Work Experience, and Workshops

"Pinhole Camera" Workshop

Pinhole Cameras

In the next workshop we will be doing some pinhole photography where you will be taking your own pinhole photographs. So between now and then you will need to make a start on your homemade pinhole camera.
To make a pinhole camera you will need;
1. A container; a box or tin with a lid not to big and not to small
2. Black paint or black card or black paper
3. Some scissors

How to make a pinhole camera; 1.You need to make a hole on one side of the container you may need to ask for help with this 2. Black out the inside of the container completely with black paint or black card/paper. This includes the lid make sure that everything has been covered so that apart from the hole everything is black.
The next part to making a pinhole camera and then taking pinhole photos will happen in the next workshop

Example of me taking a lesson on pinhole camera s and talking about the possible out comes

Taking Photos with Your Pinhole Camera

To start; you would have already found a box/container with a lid, which you have blacked out so that no light can get in to it when the lid is on.
The next step;

*You need to make a hole in the box at one end
*Cut a piece of tinfoil to cover the hole that you have just made. Colour the back with a maker pen and tape it over the hole
*Use a size 9 needle/pin to make a hole in the tin foil
*Use a black piece of card to make a shutter to cover the hole, use tape on the top edge of the card so that you can lift the shutter up and down
*Now in a the dark room with safe light load the camera with paper (make sure that the paper has your initials on the backing the corner in pencil)
*Secure the lid onto the box and close the shutter so that no light can get in to the box


Exposure times/Taking the Photo
A good estimate for exposure time outside would be for 5 seconds in sunlight, 12 seconds when cloudy. It is best to make a test exposure owing to the variations of the brightness of lighting, reflectance of the subject and variety in counting speed (some people take an eternity to count to 12!)
Photographing indoors.
Because indoor lighting is darker than daylight, indoor exposure times can be quite long. This can be anything from 10 minutes to several hours. It is still well worth trying though.
Tips when exposing/taking your photo
Avoid camera shake rely on gravity rather than trying to hold the can steady.
Don't point the camera towards the sun.
Take care in removing and replacing the shutter, before and after the exposure.
Replacing the shutter.
Gently replace the shutter ensuring you have covered the hole (there is potential for blind panic at this time so take care!). Deftly place your finger over the hole then, holding the camera towards the ground, carefully replace the shutter. Then it's back to your darkroom.



This is an example of one of the pinhole photos that a group of children took this is examples of the negative that it produces and then being turned in to a positive, we do this by scanning the image.

this is an example of both the positive and negative photo image

By showing them examples of a famous photographer, famous for taking pin hole photographs they were able to see the potential of what there home made cameras could do;

Justin Quinnell
http://www.pinholephotography.org/

This is a photo of Justin Quinell using his smiley cam which a pin hole camera made from a photography film case which its nicely in to his mouth , allowing him to take photos of the view fro inside his mouth looking out.

This is one of the examples of one of the photos taken by Justin with the smiley cam.




This is one of Justin's pinhole photographs


Example of a Can made in to a pin hole camera.

Example of tubing made into pinhole cameras.

Justin Quinnell (seen above using his mouth as the forground for a photograph), lives in Bristol, England.His pin-hole photography has gained its reputation through local exhibitions and through the pages of the British and international photographic press.He has worked as a professional photographer and lecturer. Active in Green politics,he also vigorously promotes the artistic use of photography in Bristol. The photos displayed here in the first section were first exhibited at the Watershed Gallery, Bristol, England in November 1997. This exhibition, entitled 'A Day in the Life Of...', showed a sequence of photographs of 'everyday events' taken with a camera made from a 110 film cartridge placed in the mouth of the photographer. The camera was constructed by taping a sheet of bent aluminium with a pin-hole over the part of the cartridge where the emusion is exposed to light.

http://www.wingfield-uk.com/quinnell/quhtml/info.hs