Pinhole Photography in Cuba
Photo Essay by Ernesto Gonzalez Diaz
HAVANA TIMES – Pinhole photography is a photographic technique created to obtain pictures with practically no equipment. It is a technique that arose in times of chemical and film photography, based on the construction of a simple pinhole camera or the application of a pinhole to a traditional camera. A pinhole is a sheet, which can be made of acetate, with a very fine hole (usually the diameter of a needle) that is placed in front of the lens.
It is rarely used for commercial purposes, but has had more use in the field of artistic creation. In times of digital electronic photography, this type of photography is attempted, closing the lens diaphragm as much as possible and with high exposure times allowing the entry of very little light over a long period of time, obtaining images in many cases out of focus, blurred, with shadowed edges, but at the same time unique. Precisely because the diaphragm is closed to the maximum, images with a great depth of field are achieved where any point can be observed without the need for a special frame. Whether some photos are more in focus than others depends on the distance the pinhole is placed from the lens and the exposure time.
Here we present images that I experimented with in recent days, in three different settings, always at sunset with little natural light. I have also been varying the white balance and the luminosity of the lens, which is why there are colder and bluish images in some cases and in others more pasty and dark.
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