First steps towards an anamorphic pinhole camera

Blog, Experimental photography, Homemade cameras

A Russian pinhole photographer named Anton Savitskiy was making some really cool images, that I saw in some of the pinhole groups on Facebook. The images were anamorphic, and produced a sort of distortion that I hadn’t seen before. I have tried to re-verse engineer how some of these “upside down” distortions work, with curved film planes and the like, but without success. Here’s an example of his images:

(C) Anton Savitskiy, https://www.facebook.com/anton.vision

I wanted to make a camera to try and get a similar effect.

I spoke with him at length in the comments, and tried to get an idea for how his camera was made. This distortion is caused because the angle of the camera to the subject is such that the round pinhole is in effect an ellipse. The film plan is also curved along a convex curve. These two things produced the effect you see above.

I couldn’t quite understand the specifics of his process, so it was time for some experimentation.

First attempt an an anamorphic pinhole.

I measured from the center of the photomaterial, to the pinhole, and came up with 85mm, and this is what I based my focal length on: result, 85mm. I measure the pinhole, a touch large, at .45mm. From this, I used the Mr. Pinhole calculator to determine my camera was f/190.

I may have made a mistake in my metering (probably relating to initial ISO, because my first two exposures were so far off they blew out my paper entirely. After two attempts, I began “guessing” at exposure times based on my previous experience with pinholes, and got a workable image… ish.

However, I noticed the exposure varied from top to bottom. In retrospect, this makes perfect sense, as the 5×7 photopaper is only 15 or so mm from the pinhole at the top, and 150ish from the bottom. I has used the middle as my average, but I hadn’t accounted for the front being so much shorter. I had mistakenly assumed I’d fall off towards the edges from the center, not a linear gradient from bottom to top.

So I cut the paper into thinner strips, and tested them at top, middle, bottom. This instinct is correct, and I’ll be much closer to proper exposure a second time around.

3 images, middle position, 4, 8, and 10 seconds exposure.

These were then underexposed once I found the “proper” position. I suspect my angle is too steep, and will need to come down a bit, as the angle of view was not a severe as I expected. I also might have used too large a cylinder, and may need to use a 16-oz drinking can. I will experiment further and report back.

Beginnings of cyanotype printing

Blog, Experimental photography

My cyanotype chemicals arrived this week, and I’ve been printing some photos using a large ball of fusion gases that I have available for a large chunk of the day. The process is a fun one, everything from preparing the paper, and figuring out the proper exposures as clouds ruin my timing, etc.

Overall, I’m pleased with the process. I’ve found portraits to be a bit difficult, requiring two or three attempts to get the proper exposure, but here’s an example of a photo that came out well. I’m considering placing some of these in the shop, if there’s interest, please let me know.

The Clan Lamont memorial at Dunoon, Scotland. Taken summer of 2018, printed summer of 2020.

Two weeks in!

Blog

My YouTube channel, Expired Films is almost two weeks old! In that time we’ve put out three episodes, and I hope to do one per week. I’ve had a couple people as me about my editing process, which I’ll readily admit is nascent. I’ve used Adobe Premier before, however my hookup for a low-cost license through my employer disappeared this past spring.

In the interim, I’ve been using Avidemux, which is a cross-platform, Linux-based editor. It’s not fancy, it’s a touch difficult to work with, but sometimes ‘a rabbit’s gotta do what a rabbit’s gotta do! It’s free software (as in speech not beer), and without cost. If you need something quick and dirty, I’d recommend it to you.

I’m using OBS with which I’m much more familiar to record my show. It also may not be ideal, but having done some streaming is a quick pivot for me.

I recently started learning to use DaVinci Resolve 16 for color grading and non-linear editing. As I become more proficient with this software, I expect my production quality to go up. This is a learning process for me, and I’ll keep you up to date.

New YouTube channel launched! Expired Films

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I have launched a new YouTube channel, Expired Films. The channel will deal with analogue and digital photography, experimental photography and processing, as well as cinema. It’s my hope that I can create an interesting body of work that many folks will enjoy.

Lately, I have been working on homemade cameras, pinhole cameras, and using enlarging paper as a direct film medium. If you could, please help me out by following on YouTube!

Some of my first projects have been shot on 35mm film which is past date, so the pun of a production company called “Expired Films” spoke to me.

Thanks for all of your support!