Pinhole Camera Project - ED1

To start my Pinhole Camera Project we had to bring in a box of some sort to produce our cameras. I brought in a round cardboard tube. We then had to cut in a little box with a carve knife to turn the tube into a camera body, ready to place the foil on top for the lens. Then I had to paint the inside of the box in black paint so no light would reflect of the inside during my exposure and ruin the photo. I got a square piece of foil and had to stick it on top of our square cut out for the lens, ready to put the pinhole in. We used daffa tape to stick this safely down on our cameras. We also used daffa tape to seal any other part of our camera where light was getting through. I had to seal the end of my tube with daffa tape as the lids were white and light was still getting through, doing this blacked out all the light coming through. We then put the pinhole in the foil to create the aperture where the light would get through to create the picture. The diameter of the pinhole was 0.8mm, and the length from the pinhole to the back of my tube was 78mm. I then had to work out the F-stop.

F-stop = pinhole to paper (mm)         F-stop = 78           F-stop = 97.5
                    Diameter (mm)                             0.8

My F-stop worked out to be 97.5 which worked out the exposure to being 4 minutes inside and 20 seconds outside. To create the shutter of the camera we put a black piece of cardboard over the pinhole so no light would be getting in till we were ready to take the photo. We then had to go into the dark room to put the photographic paper into my camera, we then sealed our camera's up ready to go outside to take our photos.

First shot we took indoors but this didn’t turn out right due to the little black room light not working and ruining the paper so it came out all black. The second shot I took outside on the bench outside the college, I left it for 20 seconds then closed the shutter, ready to take to the dark room to develop.

During development, I had to go inside the dark room to be able to get my photographic paper out of the box because if I was to do this outside of the dark room the paper would absorb all the light and my picture would turn out all black. I had to get my photographic paper out of my camera and place it firstly in the developer for a minute and a half. During this progress you would see the picture developing. Secondly we had to place it in the stop for 30 seconds. Thirdly we put it into the fix for 5 minutes. Lastly we washed it around in the water to wash off all the other chemicals. Our photo was now safe to leave the dark room and put into our photography books.

Once our photos were done and dry we had to scan them on the scanner and send them through email to our college email. We set the format to jpeg and sent to our self. Once our email had received them we had to open them up on Adobe Photoshop and use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to copy what part of the A4 piece we wanted and opened a new sheet and pasted it on there. We could also use the flat bed scanner to scan our images on to our computers. Doing this you had to put your photo into the scanner then go on to 'Adobe Photoshop' and go to file import then your photo would scan straight on to the program and you can start with your editing. During editing you had to change the negative images to positive. We had to go onto Image, Adjustments, and Invert to do this. This then changed the image to a normal photo and was clearer to work out what the photo was.

This is one example of my work from a lower angle of the path. This had an exposure of 20 seconds. This photo was my best one. I like how it is very detailed and how the photo is set out. It was also not too sunny outside so the exposure time was right for the outcome.

This is another example of my work. This had an exposure of 4 minutes, I think that was too long as the negative photo is too dark so the light was exposed to the paper for too long. To improve this photo I would have to shorten the exposure time.

This photo I scanned onto the computer with the flat bed scanner. It was quick but the big scanner was easier as you don't have to change computers, you can just send straight to your college email.

This photo was taken in the Atrium, it had an exposure time of 4 minutes. During my exposure time the camera moved slightly so in this photo it is quite blurred. This effect could give a spooky look like the college is haunted.

Evaluation

In my evaluation, I am going to outline and explain what I have learnt in this project, how I can develop what I’ve done and how this is going to help me in the future.

During the project of pinhole camera, I have built up many skills. I have learnt how to make a pinhole camera and how the whole process works. I also used the dark room and studio for the first time so I learnt the rules of both rooms, how they work and what needs to be done where during the process of photography. I also learnt many features to the cameras e.g. aperture, shutter, lens. I learnt how to work out the exposure time for our pinhole cameras e.g. lens to paper back divided by the diameter of the pinhole and why this is important as if the exposure time is too long or short the photos will turn out too light or too dark. To develop our photos we had to use three different chemicals, firstly developer, then stop, then fix and then washing the chemicals off in water. We also got to grips with a new program called ‘Adobe Photoshop’; we used this to edit our pinhole photos. We learnt how to use some of the editing keys to make our photo look different but better. 

I would do this project again as I enjoyed taking the photos and seeing how they came out. If I was to do this project again, I would know roughly how each process work so I would be able to complete the task quicker. Also doing this project again, I would build up more skills and know how to use some different tools by trying different keys. If I was to make another pinhole camera I would use a different type or shape of box so I have a different shape photograph. 

From doing this project I can now reflect on how each process works and will help me develop my skills and be able to complete this task quicker and with ease next time. Also, doing this small task will help me with other bigger projects on photography as these are just basic skills to get to grips with the whole process so this has gave me an outline of what photography includes. If I was to do this again, what I would do different is the exposure time period, I would work more carefully on being on the exact time so the photo came out at its best. I would also try out more editing processes to make my photo look different instead of all my photos being black and white. I would change the brightness, contrast and colour.