Yesterday I made a pin-hole camera with just a few materials including a pringles pot and some black paint. Firstly I drew a square on my pringles tube about 2.5cm by 2.5cm and then cut it out, this made the lens. Black paint was then used to cover the inside of my tube so there are no reflective surfaces and no way light can ruin my picture. The next 30 minutes was used to dry the tube, A hair dryer seemed to be the best way. Once all the paint was completely dry I fixed some tin foil over the hole I had just cut out using black gaffa tape, then fixed a flap made from cardboard to make sure no light can get through before or after taking my picture. So after I had done all of this, there was only one very important thing left to do, I pushed a pin through the centre of the tin foil and my pinhole camera was created.
Taking Pictures
To take a picture using a pinhole camera I had to find an appropriate place and point my lens at the image. When I was ready I removed the flap to expose my photographic paper and started my stopwatch. The amount of time needed to expose differs depending on the size of your pinhole camera. you first have to find out the size of your camera so you will need to measure it from where the pin hole is to the back of the tube/box (where your photographic paper will sit when you're taking the picture). For a pringle pot the measurement is 72mm, you then need to divide this number by the size of the pinhole (roughly 0.8mm), the result is 90, this is called your 'F-stop'. An F-stop of 90 requires 4 minutes of exposure when shooting indoors and just 20 seconds when shooting outside.
Pringle Pot
F-stop = 72
0.8 = 90
Using this rule I attempted to take some pictures so i placed my photographic paper in the back of the camera opposite the pinhole so the light will expose the shiney side. I did this in the dark room, making sure no light affects it before I wanted it to and went outside to find my first location to photograph. Once I was ready and set up, making sure my pinhole was pointed at the desired image. To take my first picture I removed the flap on my camera for 20 seconds and then re-sealed it. Once that was done I returned to the dark room to develop my picture.
Developing Your Image
You will notice that once you remove your photographic paper from your camera, it will look exactly the same as when you put it in, imageless. To be able to view the image you will need to go through the developing process, this involves placing your photographic paper into a tray of a chemical called "developer", this chemical slowly reveals your image that you have hopefully just caught. After the image has been in the devloper for 30 seconds, remove it and place it into a tray of "stop" for 10 seconds, this is just water but it completely stops the reaction continuing. The next tray contains a chemical called "Fix", this just finishes the image and make sure it stays the picture you intended, keep your photographic paper in here for 5 minutes before putting it in the final tray which is just a "wash". The wash is also just water. Once the developing process has finished you can take it out into the light to get it dried. Hopefully the image has come out okay. I did 3 more images after my first, experimenting with indoor pictures and longer/shorter exposure times to try and improve the quality of my images.
Inverting Your Image
Once the image has come out you should see that it is in a negative state, this means that the darkness in your picture should be light and vice versa. There are a few ways you can make your image positive. Scan your images into a photocopier or flat scanner then open up photoshop, and invert the negative image by clicking on the drop down menu "new adjustment layer" to the right of your screen. Then click invert.
This is an image I took with my pinhole camera in its negative state.
It was taken on a a stone bench which you can at the bottom of the picture, the rest of the image shows part of the college building and a few small trees. This image was the first one I took and I thought it came out quite well.
This is the same image in its positive state, it's very easy to notice the difference between the two pictures. I can now place effects on it if I wanted to.
This shot was taken indoors so it required a longer exposure time.
