Creating a pinhole camera.

I created my own pinhole camera from an old quality street tin. To do this I first gave the entire inside of the tin 3 coats of black poster paint. This is because when the light is shining inside the tin I don’t want it to be reflected around, thus ruining the photos. After I did this, I then drilled a hole into one of the sides of my tin; I then covered this will a small piece of foil over the exposed area. After taping the foil down securely I pierced a small hole in it with a pin to give me the essence of my pinhole camera. I then had to create a shutter for my camera because I didn’t want light getting in to the tin when it wasn’t wanted, to do this I cut a small flap of cardboard which I taped over the hole, however I only taped one side of this down permanently because I would need to lift this to take the photos.

To take the photos I went into a dark room to get myself a piece of photographic paper, I cut this out to size and taped it on the opposite side of my tin on the inside, to finish I put the lid on and made sure the tin was light tight so no light could get in unless I lifted the shutter and exposed the pinhole. This is how I made me pinhole camera suitable for taking photographs.

After the photo has been taken the photo needs to be developed, to do this you have to take your tin etc. into a darkroom. This is when you open your tin to take the photographic paper out and label it with a pencil so it wont wash off while developing. Now you need to wash your paper with developing fluid for about 30 seconds to actually be able to view the image on your paper, this is then placed in fixer for 30 seconds more so when you bring the photo into light it wont create anymore images on the paper. You then need to wash the paper for about a minute to clean off the chemicals of the fixer and developer. after your photo has been dried you have the final product.