Pin-Hole Camera.

For this project, we had to make a pin-hole camera. A pin-hole camera is a light-proof box/object with a small hole that when light passes through, an inverted image is projected onto the opposite side.

A pin-hole photograph taken by Jon Grepstad
(http://home.online.no/~gjon/)

Other examples of pin-hole photography are shown on the following websites:

• http://www.flickr.com/groups/pinholers
• http://www.pinholeformat.com/groups/pinholers
• http://www.lenoxlaser.com/pinholephotos
  

After being told by my tutor that they were effective pin-hole cameras, I decided to produce mine using a Pringles tube. Firstly, I painted the inside of the tube and the lid black to make it light tight. I then cut a hole in the side and placed a piece of foil over it to act as a lens, using gaffer tape to firmly attach it. Next, I used a pin to create a small hole in the foil, which would be the aperture. Finally, I made a shutter out of cardboard which would cover the hole in between capturing images, preventing over-exposure of light to the photo paper, which would ruin any images.

To work out an approximate estimate of my camera's exposure time, I measured its focal length (72mm), and then divided it by the aperture (0.8mm). This resulted in an F-stop of F90, which resulted in my Tutor suggesting 30 minutes exposure for indoor shots, and 1 minute for outdoor.

I was then ready to begin taking images. In a dark room, I attached light sensitive paper to the inside of my tube using masking tape. I then covered the lens with the cardboard shutter, only releasing it again when I had found the spot/subject I wanted to capture.

Later, after experimenting with different time exposures (as I discovered the initial estimates were too long) I found that roughly 15 minutes for indoor images, and 5 seconds for outdoor, were successful.