Re: Teaching Pinhole to 7th graders

Beau, that is a blast, I do the same thing all the time!

I'll be happy to donate a Little Merlin pinhole camera to the
cause. You can see them plus a lot of ideas about teaching on
the site at www.paintcancamera.com

The site also features easy how-to's for turning a room into
a giant cmaera and printing b&w without a darkroom

Paper negatives, I agree on this point!

If your main problem with negatives is too much contrast, and
I interpret this as negatives that are too dark, here are
some suggestions that really work.

1) If you are working with multi-contrast paper then you can
place a small piece of a #0 printing filter behind the
pinhole to lower the contrast during the exposure.

2) Switch to a developer that makes lower contrast prints,
like Kodak's Selectol Soft

3) Reduce your exposures until the negatives look right

4) Select the subjects you shoot carefully for successful
results- for example, light objects against dark backgrounds
(& vice versa) or use subjects that have a lot of tones from
the shadows to the highlights

5) Try using the developers at higher dilution that is
recommended for normal prints - for example dilute Dektol 1+3
(instead of 1+2) to reduce the print density

Good luck and let us know if you have more questions

Jim Kosinski
Many thanks,
Jim Kosinski

Starlight Cameras
PO Box 540
Cherry Valley NY 13320 usa

Merlin pinhole cameras & darkroom kits
www.paintcancamera.com
607-264-3480

attached mail follows:

Hi,
My wife has given me the opporitunity of teaching a class of gifted (meaning
'divergent thinkers' in teacher lingo) 7th graders to build and then
photograph with pinhole cameras. The proposed budjet is $50 to $75 and the
length would be 3 to 4 weeks. I have done this 3 times before with 3rd grade
classes. Each time we have had limited success.

Building the cameras with shoeboxes or storage boxes has never been a
problem. A pinvice and 600 grit is used for aperatures. Liberal use of tape
and flat black paint corrected most construction problems. Getting usable
negatives and controlling contrast has been our downfall. Previously we have
used Ilford Mult. (for both the negative and the final image) and Dektol as
the developer (along with other kodak products for stop and fix). The
results were mixed at best, the few exposures that did print were had
extreame contrast.

Does anyone have a recommendation for what paper and developer to use. I
have also noticed some people on the list are using Ortho Lith film, what
developers and ASA would you suggest?

If anyone has a fovorite site or a list of pinhole or howto sites, I sure
could use it (you never know what a 13-14 year old will find with a random
internet search using 'pinhole'). I have lost my book, "The Pinhole Thing",
so any refferances to aperature vs focal length, paper negatives, developers
(low contrast for paper or ortho lith), appropriate (for children)
portfoleos, camera ideas, etc. would be appreciated.

I appoligize for not keeping notes, sites, or prior discussions filed for
referance. I have a week or so to get everything together. Thanks in advance
for any help or suggestions!

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

_______________________________________________
Post to the list as PLAIN TEXT only - no HTML
Pinhole-Discussion mailing list
Pinhole-Discussion@pinhole.com
unsubscribe or change your account at
http://www.pinholevisions.org/discussion/
Received on Sat Mar 9 16:38:57 2002