Pinhole Assist App - A Must Have

Even though the content of this blog revolves around film I am certainly not opposed to some digital technology when it comes down to complicated math.  I dabble with pinhole photography because its fun and doesn't require me to spend time with shutters and apertures.  However, doing the math required and finding a light meter that has an f-stop range above the 200's is near impossible.  Some will say it takes the fun out of pinhole, but I come from a generation of photo education where I find it more fun to nail my exposure than just shooting from the hip.

The Pinhole Assist app for Apple products came to my rescue.  This is absolute jewel of a tool.  Not only does it have the "canned" apertures for specific pinhole products it gives you the ability to pick the exact aperture for your pinhole.  Not sure what that is?  Even better, this app allows you put in the diameter of the aperture along with approximate millimeter of the "lens" (field of view) and it will calculate it for you.

A small image appears on the app screen of the "zone" you a metering, courtesy of the front camera.  In addition, you can save the image along with all the numerical data and email it to yourself as a reference so you can compare it to the processed film image.

But, there's more!  The app includes an algorithm to calculate the reciprocity error factor when exposing for more than 1 second, which is almost always likely with pinhole cameras.  You can save all your data and profiles for future use and retrieve that data the next time you're in the field without having to program in the aperture, film type, etc.

Have a view camera?  This app goes another step further by providing you with the additional exposure required for bellows compensation.  This is the additional amount of exposure required beyond the light reflective reading that is necessary when the bellows on the camera gets extended out for close up work.  Fire up the app, click on the bellows compensation icon and you "touch and drag" the slider and the bellows expands or contracts as the distance between lens and film plane gets calculated in millimeters or inches.  You can estimate this visually or take along a ruler for more precise numbers.  This app then calculates the additional exposure required.  For view camera users alone, the bellows compensation feature is worth the price of the app.