Re: Math and the pinhole camera

Hi everyone,

Glad the list is off to a good start this year--lots
of messages, lots of ideas.

I've been reading all the exposure and reciprocity
calculation methods with interest.

For what it's worth, I have found over the years that
the easiest thing to do is simply to get to know your
camera. All you really need to know is what is
typically good exposure in about six different
situations: Fully lit on a sunny day; shade on a sunny
day, the same two situations on an overcast day;
Brightly artificially lit interiors (offices,
retailers); and dimly lit artificially lit interiors
(most houses, restaurants). If you learn these times
for your camera (you can even write it right them
directly on each of your homemade cameras), then you
can shoot in almost any situation with surprising
consistency, adjusting for reciprocity, of course.

This last, alas, is a problem. My solution has been to
find a film that I like and stick to it. You can learn
your film just as you learn your camera. After a while
you won't mind much anymore if you don't have your
meter, or your crib sheet, or your calculations handy.
I shoot almost exclusively with T-Max 100 (which is
not to say that it's better than other films, it's
just my preference) and have generally bulit and
bought pinhole cameras that operate at around f=150. I
shoot 2 seconds in bright sunlight, about 8 seconds in
shade, 8-30 seconds overcast, 15 seconds to three
minutes overcast in the shade. Six to 12 minutes in
bright interiors, and 30-45 minutes in dark interiors
(this is all with the reciprocity worked in). I adjust
up and down based on experience and conditions working
from what I know to be right in similar conditions
(for example, I've found that dawn and dusk usually
should be considered a bright interior--6-12 minutes
is often right).

It really can be quite simple. Of course the
calculations and the notes and the theories and the
methods are fine. I wouldn't want to suggest that they
aren't fun and often useful, but I think it's
important to focus on the results. If the negative is
what you were aiming for or it was a happy accident
that turns out just right, then the method of
achieving it is unimpeachable!

Colin
 

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Received on Thu Jan 11 22:22:15 2001