A note on a project idea
This conversation started in twitter but I don't have room to explain some thinking there w/out pissing the universe off, so I'm moving it here.
First, let me recap:
I have a sudden urge to build a pinhole camera using a plastic storage tote and rolls of film stretched across the back.
- R. S. Y. Buchanan (@rsybuchanan) November 5, 2013
I'm thinking about how I would do all the taping-down in pitch dark. The rest is easy: develop the rolls normally and contact print.
- R. S. Y. Buchanan (@rsybuchanan) November 5, 2013
@rsybuchanan Night vision goggles. Or slow B&W film and a really dim red safelight.
- Ben Tober (@bentober) November 6, 2013
So why not do as tober suggests? A few reasons:
First, slow B&W film isn't, by itself, safelight safe. Certainly not in the timespans it'd take to cut and tape down enough film to cover a ~20x16 inch area. Orthochromatic film would be safe if I worked quickly although I'd probably develop some fog along the way, but buying bulk rolls of Rollei Ortho 25 is cost prohibitive at the moment (I'm trying to do this on the cheap). Also, I don't want to shoot ortho for this. I just don't.
Second, night vision goggles are expensive and way more awkward to use in a confined space than just working by feel, in my experience.
My solution, if I go ahead with this, will probably be something like this:
To develop the film, it's simply a matter of unloading the camera, again in complete darkness, directly into daylight tanks so everything can be processed as time allows, but the immediate danger of accidentally opening the camera enclosure is dealt with.
To print this ridiculous thing, I'm thinking of taking a sheet of crystal plexiglass, taping the film emulsion side up to the plex, and flipping it so the emulsion side is down, to contact print on either darkroom paper or cyanotype paper. Cyanotype would be particularly awesome since I need to work more with that for a class I'm teaching at Brookline Adult Ed in January.
First, let me recap:
I have a sudden urge to build a pinhole camera using a plastic storage tote and rolls of film stretched across the back.
- R. S. Y. Buchanan (@rsybuchanan) November 5, 2013
I'm thinking about how I would do all the taping-down in pitch dark. The rest is easy: develop the rolls normally and contact print.
- R. S. Y. Buchanan (@rsybuchanan) November 5, 2013
@rsybuchanan Night vision goggles. Or slow B&W film and a really dim red safelight.
- Ben Tober (@bentober) November 6, 2013
So why not do as tober suggests? A few reasons:
First, slow B&W film isn't, by itself, safelight safe. Certainly not in the timespans it'd take to cut and tape down enough film to cover a ~20x16 inch area. Orthochromatic film would be safe if I worked quickly although I'd probably develop some fog along the way, but buying bulk rolls of Rollei Ortho 25 is cost prohibitive at the moment (I'm trying to do this on the cheap). Also, I don't want to shoot ortho for this. I just don't.
Second, night vision goggles are expensive and way more awkward to use in a confined space than just working by feel, in my experience.
My solution, if I go ahead with this, will probably be something like this:
- First, construct the enclosure for the camera.
- Build a film backing board using foam-core or some other lightweight but rigid medium that's easy to work. Cut it to fit the back of the enclosure.
- Take a sacrificial roll of film for use as a guide and some adhesive rubber dots, and mark out where the "upper" corners of each strip of film should be when I'm under normal room lighting.
- In the blackout closet, match one corner of the film to a dot, tape down the edge. Unspool the film until I find the corresponding dot on the other side of the board, cut the film from the roll, and tape the edge. Do this until the film board is covered.
- Still in the blackout closet, load the backing board into the camera enclosure, close the enclosure tightly, and tape it shut so it won't pop open at an inconvenient moment.
To develop the film, it's simply a matter of unloading the camera, again in complete darkness, directly into daylight tanks so everything can be processed as time allows, but the immediate danger of accidentally opening the camera enclosure is dealt with.
To print this ridiculous thing, I'm thinking of taking a sheet of crystal plexiglass, taping the film emulsion side up to the plex, and flipping it so the emulsion side is down, to contact print on either darkroom paper or cyanotype paper. Cyanotype would be particularly awesome since I need to work more with that for a class I'm teaching at Brookline Adult Ed in January.