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May 2017

05 May

Posted at 00:40h in Community, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Having been taken to task by a reader when he felt I had compared apples to oranges in a week’s posting on Sony cameras, I am going to be careful with this one - I wish to state that I am comparing watermelons to water pumps. It is a perfectly legitimate technique as long as you have somewhere to spit the seeds. Another person also complained that I seem to feature a lot of toy cars in my weblog columns. This is perfectly accurate - I do. They are ready models ( ! ) for studio work and I strive to improve my illustration techniques with them. I’m happy to say there is an international internet group of like-minded enthusiasts who appreciate them. In fact, if you want to know how to take toy car pictures, I am the go-to guy. It’s a very small niche and pays nothing at all, apart from the weblog columns, but it is a genuine part of me. It’s what I do. Other photographers that I know are the go-to’s for other work; If you want to...

04 May

Posted at 02:59h in News by [social_share]

We are told that light goes at 299,792,458 metres per second. That may be so when there is company present but I can assure you that when you are using a pinhole camera the stuff travels considerably slower. While you might get your ordinary photography with a digital camera in half a second the pinhole camera will require most of the day. The reason for this is simple: the digital camera opens up to a maximum aperture of f:1.8 and uses an ISO of 6400 - the pinhole camera opens up to f: 248 and uses an ISO of 100. If you opt for the paper negative you have an ISO of 0.6 and if you put a yellow filter in front of the thing you have an ISO of peanut butter. As far as making pictures, choose smooth or crunchy...

03 May

Posted at 06:34h in Editorial, News by [social_share]

The weblog column of Camera Electronic is changing. Oh you still can’t escape from Uncle Dick Stein, the writer, and who would want to… But we have decided to set the daily column out on the WordPress system rather than the previous carrier. You will not have to do anything new - just click onto the “ Blog “ button on the Camera Electronic web page as you normally do, and it will take you to the new column directly. At least that is the theory. This post is a trial run for the system. If you are seeing it, we’re happy. If you cannot see it, there will be lots of backroom shuffling going on down at Stirling Street and a good deal of boisterous language. The appearance of the new column will be neater - our graphic designer has rounded up some of the wandering categories and herded them into more easily managed groups. Logic has been applied and good taste has come to what was becoming a rather frantic venture. The sensible design will continue and order will prevail in...

01 May

Posted at 16:55h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

We are told that light goes at 299,792,458 metres per second. That may be so when there is company present but I can assure you that when you are using a pinhole camera the stuff travels considerably slower. While you might get your ordinary photography with a digital camera done in half an hour the pinhole camera will require most of the day. The reason for this is simple: the digital camera opens up to a maximum aperture of f:1.8 and uses an ISO of 6400 - the pinhole camera opens up to f: 248 and uses an ISO of 100. If you opt for the paper negative you have an ISO of 0.6 and if you put a yellow filter in front of the thing you have an ISO of peanut butter. As far as making pictures, choose smooth or crunchy...

01 May

Posted at 00:38h in News by [social_share]

No apologies for the inches, children. It is what the adults use to measure photographic surfaces. Even if we do give in to buying inkjet paper in A4, A3 and A2 sizes, we still get boxes of 6 x 4 and 5 x 7 from Ilford. And we measure print sizes in 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 10, 12, and 20 x 24 as well - it must put the wind up to the bureaucrats in the EU standards Department something chronic. We also measure one of the standard sizes in the industry for sheet film as 4 x 5 inches. Europeans tried for years to make this into 10 x 12 centimetres but it never really took off - people still think of 5 x 4 or 4 x 5. 20 square inches of sensitive emulsion to put into the new Ilford Obscure pinhole camera - for good or ill. There is a 10-sheet box of it included with the kit - Ilford Delta 100 - a tabular grain film of excellent tonality. Note: you can also get Ilford HP 5...

28 Apr

Posted at 00:00h in News by [social_share]

Do you have an abbey window handy? Do you have a top hat? Do you have a new Ilford Obscura pinhole camera kit? Well you too can be Henry Fox Talbot and be the envy of your friends at the camera club. Okay, it is not quite the same as using glass lenses in one of HFT's famous 'mousetrap ' cameras and your finished product is not going to be made on salted paper but the procedure is similar and if you choose historical subjects you can give yourself a feeling for the past that digital work just does not provide. Sure, computer manipulation and plug-ins will deliver the calotype look, but actually going out there and doing a very long exposure provides the experience as well. Just be prepared for foolish abuse if you opt to do it in Victorian clothing. Perth is not as sophisticated as it likes to think. Trust me on this...