Photographer Ruth Thorne-Thomsen
I’ve been re-visiting the images of my favorite photographers for inspiration. Last week, I wrote about George Hurrell, and today I’ve been looking at the work of Ruth Thorne-Thomsen. She works with pinhole cameras and her photos are extremely cool. I’m really interested in her early work, where she explores the collective unconscious and plays with forced perspective to give other-worldly looks. I need to do some more research on how she achieves her effects.
I’d love to find a way to get that kind of look with a digital camera. Does anybody know a way to do that? The pinhole camera gives infinite depth of field and flattens out images so you don’t get a sense of size or perspective. It also softens the objects in the frame in a old photograph kind of a way. I’m sure there are some Photoshop techniques, but I’d also like to find a way that is more in-camera than a post production effect. Ideas?
Responses and Conversations
I’ve done some pinhole work in the past with my DSLR. There are simple pinhole adapters you can buy for your camera. You have to experiment a little to get the correct exposure, but it’s pretty easy to figure out with the instant feedback with digital.
I actually created my own pinhole adapter (more than one) for my D70 out of a body cap. I’ve been meaning to write up a how-to post on it.
Comment by John Koontz on April 7th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I would LOVE to read a post like that… Do you have any pictures you can post on Syncspeed to show us what you’re talking about?
I’m all about in-camera effects, and this is definitely one I’d like to learn. Thanks!
Has anyone else done something like this?
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on April 7th, 2006 at 9:46 am
OK. I’ll get it done over the next week. Hopefully this weekend.
Comment by John Koontz on April 7th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
[...] A few days ago, Stephanie posted the work of a pinhole photographer. I mentioned in a comment that I’d made a pinhole lens for my Nikon D70. So, as she requested, here’s the quick guide to make your own. So let’s get started. [...]
Comment by Digital Photography Blogs - SyncSpeed - Blog Archive » DIY Pinhole Lens on April 9th, 2006 at 4:19 pm