Pinhole Photography

PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY Also called the Camera Obscura, the pinhole camera was originally a pitch dark room in which a hole was made on one side in the wall. This allowed for a small amount of light to come in and expose the photo paper. A pinhole camera is the simplest type of camera. Usually made of cardboard, it is a light tight box which consists of a shutter, a pinhole, and some type of photo paper on the other end of the pinhole. A pinhole is a small hole made in a piece of foil, tin, or aluminum. The smaller the hole, the sharper the point of light it creates. The shutter, which you open and close to let light in, is a small piece of cardboard that you put over the pinhole. The photo paper goes inside the box on the other end, opposite of the pinhole, emulsion side up. There are three types of pinhole cameras. There is the wide angle, the normal, and the telephoto. To tell which of these cameras you have, you measure the distance of the diagonal of one face and see if it is longer, shorter, or equal to the length of the side of the camera. If it is longer, you have a telephoto; if it is shorter, you have a wide angle; if it is equal, you have a normal. With the sun shining brightly outside, 15 seconds is all one needs to keep the shutter open for a wide angle camera. Without the sun, it is around 40 seconds. When the shutter is opened, light travels in a straight line through the pinhole, hitting the photo paper. Where the light hits is where the photo paper will be exposed (dark), and everywhere else would be light. The picture comes in upside down and reversed. One must remember that the photo paper must be put in and taken out in the dark room or in a pitch black room so it will not get exposed. Once the picture is taken, it is time to develop it. First you put the photo paper in the developer for about 90 seconds. This develops the picture you have just taken. Then it is put into the stop bath for 15 seconds. This stops the development of the photo.