If you had any contact with a pinhole camera at least once until now, you must have been amazed and impressed by its greatness and simplicity. These few rows are yours to read if so. You will learn a bit about the basic stuff that concerns a pinhole camera construction and the benefits of having one.
Its history starts way back in the 4th century BC, from when we have books written by the Greeks about the whole concept of the pinhole camera but it was until the year 1856 that Sir David Brewster actually referred to it using the word “pinhole”. They also called the pinhole camera from nowadays, camera obscura, which means dark room in English.
They used the pinhole camera for astronomical purposes during the da Vinci era but it was not until the 19th and 20th century, when people started to use it for taking pictures or scientific studies.
Pinhole camera construction is much easier than you can ever imagine. To put it simply, you can craft a pinhole camera out of a simple box, like an oatmeal can or a wooden box. All you need after that is to paint the can or box in black paint so the light will not protrude into it, meaning you are making it light-tight.
Aluminum foil or heavy black paper will get in handy when making a small hole into it by using a needle. Be very attentive to the diameter of the hole you are going to drill as it will determine the sharpness or the softness of the photograph. You will need to drill another hole, slightly bigger and fasten the paper or the foil on it. Than you will need to purchase a roll of film, light sensitive, which will go onto the opposite side to the hole, the emulsion side will be facing the hole. This will have to be done in a dark room, which you will have to set up, in order not to expose the film roll to the light.
A flap of black paper should be than placed over the hole, serving as a shutter. The first time you will be using the pinhole camera you have crafted, be sure to take a photograph of a subject which reflects more light and you should also keep the pinhole camera very still during the time the shutter needs to be open, depending on the exposure time.
Make sure the pinhole camera does is not shaken and also make sure that the shutter is properly closed after you are done. After this you should follow a normal procedure to print the image. The main advantage of a pinhole camera construction would be the simpleness of achieving it and recycling household objects will be saving our planet a lot of grief.
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