Photos from a can

We replaced the regular camera in this photographer's bike bag with one made from a decaf coffee can. Let's see what happens:

All nestled all snug in it's bag...

All nestled all snug in it's bag...

It really is a camera.

It really is a camera.

The camera has my preferred 3 pinhole set up. I drill holes in the can and spray paint the inside flat black. I make pinholes in cinefoil which is just black aluminum foil, and then taped those in on the inside. Black tape for a shutter and all done. It's just that easy.

first test

first test

I use photo paper to make paper negatives. This time out I've been trying different ways to reduce contrast so i can get some better tonality in the images. Photo paper is made to be exposed to lamps in the 3200K range. This is multigrade paper and in normal printing you manipulate the contrast by exposing through colored filters, altering the color of light over a range from magenta to yellow. So I taped some yellow filtration behind the pinholes to cut down on the blue (high contrast) light reaching the paper. I had some success.

I also diluted the paper developer by half to slow the process down and give lighter tones a chance to develop, which is only fair.

 These pictures were made mostly along my bike commute in various locations in Providence, RI. September 2014.