Making of a Pinhole Camera

                                     Pinhole Camera

Pinhole cameras were designed in

                            The Making of a Pinhole Camera

In our first week, we began our course by creating a pinhole camera. I used an old camera box, the box posed as the body of the camera. I cut a square out of the box using a Stanley knife, it measured 2x2cm. The hole cut out would be the aperture, the aperture is a hole which light travels through and is measured in increments called f-stops. We then painted the inside of the box with black matte poster paint to achieve minimum reflection and make sure there is no other light inside the box and so the rest of the light isn’t absorbed as black does not reflect light, it absorbs light.

       After the paint dried, I taped a bit of 3x3cm flat tin foil over the aperture using gaffer tape, and put a pinhole through the centre of the tin foil, this is then the lens, the lens captures light from subject and brings it into focus on the paper. Opposite the lens we stuck a piece of photographic paper using masking tape. The light from outside of the box would travel through the pinhole and hit the photographic paper as light only travels in a straight line. The paper would later absorb the light and image when we were taking the picture. I then attached a shutter which I put over the lens; the shutter was made out of card and taped over the lens with gaffer tape. A shutter is a device on a camera that allows light to pass through the lens for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing the camera film to the light. The distance between the pinhole and then back of the box (photographic paper) is called the F-stop, it is measured using a ruler, and my F-stop was 170mm divided by 0.8 which equals 212.5. The 0.8 is the circumference of the pinhole. This distance also measures the time needed for the shutter to be open to produce the best quality photo.
       The next step was to take a photo inside or outside, I placed the camera on the ground in the specified position outside to capture the image I wanted, I then opened the shutter and set a timer on my phone for 3minutes, after the 3 minutes I put the shutter back over the lens, and entered the dark room, however, if I was taking the photo inside, I would have to open the shutter and expose the film for 8 minutes as the light inside is much weaker than the light from the sun.
       Whilst in the darkroom I put the lights off so the photographic paper was not ruined. Then I used tongs to put the paper in the first chemical which was developer, I left it in there for 30 seconds which i counted in my head, when the 30 seconds was up I then used the tongs to put the paper into water for 10 seconds, this cleansed the paper of the developer chemical so that the chemicals were not polluted by each other, after the 10 seconds I used the tongs and put the paper into the fix chemical, after 1 minutes I took the photo out using tongs and put it into a tray, took it into the light and because I was happy with the photo, I went back into the dark room, and left my photo in the fix chemical for 5 minutes timed on my phone, when the 5 minutes were up, I took the photo out of the dark room and placed it onto the table, the photo was then fixed.
                        Problems with My Pinhole Camera

        One of the main problems I had with my camera was movement, any movement past the lens of the camera usually blurs the picture, and you will not be able to discover this until you develop the photo in the dark room. If you were to open the box in a lighted area, the photographic paper would be ruined as it absorbs any light.

            Another problem was getting the timing right on leaving the shutters open, after a couple of tries, you can pin point the time needed for the shutter to be open, if it is left open for too long it will absorb too much light and the picture would be too dark, and if you close the shutter too early, the picture would be too bright and probably look the same as when you put it inside the box.

                                                       Evaluation

        

Overall I think my pinhole camera work was successful, although my pictures didn’t come out as well as hope because of the timing with the shutter, I still feel I have learned a lot and could easily produce better quality photos given the chance. The hardest part of the project was actually capturing the photo, because you had to beware of any movement in front of the lens, if there was too much wind the camera would move slightly and if the timing was wrong the photographic paper would capture a good photo. The part of the project I enjoyed the most was taking the photos. The longest part was painting the inside of the box, as you also had to wait for it to dry.

                                                           The research

            I’ve researched some of the pictures taken by other photographers using pinhole cameras. Some of the photographers pictures have inspired me to do more pinhole camera work but for longer periods of time. The picture below was taken by Justin Quinnel, it is of The Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, the shutter was opened in December 17^th 2007 and closed in June 21^st 2008, this long exposure captures all the light from vehicles.

I found this picture by searching for Justin Quinnell, the website was:http://creativetorbay.com/listings/events/?id=6455&view=home&fromprofile

    I right clicked this image on the website, went to save image as... then clicked the image icon on the edit blog, browsed for my image, and the opened it onto this blog.

      Negative Car

                                           


This was my first picture taken, clearly there was movement infront of the lens which is why its blurred, i also may have mistimed the shutter time so the paper absorbed too much light which made it go darker.