At the back of the box, you slip in a plain sheet of black and white photo paper: no film, no spool, no mechanism of any kind. Light does the rest.
It is the starting choice for almost everyone who takes up pinhole photography, and a wise one, because paper is cheap, needs no professional equipment to handle and is developed under a red light where nothing vanishes between your fingers.
You still need to understand what you are holding, though, because this paper has rules of its own that decide whether the photo works before you have even opened the shutter. For the wider picture of the process, the complete pinhole guide lays the groundwork.
Which photo paper to choose when starting pinhole photography
The starting point is black and white printing paper, the kind normally used in the darkroom to make enlargements, repurposed here to serve as the light-sensitive surface directly inside the box.
There are two families. Fixed-contrast paper (known as graded) has a set contrast, which makes it simple and predictable, so perfect for learning. Variable-contrast paper (known as multigrade) changes contrast depending on the filter placed in front of the light when printing, a welcome flexibility but one you do not need for your first sheets.
Start with whatever you can get hold of, because at this stage sensitivity and handling matter more than the grade.
Matt or glossy paper for the negative
Glossy paper gives deeper blacks and sharper detail, which is why we recommend it for a paper negative you plan to scan afterwards. Matt paper diffuses light, softens the image and kills reflections, but that is a matter of taste, best kept for later.
| Paper | What it gives | For beginners |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed contrast (graded) | Set contrast, simple and predictable | Perfect for learning |
| Variable contrast (multigrade) | Contrast set by a filter when printing | Not necessary |
| Glossy | Deep blacks, sharp detail | Recommended for negatives you intend to scan |
| Matt | Softer image, no reflections | A matter of taste, for later |
Paper rather than film, thanks to the safelight
The reason comes down to one thing: red light. Because black and white photo paper is barely sensitive to red, for a few minutes and at a good distance from the lamp, you can work under what is called a safelight, a red lamp under which you can see what your hands are doing without fogging the sheet. So you load the box, develop and watch the image appear, all with the light on.
Film, on the other hand, is sensitive to every colour and has to be loaded and developed in total darkness, blind, which is an unnecessary hurdle for a first pinhole camera.
| Criterion | Photo paper | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Colours | Barely sensitive to red | Sensitive to every colour |
| Working light | Red safelight | Total darkness |
| Loading and developing | You can see what you are doing | Blind |
| For a first pinhole camera | The starting choice | An unnecessary hurdle |
To load the pinhole camera, cut a sheet to the size of the back of the box under the red lamp, place it with the sensitive side facing the pinhole, then close the box and seal with black tape any edges where light could get in.
Paper also forgives rough guesses, since a spoiled sheet costs next to nothing and getting it wrong is exactly how you learn.
The low sensitivity of photo paper, from 3 to 6 ISO
This is the point that surprises everyone in workshops. Printing paper sits at around 3 to 6 ISO, whereas an ordinary film is dozens of times more sensitive to light, so paper captures very little and works slowly.
Exposure times grow longer as a result. Where a conventional camera freezes a scene in a fraction of a second, your pinhole camera loaded with paper needs seconds in full sun and minutes in low light, a slowness that comes as much from the paper as from the tiny pinhole.
For a first try on paper, allow from a few seconds to around twenty seconds in full sun, several tens of seconds under an overcast sky and several minutes indoors near a window, then adjust according to the result.
To estimate the duration for your light, see pinhole camera exposure time.
Storing photo paper away from light
Paper has three enemies: light, damp and time.
Light first. Paper is protected from it by staying in its original opaque packaging, closed again each time you take a sheet out and opened only under the red safelight, because one second of daylight on the whole stack is enough to fog everything.
Then comes humidity. To guard against it, store the sheets flat, somewhere dry and away from heat, bearing in mind that a curled sheet sits badly at the back of the box and loses sharpness.
Time last, because old or poorly stored paper fogs on its own and loses its punch, which is why it pays to buy according to what you use and keep the rest sealed.
Keeping enough paper for a pinhole session
Paper goes quickly when you are starting out, between feeling your way with the exposure, redoing a framing and spoiling two or three sheets before the good one. That is normal, and it is even how you learn best.
So allow some margin, because nothing is more frustrating than beautiful late-afternoon light and an empty packet.
If you are just starting and wondering where to begin, the beginner's guide to pinhole photography takes you through each step in order. Once the exposure is done, you still need to develop the photo, another stage with its own rules. The paper goes through the developer, the stop bath and then the fixer, before a rinse in water, all under the red light.
Éric Marais — Photographer, author of two books on pinhole photography (published by Pearson) and creator of the Sténoflex. He has run introductory workshops in pinhole photography and analogue developing from the very beginning.