Pinhole Camera Project by Emily Kirk
The Aim of the Experiment The aim of the experiment was to construct a pinhole camera, take pictures with it and then to develop those into photographs. 1
What a Pinhole Camera Does A pinhole camera creates negative, black and white images on photographic paper. It projects the image onto the paper when the pinhole is opened. The paper must not be exposed to light prior to being used as light will turn the paper black. To take the picture, the pinhole is opened and left open for a length of time. This length of time varies depending on the conditions. The brighter the conditions, the shorter the exposure time. The photograph then has to be developed in special chemicals to create and fix the image. 1
Materials to Make a Pinhole Camera Black foam board Aluminium tape/Duct tape Double-sided tape An aluminium can A craft knife A metal ruler A cutting board A pin
Method to Make a Pinhole Camera Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDm1Mpixjuw for video instructions on how to make a pinhole camera. Follow the links for a template. Use the template to cut the foam board to the right shapes. Tape it together with foil or duct tape. Make sure there are no gaps where light can get in. Cut a small piece of tin from the aluminium can, make sure it overlaps the hole in the camera. With a pin, make a hole in the middle of the piece of aluminium can. Tape the piece of can into the hole in the camera, making sure that the pinhole is still in the centre.
The Darkroom The paper has to be cut to size in a darkroom. There has to be a red light (safe light) in the darkroom. This is because the paper is not affected by red light. Use a guillotine (not the one that they used to cut off people’s heads in the French revolution), or a metal ruler and a craft knife and cut the paper down to size.
The Safe Light For the safe light, a red party light will do. There are special safe lights available to buy for $99, but this is a much cheaper way of doing things. The light must be completely red, so paint the whole thing over in red paint to make sure there are no gaps where normal light can get through and stain the paper.
The Subject The subject is a still life arrangement of a hydrangea in a bottle on a woodblock covered with a piece of purple satin. The background is a sheet of white plywood. Because the shutter is open for over 30 seconds, the subject must not move (unlike Tara, who volunteered to be the subject!). For the first photos use something that is not likely to move.
The First, Second and Third Photos The first photograph taken of the hydrangea was at a 30 second exposure time. The exposure time is how long the pinhole is open for. The 30 second photo was under-exposed, which means that the pinhole was not left open for long enough. Also, the photograph on the paper was not big enough. The exposure time was upped to 45 seconds and the camera moved in. Again the picture was not big enough, and it did not come out very well. So again the camera was moved in, and the exposure extended to 60 seconds. This image was STILL too small and the exposure was not long enough again. The following page shows these images in order.
These Are the First Three Photos Taken
The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Photos When the 60 seconds still did not work, the exposure was again put up, this time to 75 seconds and the camera was moved further in towards the subject. This worked really well and is the photo in the next pictures. Then the camera was moved in even more. For the fifth photo, the exposure time was kept at 75 seconds. This time the top of the hydrangea was almost cut off so the camera had to be raised up a bit. The sixth photo was taken from the same place as photo five, with the same exposure time, but because the camera had been raised up the top of the hydrangea was not cut off.
Creating the Photographs Both the developer and fixer had to be used to create the photographs. To make them up, both the developer and the fixer have to have 9 parts water and 1 part developer or fixer. The water that is mixed with them has to be 20C. To create the photo, first the paper was dipped in the developer for 60 seconds. Next the paper was put in a water bath for 20 seconds. After that, it was put in the fixer for another 60 seconds, and then into another water bath for 3 minutes. It was like magic, watching the photo appear in the developer.
The Next Three Photographs On the following three pages, there are three versions of the same picture. The first is the photo taken with the pinhole camera. This is a negative photograph. Next is a photo that was taken with a digital camera from the same place. Lastly, the third photo was created using a computer programme called LunaPic. The programme changed the original negative image into this positive image.
The Photographs Together