Pinhole Camera

Pinhole camera


Pinhole photography is lensless photography. A tiny hole replaces the lens. Light passes through the hole; an image is formed in the camera. Can be home made for example a, Pringles can has to be painted completely black inside, and then cut out a small square and put tin foil over it and then with a pin put a hole in it. Then put a flap of black paper over the front of the tin foil.

A pinhole camera works by light radiation from objects, for example a tree, which the light radiation will put onto photographic paper, by a pin hole on some tin foil on the side of the camera, which is inside a light broth can or tin. In the pinhole camera has to be painted completely black inside, because any light inside the can will ruin the shot and the photographic paper will come out completely black.

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. The human eye in bright light acts similarly, as do cameras using small apertures.     

Step By Step

Step 1

Get a box or tin and cut a small square in the side of it, and paint completely black inside.

Step 2

 Put tin foil over the square gap and put a pin hole in the middle of it. Then put a black flap of card over the front of the tin foil.

Step 3

Put black tape over any gaps and then put the photographic paper inside the box or tin and the tape the lid on with black tape.

Step 4

Work out the width of the box or tin from then photographic paper called the F stop.

Step 5

Go somewhere where there is an interesting shot then remove the flap of black card for outside for mine was 30 seconds and instead was 5 minutes.

 

Step 6

Then when the card has been left off for the time you need, cover it back up and then go to the dark room.

Step 7

When in the dark room remove the paper from the box or tin then put the photographic paper in the first box of solution for 30-60 seconds then move over to the next box and rinse the paper for a few a seconds. After this put the paper into the fixer for 30 seconds the take outside the dark room to have a look at it.

Step 8

If you like the picture then put it back into the fixer for 5 minutes then should be a good picture and last for agers. You can the repeat the process with you want to.

Research and Development/ History

This process has changed and developed over the years through new technology which have changed pictures from only taking one at a time to taken from anything up to 500 pictures on a digital camera. Printing off your images have also change for example today its a lot cheaper to print of a printer at home than going to shop which could cost up to 6£ for 4 photos, and will also today takes a lot less time to print photos.


History


The basic optical principles of the pinhole are commented on in Chinese texts from the fifth century BC. Chinese writers had discovered by experiments that light travels in straight lines. The philosopher Mo Ti (later Mo Tsu) was the first – to our knowledge – to record the formation of an inverted image with a pinhole or screen. Mo Ti was aware that objects reflect light in all directions, and that rays from the top of an object, when passing through a hole, will produce the lower part of an image (Hammond 1981:1). According to Hammond, there is no further reference to the camera obscura in Chinese texts until the ninth century AD, when Tuan Chheng Shih refers to an image in a pagoda. Shen Kua later corrected his explanation of the image. Yu Chao-Lung in the tenth century used model pagodas to make pinhole images on a screen. However, no geometric theory on image formation resulted from these experiments and observations. This information was form: http://photo.net/learn/pinhole/pinhole

  

Analyses

My photographs are ok; my first image is my favourite one, which has a tree in the middle, it was taken in the park next too Suffolk New Collage, and the picture has backdrop of the park. But the photos are average. Image two is of the Suffolk new collage building around the back, the image is ok but a little blurry and is rather stretched. Image 3 is of another angle around the back of the collage, this is my least favourite image.

Image 1

Image one is of a tree in the park next to the college.
This was my first image and is my favourite out of the three. I change the photo on photo shop from negative to positive.

Image 2

Image 2 is the edge of the park, next to the college. In the image you can see the fence of the park, also of a tree and a light post. I like this image, but it has got some dark marks on the corners.

I edited my photo on photoshop changing it from negative too postive.

Image 3

Image 3 is ment to be of the college (around the back) but it has not come out that well. This is my least favarate image because its a really small photo, and is really dark. I edited this photo on photoshop.

Evaluation

The Photos

The photos turned out alright although there are a few finger prints over them. At the time they looked better than what I thought they would be. Some of the photos upside down and quite hard to work out what they are, on two of the photos.

Good and Bad 

Pinhole camera was good because it showed us how to make our own cameras and how the cameras have developed over the years, because pinhole was one of the first types of camera.

The bad thing about pinhole is that it is very hard to get a perfect picture for example if you leave the lens cover open too long then the picture will be all black and if you leave it open for too short a time then, the picture will be too white.

Over all pinhole camera for me was a success for me, (although I wouldn’t swap it for my digital SLR) and will want to do it again in the future. But hopefully the end pictures being better than these ones.