowl and set up the camera on a tripod.

I framed it as well as I could but was worried that I would get some background in the shot so I draped a black cloth over a chair just in case.

​The pinhole camera will put everything in focus. The aperture is so small it gives a unique effect which is what I am after.

I used Ilford FP4 film with a rated ISO of 125. This is not the film that came with the camera, but it is a box that was already open. Using the exposure dial that came with the camera I estimated a exposure time of 30 minutes.  Using the application it came to an exposure of 28 minutes.  Spot on if I do say so myself.  

I set up a timer and set everything up.  I flipped the shutter and started the timer.  The great thing about a 30 minute exposure is that the error is small.  So as long as I was close, the image exposure should be fine.

Everything should be in focus so the only thing that can go wrong is the framing of the shot. I decided that even if the framing is wrong the image might still work.  So without too much hope took the shot.

Pre-shot Visualization:
I wanted a shot of the peppers and the bowl.  I do not mind if I get the full bowl or partial bowl as the main subject will be the pepper.  What I wanted to show is the detail of the pepper seeds and the contrast with the dark, red skin and flesh.

This image I shot digitally to see how it would look.

Chemistry:
I love Ilford products, they are consistent, excellent quality and the company is dedicated to film photographers (unlike Fuji). I use ID-11 as the developer, Ilfostop as the stopper and Rapid Fixer as the fixer. 

I keep everything as consistent as possible and love the results it gives me. And it is less scary then most realize.

Development:
I use BTZS Development tubes in my 4x5 development. They are not ideal, they are over priced and frankly a pain in the ass to use. But they work and other methods are just as painful. If you are going to shoot 4x5 just understand that development is not a fun part of the process (unlike 35mm and 6x6 film).  

The tubes allow you to "develop in daylight" which is a bunch of hogwash. You need a darkroom plain and simple...but a dark closet works just as well.  

In terms of timing, I used the Massive Development Chart application.  For FP4 shot at 125 Exposure Index it asks for 11 minutes development time. 

And here is the final result. I cropped this in a little bit but I have the full image below. This is how I had imagined it would come out.  This shot was a full 30 minute exposure, and while the negative was still a bit flat, I believe I could have exposed for another 3-5 minutes, it is still a very workable image. 

I am extremely impressed that a pinhole camera can produce such images, no lens to concentrate the light, no filter to enhance or remove characteristics, just a simple hole and.a sheet of film!  

The shaft of light coming from the top is confusing.  I am unsure where that element came in.  Apparently there was a leak somewhere along the lines, but I believe it does not detract one bit from the image.  Pinhole is not about perfection after all!