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A pinhole camera is the most simple form of Photography and requires practically no knowledge of Photography to build a pinhole camera and capture an image using it.

The basic principle behind a pinhole camera is the light enters through the pinhole at the front of the container (eg. a shoebox) travels through the light proof box and hits the photographic paper at the back of the box. The paper reacts to the light and where the light falls it is exposed (dark) and where there is no light the paper remains light. As you will be able to see after the image has been developed; the image produced will be a negative of the actual image. The image will also be upside-down due to the way in which the light enters the box.

Then all that remains is to develop the photographic paper as you would normally. You will not see anything until you start to develop the paper. The paper will still appear white.

Remember:

- Light only travels in straight lines,

- The box will need to be light proof apart from the pinhole at the front,

- The pinhole cannot be too small, it can quite easily be too large,

- Only place the paper in the box and remove it from the box in a darkroom.

- Anything can be turned into a pinhole camera! Even rooms...

Suggestions:

- An old shoebox works well, as does a film canister.

- Use black and white paper, it is easier to develop and far simpler to start with. Maybe experiment with colour afterwards.

- You will need to use trial and error to find the correct exposure time.

eg, if the image appears too dark decrease the exposure time, if it appears too light increase the exposure time.

Have fun, pinhole camera's are great to make and a good introduction into photography.

Alex Apps

****************

- the aperture should be about 1/100th of the distance to the image plane

visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera for a fascinating story about the world's largest pinhole camera

Micron

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Leonora Medhurst

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2y ago
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13y ago

A pinhole camera is the most simple form of photography and requires practically no knowledge of photography to build a pinhole camera and capture an image using it.

The basic principle behind a pinhole camera is the light enters through the pinhole at the front of the container (eg. a shoebox) travels through the light proof box and hits the photographic paper at the back of the box. The paper reacts to the light and where the light falls it is exposed (dark) and where there is no light the paper remains light. As you will be able to see after the image has been developed; the image produced will be a negative of the actual image. The image will also be upside-down due to the way in which the light enters the box.

Then all that remains is to develop the photographic paper as you would normally. You will not see anything until you start to develop the paper. The paper will still appear white.

Remember:

- Light only travels in straight lines,

- The box will need to be light proof apart from the pinhole at the front,

- The pinhole cannot be too small, it can quite easily be too large,

- Only place the paper in the box and remove it from the box in a darkroom.

- Anything can be turned into a pinhole camera! Even rooms...

Suggestions:

- An old shoebox works well, as does a film canister.

- Use black and white paper, it is easier to develop and far simpler to start with. Maybe experiment with colour afterwards.

- You will need to use trial and error to find the correct exposure time.

eg, if the image appears too dark decrease the exposure time, if it appears too light increase the exposure time.

Have fun, pinhole camera's are great to make and a good introduction into photography.

Alex Apps

****************

- the aperture should be about 1/100th of the distance to the image plane

visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera for a fascinating story about the world's largest pinhole camera

Micron

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15y ago

You can develop your pictures from a pinhole camera in two different ways. The first school of thinking dates back to the Aztecs who would take the hides of lizards recently killed and put them in the darkest hole they could find. The process could be improved by taking the picture in and out of the hole. Repeating this process until the picture was visible on the lizard hide. The second more modern school of thought was made by Ben Franklin who noticed pictures of his families trip to Maine on his stomach after he was struck by lightening in his famous kite experiment. He then developed the company Kodak and the world has never been the same.

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11y ago

Get a box. Decide which of the six sides are "the ends."

Cut a hole in each of the ends. Make sure they're lined up with each other, and about the same size...say, 1 inch square, and centered on the panel.

Get a piece of aluminum foil and pierce a very small hole in it with a sewing needle. Tape it over the hole on one end, with the hole in the foil centered on the hole in the box.

Get four one-inch bolts. Drill holes in the end that doesn't have the foil piece on it, and put the bolts through. Put some epoxy on the underside of the bolt heads before you put them in the holes, and they won't fall out. Get a piece of cardboard, masonite or whatever you've got, drill holes in the same places as in the box, and call this the camera back. Get four wingnuts to hold the back on.

