Homemade Camera From Scratch

Definition

• A pinhole camera is the most basic camera in existence. It has no lenses and few if any mechanical parts. It is simply a strip of light-sensitive material in a lightproof box with a pin-sized aperture hole in one end. This hole is usually covered to prevent light from entering the camera. When an image is made using this camera, light enters the camera through the aperture and strikes the light-sensitive recording plane at the back of the camera. The image carried by the light is upside down. An ideal aperture is 1/100 or less. This requires long exposures that can range from 5 seconds to several hours or days. For this reason, a pinhole camera is often manually exposed.

Materials

• A simple pinhole camera may be made from a tight container such as an oatmeal box or a chip canister. Although these are the most common forms of containers, a container may be made from anything as small as a matchbox, or as large as an entire room. Other materials used in a pinhole camera include a detail knife, tin, sewing needles, black paint, electrical tape and a piece of light-sensitive photographic paper.

Construction

• To make a pinhole camera from an oatmeal box, cut a 1-inch-square hole in the center of the oatmeal container along one side. Then take a 2-inch-square piece of tinfoil and punch a hole in the center of it with a needle to form an aperture. The hole should be at least 1/100 inch, or smaller. The smaller the aperture, the longer your exposure time will be. The tinfoil should be taped in place covering the open square hole in the oatmeal box. Then the removed cardboard from the box should be placed over this and taped on one side to create a hinged door. That will seal the camera̵7;s aperture closed. A latch can be made by taping the other side in place. Paint the lid black.

Process

• To load a pinhole camera, tape a piece of photographic paper to the inside of the can across from the pinhole. Then attach the lid to keep light in place. Take the camera to the spot you wish to take a photograph and set the camera on firm ground. Peel back the hinged door, and expose the photographic paper. When you have finished, close the hinged door, take your photographic paper to a darkroom and develop it as you would a normal exposed photograph.