30. Traditional B&W Photogrpahy: Constructing & Using a Pinhole Camera
This lesson is rather long and there are many steps, but it is straight-forward and simple. There is some danger of cutting yourself, so be careful! And follow important safety instructions. This lesson has 4 parts to it:
1. Constructing Your Camera
2. Taking Photos
3. Developing Your Negative Print
4. Making a Positive From Your Negative
MATERIALS
For this project, you will need 2 pieces of cardboard, a long metal ruler, a sharp knife (box cutter or Exacto blade), a first-aid kit (just in case), a cutting matt, matte black paint, brushes, a small square of alluminum, a pin (to make the hole), some black gaffer's tape, some light-sensitive photo paper, and access to a darkroom.
1. Constructing Your Camera
A pinhole camera can be any shape and size, and there are plenty of options for materials. You could use wood, metal, found objects, etc.
For this lesson, we'll be using cardboard because it's light, strong, and cheap. First you must cut out two pieces of cardboard to size. One will be the body of the camera and the other will be the lid. The size of these two pieces depends on the size of the photos you wish to print - the larger the photos, the larger the camera box.
In our class, our prints are 4" x 5". So the body of the box comes from a cardboard piece that is 14" by 15", and looks like this:
The lid is 9¼" x 8¼" and looks like this:
When cutting the cardboard, there are several important considerations:
1. Measure twice, cut once! Make sure all your measurements are correct before you cut! Look at your measurements and ask yourself - are the lines really straight? Do they all meet at perfect right angles? Is anything at a weird diagonal? If so, then start over - and, no, you don't need a new piece of cardboard. The cardboard is still perfectly fine, it's the measurements that need adjusting.
2. Always use the ruler to cut!!! The ruler is your armor, it protects your hand. Before you cut, always put a ruler over the line!
When you hold your ruler, check that no part of your hand or fingers are sticking out over the ruler, in the line of the knife!
Keep your fingers away from the ruler's edge! As you cut, push your knife ever so gently against the ruler, to keep all your lines straight.
NOTE: The knife doesn't want to cut straight. It wants to find the path of least resistance. With corrugated cardboard, the surface is so uneven it pushes the knife around, in arcs to the left and right. A rule helps take those straight cuts so much easier.
3. Stand up!!! Do not cut sitting down!!! You must stand up so you can put all of your weight down on the ruler so it won't slip!! There's no benefit using a ruler if you don't put weight on it!
4. Make sure your cardboard is over the cutting matt!
You don't want to cut the table!
5. Box cutters and Exacto blades must be pulled, not pushed!! You don't want to push these blades into anything! You start at the far end, and you pull the blade toward you - note the blade itself is pointing away from you!
6. Note that box cutters and Exacto blades are one-sided, not double-sided! They are not sharp on both sides. Only use the sharp side of the blade to pull across the cardboard. Do not hold the blade upside down!
7. Some parts of the cardboard you will need to cut out completely. Other parts require scoring (a partial cut, so you can fold the board neatly). Don't attempt to fold without scoring first!!!
8. When cutting off a piece - you'll never cut it completely in one pass, and that's okay! Don't press hard with the knife! Press gently and repeat several passes until you get a nice, clean, straight cut. To score your cardboard, just press gently for one pass, and that should allow you to fold the cardboard nice and straight.
9. It's easier to cut out a little square in the lid (in the middle) before you glue it together, so do that now.
When you finish cutting, your two pieces should look like this:
Gluing Together Your Camera:
When you have cut your cardboard to size, you'll see there are tabs. Put glue on the tabs to connect the 4 sides of each piece together. Tabs on the body go on the inside:
Tabs on the lid go on the outside:
NOTE: While gluing together the lid, make sure to wrap it around the body so you know it'll fit!
You don't want to make the lid too small, or you'll have to make another one! Measure twice, glue once!
Once you have the body and lid glued to shape, and you know they fit, hold them up to the light. Do you see any light peaking through the edges?
That's bad , but don't worry, we're going to fix that now. To start, take some thick tape and tape up all the edges, from the outside. You can even tape two layers to be extra safe:
Next, we'll tape up an alluminum square on top of the lid (not underneath!). The metal square can be from a soda can or roofing shim, it really doesn't matter.
The tape itself is a bit reflective, so we don't want any of it on the inside of your camera.
Next, use a pin to push a tiny hole into the alluminum - do it from the inside, pushing out, as it's easier to sand after.
Once you have a hole, sand it down so both sides are nice and flat (an uneven opening can distort the light).
You can cover this pinhole with a thick piece of tape, to use as your "shutter".
Now you're ready to paint your box. Regulations at my school forbid using spray paint, but a matte black spray can is ideal for this job (spraying outside, in a field, with a big piece of cardboard underneath to keep any of the paint from getting where it shouldn't).
You'd also want to wear a mask. At our school we use black acrylic instead to paint the insides of the box. It's better than nothing, but acrylic paint can by quite glossy, which you don't want. Any shiny surfaces can cause light to bounce around like a ping-pong ball.
When your box is painted and dry, congratulations! You're ready to start taking pictures!
2. Taking Photos
So, first you need to load your camera. That's easy. Go into the darkroom (first take off any light-emitting devices!). Pull off the lid and stick a piece of photo-sensitive paper inside (shiny side facing up).
If you find it's too big to fit, trim it down. If it's too loose, tape the back of the paper to the box. Now, put the lid back on, and seal it by wrapping the edges with thick tape.
You may now leave the darkroom and find a suitable subject to shoot - note you only get one shot at a time.
To take a photo, place your pinhole camera somewhere flat and stable, pull back the tape "shutter" and let the light expose your paper. Depending on where you are, the times can vary greatly. Outside on a sunny day, you may find that 8 seconds is plenty of time for exposure. In a dimly lit hall, you may need to wait 15 minutes or longer! In a case like that, you really want your camera steady and motionless. Use these shutter times to start with, and then develop your picture. Depending on how they come out return to your shooting location and try a different exposure time - this art form relies on trial and error to get it right.
3. Developing Your Negative Print
To develop your photo, take it back to the darkroom, take it out of the camera and use the chemistry, just as I explain in this lesson (no need to repeat it here).
4. Making a Positive From Your Negative
To create a positive version of your image, you'll need a glass photo holder, and you just sandwich your negative image with an equal size paper, with the negative on top, and the shiny surfaces of each paper touching. This video shows the process:
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