|
 To make a pinhole camera you will need the following items:
Quaker Oats box
3x5 Index card
aluminum foil
push pin
black spray paint
The key to this working is getting the box LIGHT TIGHT. The weak link in the new style of Quaker Oats boxes is the lid. The old style was a paper lid that fit nicely over the top of the box. The new style is plastic. You will need to paint the lid and then make an aluminum foil cover to go on top after the camera is loaded.
To make the camera simply start by cutting a small 1/2 inch hole about 3 inches up from the bottom. Inside this hole tape a small piece of 1x1 inch aluminum foil. Then spray paint the inside of the box black. This will keep light from reflecting off the box and creating fog or stray marks on your photo. After the paint dries take a push pin and make a very tiny hole in the aluminum. The smaller the hole the better for getting sharpness.
The camera will need a shutter to control when light enters the camera. The pinhole controls how much light enters the camera. The smaller the hole the less the light, but the sharper the image. A large hole lets in lots of light but creates a poorly focused image. For making a shutter we take a 3x5 index card and tape it to the front of the camera and hold it over the hole until we are ready for exposure.
Film does not work well in this system. Unless the hole is very, very small film will get over exposed easily. For our work we use photographic paper. We place one sheet into the camera in the darkroom under the red safelight. Exposure time in bright sun is between 10 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the pinhole size and brightness of the light. After exposing the photo paper we return to the darkroom and process the paper in Dektol developer for 6o seconds. If the print is too dark we return and exposure for half as much time. If the print is too weak or light we return and double the exposure. Eventually we learn what the typical times are and know where to start in the future.
This process produces a PAPER NEGATIVE which then needs to be contact printed with another piece of photo paper to get a positive image. This works very well. Our exposure time for the contact print is usually about 10 seconds, but you will need to experiment. The key to getting a sharp contact print is emulsion to emulsion contact of the paper AND no air gaps. We use a pressure plate type of contact printing frame that uses glass and a spring tightened back plate.
|
