Pinhole Camera blog
The process of making my pinhole camera was both simple and hard.
I started off by bringing in a Pringles tube which I was going to use as the body of my camera. I started off by cutting out a hole in the Pringles tube; this was going to be where the lens was going to go. Secondly I painted the inside of my tube black this meant that the inside of my tin wouldn’t be shiny and light it needed to be dark so the photographic paper wasn’t exposed. If the paper had been exposed to the light before I took my picture the image wouldn’t have come out clearly, and would have just been black.
To make the lens I covered the hole I made with foil and then put duct tape all around it to stop light from leaking in. The name “pinhole” for the camera is simply because I got a small pin and poked a hole through the foil this was going to be my aperture. To stop light from going into my camera all the time I made a shutter which was going to control when and how much light when it. I did this by getting a bit of card and putting duct tape over it to make a flap this could then be opened and closed whenever I got to my “destination” which my case was at the park. Before I went outside I had to do some calculations to work out how long I should keep the flap open for. I did this by measuring my tin which was 72MM; I then had to divide it by 0.8 as that was the rough width of the pinhole, the divided number was my F-number this told me how long I should keep my paper exposed for.
After I had taken my picture I went up into the dark room and underwent 3 developing processes. I started off in the developer, I left my picture in there for about 30 seconds, it went black but I could see a rough outline. I then put my photo into water; I left it in here for only about 10 seconds. Finally I put my end picture into the fixer for a further 30 seconds; I could start to see my picture now. After I had finished with the chemicals I placed my picture into water for a while making sure I soaked both sides. To get a proper idea of what my picture looked like I put it into a tray and took it out into the other room, where I could see it clearly in normal light. I had to repeat these steps many times, as in the end I ended up taking about 7 pictures. Because my pinhole camera wasn’t working as well as I wanted it too and my images all came out black, apart from my last one. Because I decided I wanted to keep my last one and save it, I put it back into the fixer for about 5 minutes; once again I put it back into the water and then took it to be dried. The reason it went back into the fixer was to save it from losing its image.
I scanned my picture into the computer where I opened it with pain shop pro and inverted it this meant that it went from being a negative image to a positive one. I did this by pressing Control and I.
Analysis;
Altogether my pictures didn’t come out very clear, in face there was only one where you could see a rough outline (above).
The first picture didn’t come out well also because my camera was still wet the black paint managed to get onto the picture meaning that it couldn’t be put straight into the chemical, because of this it was suggested that I dunked it into water to clean it up before putting it in developer, when I did all the chemical steps my picture just went black, with no outline or nothing. This may have been because it had been put into water first.
The second picture had the same problem that it was just coming out black and too blurry, as if it was fuzzy. This was probably because the paper had been exposed to the light for too long.
I kept doing this for about 5 other tries and getting the same sort of results, the only difference was each time I left the paper exposed for less amounts.
For example while outside I went from 30 seconds to 5!
I then gave up on the idea of doing an outside shoot so I decided to move inside and take a picture of the corridor I didn’t leave it open long enough this time. Instead of my picture going black it just stayed white with one black strip which was from a light in the corridor.
The last picture I took was in the atrium, I left the flap open for about 5 minutes meaning the light was being exposed to the paper. I timed it on my clock to get a precise timing. Although I had put the camera on the table it seemed to move a few times meaning that my final image was interesting and didn’t look like the atrium, it had lines and dots and shapes that I wasn’t expecting!
Research and development
Without the invention of pinhole cameras we wouldn’t have technology like we do today such as digital cameras and film. Pinhole cameras started off by using chemicals such as Fixer and Developer. This was a long process to try and develop them and you would need to be able to access a dark room to make sure your paper wasn’t exposed to more light than needed. After using all the chemicals and getting the image you wanted, it would be a while before you could have your image as it would need to be hung up in the dark room to dry which may take ages.
One of the first things that have developed from pinhole cameras is 110 film. The 110 film developed from Kodak’s 126 film format. The only problem with this type of film is it is now so expensive! Even if you were to buy this film you wouldn’t be able to get it developed as no places have the equipment to develop it. The development of this film would be a very long process and since the use of digital cameras have kicked off nobody needs to use the equipment anymore.
As mentioned, Digital is now the most common form of photo now. Not only is it easy to use but it isn’t that expensive to buy either all we have to do is plug it into the computer and print. Simple; we have the image right in front of us!
Digital cameras are also a lot more portable than having to take film around everywhere. All together, I can see that pinhole camera has helped to develop the technology to what it is today!
Evaluation
I have learnt quite a lot from doing this project for example I never knew too much about dark rooms apart from what I had seen in the movies, although it was completely different. I also never realised that I was able to make a camera out of something simple, in this case a Pringles tin. This shocked me.
Doing this process I also learnt a lot more about the chemicals used in developing these “older day” pictures for example I never knew about the chemical fixer before and what its role in pictures was!
If I had done my project differently I would have made sure that the camera had no leaks of light. When I got my images back I got told that I may have had spaces in my can meaning that light was getting exposed to my paper before I wanted it too. I would probably use a better tin, or a Pringles one but instead of a see-through lid, one that was opaque. Also, I would have it so I didn’t put as much black paint in my tin, this means my pictures wouldn’t have paint damage, this may mean they’d come out better!
Although, through my process of taking pictures I had many that didn’t work out very well, I did manage to get one really good one that was both clear and interesting!
The left hand image shows the negative image which had been scanned in straight from the computer. The right hand image shows what my image looked like after it had been inverted using paint shop pro. In the end these images were left for 5 minutes in the atrium (as mentioned above)
