Bucket Project 2013

Backyard as the first test shot. Taken with my cell from about the same position and angle so I can get a feel for the angle of view on the pinhole.

And the results of the first test shot. The fence was in deeper shadow than I realized - but the neighbors yard showed my exposure was in the ballpark. The tears are because I used a sheet of 8x10 paper for the first negative so I could see the full image circle better - but I was only using 5x7 trays so I had to tear it in quarters to make it fit.

Setup for the first "real" test. I didn't realize my aim was a little lower than I thought until I opened the shutter and stepped back. Oh well, figured it would be interesting to see how it did on the darker parts of the engine anyway and went with a 3 minute exposure. Though looking at this image now it appears the train was in much deeper shadow than I seemed to think it was at the time. Then again I was also exposing for the better lit top half of the train.

First negative straight from the scanner.

First negative cleaned up a little. The blue arrows I drew on in sharpie before loading the paper into the bucket so I could tell which way the paper went and adjust it's position to center the image circle and minimize the visibility of the magnets I'm using to hold the paper in place.

First negative processed in photoshop. So I guess exposure on the part of the train I was actually aiming at is nto too horrible. But the exposure on the part I was hoping to catch more of just wasn't there at all. This could be due to the old developer I'm using though - even on fully exposed paper it's not doing great. Going to mix up some fresh developer and fixer today and start trying to take some real shots.

Overview with negative and final image. 3 minute exposure on 5x7 Ilford Multigrade IV pearl. Camera is a 280mm focal length and approximately f/356 aperture from an estimated .785mm pinhole.

Second test. Re-positioned magnets to better center image circle based on first test, Trying to do a distance shot of the church across the river.

Ok, so exposure is looking ok, but the sky blew out as I feared it would, the shadows blocked up way more than I anticipated, and my aim was a bit off...and even if it hadn't been the subject was way smaller than I anticipated. Still getting a feel for this thing. This was a 3 minute exposure in more or less full sun. The white church blew out almost completely - but the concrete bridge is pretty much correctly exposed.

Third test. Clouds rolled in over the sun giving me full overcast even though it was just a little later on the same day as test 2. The statue against the white church seemed like a good subject for testing my exposure and taking advantage of the pinholes great depth of field.

Now we're talking! My framing was just a bit off from what I wanted - but pretty close. Exposure is pretty much dead on. Looks like I just need to get used to the sky blowing out and shadows blocking up...might try putting a multigrade filter in front of the pinhole to see if that helps with the over the top contrast. This was just a quick photoshop "print" but I also did a contact print of this negative and it came out even better - but doesn't scan any better so it just has to be seen in person.

Tree Burn weekend. A weekend of great photo ops and I have 1 exposure in the bucket. The bucket got chipped at some point and I had to put some black tape over it as a quickie repair. As a result I saw fogging of the paper on this one. It also appears that the first stages of the pinhole closing up had started which by the end of the weekend became a major problem.

After getting home from the tree burn I ran out and did 4 shots in quick succession so I could process them all at once when I got back to the house. Unfortunately none of them came out. At first I thought I had put the paper in backwards and that was throwing off the exposure since the light would have to go through the base of the paper before hitting the emulsion. This shot of the train depot was the first horribly underexposed shot.

Next i went downdown and tried to get a shot of the prison with unused train tracks and some interesting gates at the park. This was a 5 minute exposure since I was shooting for the shadow areas...but still came out horribly underexposed! The Shot of the trucks the day before was 1:30 and now suddenly 5 minutes is underexposed? What's going on?

Right next to the last shot, I had to come back to get a photo of the sand washer. Unfortunately again it came out horribly under exposed. I then went and did an exposure of a fountain downtown but it came out completely black. I tried again a week later and got 3 more blank exposures even with LONG exposure times!

I could still see light through the hole..but it was fuzzy. Apparently the plastic had grown back over the pinhole. I'm not sure if this is a self healing property of this plastic or if it's due to the temperature extremes the bucket has experienced. I opened it back up and it's a little bigger than before but working again. I really need to make a good proper metal pinhole. Back to a 1:30 exposure and looking pretty good!

This was actually shot by Amy. I was curious to see what someone else would do with the bucket. I think she captured the best image with it yet!

I went out with the new pinhole and tried a 2:00 exposure with a #2 printing filter over the pinhole to see how it would affect the image. The scan doesn't do this justice at all...

This is a tweaked scan to give more of the initial impact of the real image - but you loose detail which is actually there in the real one. These scans really are only pale imitations of the real images.

The Laguna Dam seemed like a perfect pinhole subject. But getting the bucket positioned (it doesn't exactly have a standard tripod mount!) proved difficult and my aim was way off :( 2 minute exposure with #2 printing filter.