Get the film you're going to use in the camera, and cut off a piece. Set the camera on the table with the foil side facing down, and lay the film over the hole. Put strips of Duct Tape above and below the film--when you load the camera, you'll put the film between the strips of tape.

Get another piece of duct tape that's about six inches long. Lay it on the table with the sticky side up. Cut a piece of paper, duct tape or whatever that's twice as long as the foil, and stick it to the duct tape so there's an area with no sticky stuff on it. This piece of duct tape is the shutter. The non-sticky area is so you don't rip the foil off when you use the camera.

Do all this stuff, and you have a pinhole camera.

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15y ago

You can make a small pinhole camera with an oatmeal box--this is the traditional pinhole camera body. You poke a very small hole in one end of it. You put a piece of photographic film at the other end, and create a shutter out of a piece of duct tape. You can make a really large pinhole camera by doing the same thing but using your car as the camera body.

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15y ago

In my opinion, you cannot, because of the limitations of the camera. See

Why do pinhole cameras need to have small holes?

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11y ago

to improve a pinhole camera you can change the size of the box so that the picture appears clear and you can also capture lots of surroundings around you in the pinhole camera

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9y ago

A pinhole camera works by letting a small amount of light into a tiny aperture. This allows the camera to be used in surveillance where it can be difficult to spot.

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Image formed by a pinhole camera?

Pin holiday camera light travels in straight lines


Pinhole camera and human eye similarities?

I think a pinhole camera is similar to the human eye because like the pinhole camera when it sees something it reflects the image but it is an inverted image. With the human eye the brain corrects it and turns it the right way up. The pinhole cameras image is not corrected because it does not have a lens.


How can the image in a pinhole camera be made bigger?

a pinhole camera has a very small aperture for the light to pass through. Thus the sharp focus distance is very great too. You will get a bigger image if you move your paper or whatever the image lands on, further away from the pinhole.it may not be as bright, though


Can camera build at home?

Yeah, easiest is to build a pinhole camera. http://www.pinhole.com/ Or read: "Pinhole Photography" by Eric Renner


Why are images upside-down in a pinhole camera?

You can figure out why an image in a pinhole camera is upside down if you think about how the light travels to get to the image. Light from an object higher (or the top of the object) than the camera travels in a straight line down to the camera. It goes through the pinhole and continues heading down until it hits the back of the camera. This means that the image of something higher than the camera is now low in the image. The opposite is true for light from an object lower than the camera (or the bottom of the object): it travels to a point higher in the image. Still does answer my question, how did the image get upside down? answer was no concusive.

Related questions

Why doesn't the Pinhole camera model always work in real life?

Pinhole cameras do work in real life. They just do not produce as good a quality of picture as most of our fancy high-tech cameras do. Partly, that is because you cannot regulate the light as well with a pinhole camera.


What camera came after the pinhole camera?

The daguerreotype.


Image formed by a pinhole camera?

Pin holiday camera light travels in straight lines


What is the superiority of pinhole camera?

The pinhole camera is simple and requires no complex lens-based optical systems to work effectively as an image maker. In its simplest form it is no more than a light-tight box with a pinhole on one end and a place for a sheet of light sensitive material on the other.


When was the pinhole camera made?

2015


What is the name of a very simple camera?

A Pinhole camera.


When was the first pinhole camera made?

1861


How do you make a pinhole camera with a shoebox?

b


What could be improved on the pinhole camera?

aperture


Pinhole camera and human eye similarities?

I think a pinhole camera is similar to the human eye because like the pinhole camera when it sees something it reflects the image but it is an inverted image. With the human eye the brain corrects it and turns it the right way up. The pinhole cameras image is not corrected because it does not have a lens.


What is the science toy concept of a pinhole camera?

A pinhole camera has special paper put inside of it, absorbing the light making lots of shadows ect.


What actors and actresses appeared in The Pinhole Camera - 2008?

The cast of The Pinhole Camera - 2008 includes: Miguel Santellic as Uncle Diego Saurez as Bernal