Ditch your lens

Turn your Nikon into a pinhole camera

Pinhole photography is just what it says: taking a photograph with your camera using a pinhole instead of a lens. The process of photography is so fast now that we’re in the digital age we can review and make adjustments instantly, and that means we’re able to take on one of the oldest forms of photography in just one afternoon. You need minimal camera gear for this project, but plenty of time to experiment.

A lens helps to focus and strengthen the beam of light entering your camera, making the image sharper and brighter. However, by replacing the lens that sits in front of the image sensor with a small hole, it’s possible to capture an image. Your D-SLR will become a rudimentary camera obscura. Light passes through the hole and projects on a surface on the opposite side of the hole (the image sensor).

The key to this technique is to keep the hole as small and neat as possible, as the larger and more ragged the hole, the more out of focus your final image will be. Obviously this is all part of the charm, but you still want some definition.

This means there will be very little light coming through the hole, so a sturdy tripod is essential for capturing a long exposure. Here’s how it’s done...