Pin Hole Camera:

In the first Multimedia session, we as a group were required to create pinhole camera's using beer cans, card and electrical tape. After a committed drinking session the night before to make sure that I could bring enough cans into the lesson, I started cutting the tops off my cans. I then used some sand paper to smooth the sharp edges left by the can opener so I don’t cut myself when I put the photosensitive paper into the can. To make the can able to take picture I created a pin hole in the centre of the can which acts as a lens, letting in light from the chosen object, through the pin hole onto the photo paper. To make sure no unwanted light gets into the can I had to create a lid and hole cover using tape and card. When I finished creating this blue peter style camera I had to insert the photosensitive paper, so I went into the dark room where I received a sheet of paper, we were told to make sure that the papers photosensitive layer was facing the pinhole to allow the image to be projected upon it. After finding a tomb stone to photograph I exposed the paper for 8 seconds, due to the lighting conditions (cloudy). The next step is to extract the paper from the can and develop my image, which we had to do in a dark room for obvious reasons. Now the developing process hasn’t changed from when I did my A-Level PHOTOGRAPHY, which is good because it’s given me enough trial and error experience to figure out roughly what times I need to put my paper into each solution. The fist solution is the developer and I kept the paper in there until I was happy with the quality of my image. Next is stopped the image developing by putting it in a stopping solution, which basically takes the developer off the paper. Now the image is still photosensitive so if I expose it to lots of light it will turn black, so to stop this from happening I put my paper into a solution called fix which “fixes” the image to the paper, which I left in there for about 1-2 minutes. Next all I did was wash the image for 2-4 minutes in every day H2O!!!


To finish off is caned it into the computer and edited it in photoshop.


The results that you get form this experimental photographic method are amazing, the resolution/ detail is fantastic and you get this panoramic/fish eye look which is really interesting, I think this effect is created due to the way the paper is curled round the inside of the can and the way the light hits it. This will no doubt be a key bit of research when I come to do moving images project!!!


Here is my image: