Playing with Pinhole...

A few years ago, Paul created a wooden Pinhole camera. It is literally a wooden "darkened chamber" or in latin a camera obscura. The device consists of a box with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with colour and perspective preserved. The image can be projected onto paper or a negative to produce a highly accurate representation.

When a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole the sharpness again becomes worse due to diffraction. Some practical camera obscuras use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperature, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus.

Here are some images that we have made:

Pinhole cameras are easy to construct. Find a box that doesn’t leak light. Prink the appropriate size hole at one end and tape a piece of photosensitive paper on the inside, directly across from the hole. Then, affix a small piece of cardboard over the hole, so you can control the amount of light that enters the box. When ready, remove the cardboard flap, let light in for appropriate amount of time and then cover the hole again. Process the photographic paper with chemicals to bring up the image.

A Pinhole Camera is a lens-less camera that only allows a small amount of light to pass through a hole that opens at 0.5mm or less. The rudimentary “shutter” that blocks light generally consists of the photographer’s hand or a small piece of cardboard.