Hardin County through a pinhole

The images captured on this page are examples of pinhole photography, excluding the one of the homemade pinhole "lens." It actually is not a lens, but a piece of aluminum foil with a tiny hole pricked in it and mounted to a piece of cardboard.

Jill Pickett

A pinhole "adapter" for a DSLR camera made from cardboard and aluminum foil.

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Jill Pickett

The sign at the bowling alley in Elizabethtown.

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Jill Pickett

Downtown Vine Grove.

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Jill Pickett

Wheels on the tank that sits in Radcliff.

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Jill Pickett

The old schoolhouse at Freeman Lake Park in Elizabethtown.

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Jill Pickett

Central Hardin huddle during a break in the action during a recent game.

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I created a pinhole I could tape to the DSLR camera I use for the sake of quick turnaround for the newspaper and saving money by foregoing film and processing. But a pinhole camera can be created out of anything that can be lightproofed, allow for photographic film or paper inserted and a pinhole created. Body caps with a pinhole in them can be purchased as well.

The quality of the hole effects the quality of the image. On the first attempt, the hole while still very small was too large and the image fuzzier than I wished. On a second try, the results were just the right amount of softness to appear older and more artistic rather than unreadable.

Using a digital camera sped up the process of trial and error. With a pinhole camera you can't look through the lens and see your exact composition. Also it allowed me to skip attempting to measure the tiny hole and determine the aperture and just experiment with exposure times.

The black marks are from dirt on the camera sensor and I usually would spot those out using software but found them to be less distracting in this type of photography.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is April 28. Googling pinhole photography or pinhole camera will bring up plenty of resources to create your very own pinhole camera.

— Jill Pickett, photojournalist