40+ Classic Pinhole Photos

Pinhole photography has been around for many years and today we are showcasing some of our favorites. Shot on a mixture of film, paper and digital, this article features a huge range of different pinhole photo styles. Who needs to spend thousands on lenses when you can make your own pinhole “lens” with a sewing kit?

What is Pinhole Photography?

Pinhole photography is a very simple concept. The camera is simply a light proof container with a small hole (often an actual pin hole) in it. Film or photographic paper is then inserted inside and when you remove the shutter blocking the small hole, light enters through and creates an inverted exposure on the film.

The pinhole utilizes the fact that light travels in straight lines to create an image. Shooting a pinhole photography requires long exposures, but yield infinite depth-of-field. Everything in a pinhole image will be equally sharp/unsharp, but due to the long exposure and hole size/distance, there is often a soft, dream-like quality to the images. There is something about the photos that makes them special, which is why many photographers still choose to shoot them today.

If you wish to shoot pinhole style images using your digital camera, it is still very easy. First, buy a body cap for your camera and then poke a small hole in the middle. That’s all there is to it! You can also drill out bigger hole, cover that with metal and poke a hole in that for a more precise hole.

Cameron Knight wrote a great tutorial a couple of years ago teaching you how to build your very own 35mm Pinhole Camera (Pictured). You can find the article here.

45 Pinhole Photos:

Photography without Lenses

Pinhole River

World Wide Pinhole Day

Historic Central School, Bisbee, Az USA

Matchbox Pinhole Camera

Cadillac Ranch 02

Coconino pinhole

Small church, big sky

Siguenza PinHole

Olympus PEN E-PL1 Pinhole effect

Not a true Pinhole image but a digital version. This shoots through a camera lens and then adds creative effects afterwards.

Pinhole: Clock

Highland Park Pinhole

Merry-go-round… pinhole

Winter pinhole XXI

Pinhole modern tunnel

Ocean Breeze Generator

Staring at the sun

Make a joyful noise

Moscow Conservatory

Frame a day

Frame a day

Kalla

Pinhole at night

Pinhole. best one. ever.

Voigtlander Pinhole: Grand Traverse Bay

Temple Square Church

My Third Batch of Photos

Sharik

WPPD 2010 #1

2,160secs

Pinhole lightleaks 3

Church and place

Brabant farm 1

Buzz Lightyear

Motorbike

Long Wood

1824 London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona USA

The Shard, through a pinhole lens

World Pinhole Day

This image has been exposed for a whole 35 minutes! Yet it produces a very different result from a modern SLR.

Pinhole Harbor

The Ghosts of Shopping Days Past- Fairbank, Arizona, USA

World Trade Center

Here comes our hero

Night view

Ponte sul fiume Orcia

Great articles from around the web

23 Pinhole Cameras That You Can Build At Home

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Pinhole/Zone Plate for the Lensbaby System

A zone plate is pinhole-like lensless plate that creates similar images, but requires shorter exposures.

Thanks For Reading!

I hope you enjoyed looking through these images. Feel free to share links to other inspiring images – your own, or other’s – in the comments. And please make sure you comment on the original photographer’s photos as well!

If you wish to use any of the photos in this article, please get in touch with the photographer first!