Our first project for media has been to make a pinhole camera. With these pinhole cameras we have taken photos and developed them in the dark room. We done Pinhole cameras as our first project as this showed us the basic workings of a camera.
Making the camera.
To begin with, we made our pinhole cameras. I took in a Roses chocolates tin from home. I thought this would be a good container to use as the lid conceals light well. First, I drilled a hole through the side of the tin. this met I would be able to stand the tin up normally and get an "ants eye view" of my chosen image. After this, I painted the inside of my tin and lid black;this means that the light would not be able to reflect off the side and ruin the image. At this stage though, I put too much paint on the tin meaning this took a long time to dry. Next, I cut out a piece of tin foil big enough to cover the previous hole. I stuck this over the hole with duct so that no light could possibly get in through the gaps. After this, I cut out a flap of cardboard that would cover the hole when the camera was not in use;this would mean that no light would get in through the hole and ruin the photographic paper. Although this flap could also be opened when the camera was in use. Next I worked out the F-Stop of my camera. The equation for this was Distance from pinhole to paper (mm). Diameter of pinhole (mm). My equation was this:
-------- = F-Stop = F-250 Rough estimated outside exposure=5 minutes
0.8mm
I then stuck the photographic paper inside my tin opposite the pinhole making sure it was shiny side up. This was done in the dark room so that the photographic paper was not exposed to the light.
Taking the photos.
First I walked to my chosen location and set down my pinhole camera at the angle I anted the picture to be taken in. I then used my phone to set a timer of a 5 minute exposure for the outdoors and opened the flap. I left my camera open and made sure not to move it. When the time was up, I quickly closed the shutter and went back indoors to develop my photos
In the dark room.
Once I was in the dark room, I took off the lid of my tin and pulled the photo out. Unfortunately I wasn't careful enough as to not get my finger prints on the photos meaning these marks have shown up on the images. I then placed the image in the developing chemical making sure the image was facing the light. After leaving it in this chemical for 30 seconds, I picked the image up with the tongs, rinsed it in water and then left it to soak in fix for 5 minutes. I then rinsed the picture again in water before taking it out to the dryer. I finally had my negative image. On my first go, my photo was under exposed so I set the time longer. On my second go, my image came up faintly on a playground but this was still slightly under exposed. My third attempted was left too long and became over exposed. but my forth photo being left outside for 4 minutes came out well. It was a guess of trial and era.
Scanning the photo.
I logged onto the photocopier with my student card before entering my email address and scanning my photos to my computer. Once this was done, I opened my emails and copied the images onto photo shop. I then inverted the shade of black and white on the photo from negative to positive. The other way to import images would have been to log onto photoshop, press file, import, scan. I would then save this image onto a usb stick before saving this on to my computer. Here are my final images:
Alexandra play park. I chose this spot because it has many central points to look at and is from an interesting angle. Top=Positive
Bottom=Negative
College entrance. Top=Positive
Bottom=Negative
For my research I used the websites:
How pinhole cameras turned to digital photography?
Digital photography has become very important in the modern world. For example, they are used in buisnesses every day. The first permenent photo was an image produced in 1826. 1840 and the calotype process was invented.
