To start, I found a box/container to make my pinhole camera out of. Then I had to decide on where to place my pinhole before marking a 0.75mm square to represent where the lens would be. Using millimetres is more accurate then centimetres. When I was happy with my lens position, I used a knife to cut around the marking leaving an even square ready for placing foil later. The next step is to paint the inside of my box (both the bottom and lid) Matt Black so that when the camera is used, no light can contaminate the photography film. After that, I had to leave to dry which was done via a hair dryer and the toilet hand dryer.
Once dried, place and stick down a small piece of tin foil over the cut out square to create the camera lens. I then took a piece of cardboard and bent it slightly to one side to create a flap so I had something to cover the pinhole once the photography paper was installed. I had to measure the distance of the front to rear of camera to later work out the 'F-Stop'. Working out the F-Stop is important because it determines the length of time to let the light sensitive photographic paper be exposed for. At this point, I used a pin to place the hole in the centre of the tin foil creating the image/light entry point. Next I stuck down the flap and put on a piece of tape to keep flap down while transporting the camera. While the box was open, I took two pieces of tape and wrapped them backwards on themselves and placed at rear of box to create pads that would hold the photography film in place while walking to destinations. After that, I decided to work out my F-Stop which turned out to be F130, meaning I was looking at leaving the camera indoors for around 6 minutes and leaving it 30 seconds outside for the photo to expose correctly. To do this you must divide the number of millimetres by 0.8.
When entering the darkroom you have to be careful of where you are walking but soon your eyes adjust to the dark lighting. I cut down some photography film to size and placed on the tape pads on inside rear of camera before sealing up. Next I took the camera to my first of locations. The first was a bench in a park facing grass and trees. After I was happy with the camera position, I took off the tape holding down the flap and left open for the advised 30 seconds. When the time was up, I quickly closed the flap and headed back to the dark room.
After taking the photography film out of the box (in the darkroom), I placed the sheet face down into the developer liquid and left for around 1 minute. Then I placed the photo into the water to stop the development process. I followed that with putting the photo into the fixer liquid for one minute before taking it out of room to check if I liked the shot and whether to keep it or not. When I was happy with the picture, I took it back into the darkroom and placed back in the fixer liquid for a further five minutes. Then I placed photo into water for five minutes to wash the sheet. Finally, I took the photo out into the class before putting through the dryer to complete my pinhole photograph.
After completing all photos, I scanned them into Photoshop to get scans of both the positive and negative views. I used the invert tool during the preview of what was under the scanner to do two scans at once before exporting to my memory stick. The next task was to upload all this information onto a blog. Here are examples of some of my pinhole camera images:
