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Build a pinhole camera, turn your bedroom into a camera obscura, and rediscover photography.
With the arrival of digital photography, the camera has joined the ranks of fast aging devices. Just as is the case with mobile phones, a 3 years old digital camera is hardly worth anything anymore. It might be useful to remember that a camera is nothing more than a darkened box with a small opening and a shutter, as demonstrated by the pinhole camera. In many senses, this device is the very opposite of the latest digital cameras.
© Picture: Liquid lucidity
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What is a pinhole camera?
A pinhole camera is very easy to make yourself, although it can also be bought. Basically, it is a light-tight box with a tiny pinhole on one side (made with a needle) and photo paper or film on the other side (taped to the box). No lens, battery or automatic operation is used. A pinhole camera can be constructed from a can or a container, as in this mint tin (see the pictures made with it) or this tea can. The vessel used could also be a coffee pot, for instance.
A pinhole camera can be built from scratch using cardboard or wood, or made from an existing camera by removing the lens and replacing it with a pinhole. These low-tech cameras could be as small as a matchbox, but they might as well have the dimensions of a suitcase or a refrigerator as they allow you to produce gigantic photographs.
Build your own : manuals
Some good quality designs for pinhole cameras can be found on the internet for free. Corbis has a collection of downloadable cut-outs available, all of them easy to build. Another cut-out model is the Czech Dirkon paper camera, that looks like a real camera.
If you want to build a pinhole camera from scratch, then these are the best detailed and illustrated instructions you can find. Also very comprehensive, but more difficult to decipher, is this manual scanned from a Do-It-Yourself magazine published in 1885. Here are instructions to build a panoramic pinhole camera.
Be patient : one photograph a day
Operating a pinhole camera requires patience, skill and experience. A digital camera encourages you to take as many photographs as possible, but a pinhole camera makes you focus on just one or a few pictures. The camera has no viewfinder and it needs longer exposure times, from several seconds to hours.
With most simple devices you have to install a new film every time you want to take a new picture, something which can only be done in a dark room. If you want to take more than one picture on a trip, you have to bring several cameras (a way around this is to convert a traditional camera into a pinhole camera).
Be amazed: multiple pinholes and other effects
In return, a pinhole camera delivers pictures that are impossible to make with high-tech equipment (see some collections of photographs). It creates soft and dreamlike images, an infinite field of depth, which makes these cameras ideal for photographing miniature models, and wide angle photographs that remain rectilinear - straight lines are not curved at the ends of the image (find the explanation here).
If the image plane of a pinhole camera is flat, the image will be darker at the edges. If the plane is curved, this effect is avoided. A pinhole camera can have multiple pinholes or multiple film stripes, or it can be exposed several times, which yields some interesting effects.
Turn your bedroom into a camera obscura
Like any other camera, the pinhole camera is based on a natural phenomenon described as camera obscura (an effect that may have already been observed in prehistoric times).
If you sit in a dark room ("camera obscura" in Latin) on a bright day, a small aperture in the wall or through the curtains can project an accurate image from the outside view on the opposite wall (here is a manual to turn your bedroom into a camera obscura - a very enjoyable sight to wake up to).
Before photography was invented, this effect was enjoyed as a "live" projection. It can still be experienced in many Victorian buildings (overview here). Starting from the 16th and 17th century, the obscura was used as a drawing aid by artists (sometimes in the form of a tent) and as a scientific tool (for the study of solar eclipses). These pages have more information on both the history of pinhole photography and camera obscura.
If you want to know more about pinhole cameras and camera obscura these three links are the best place to start. Take note, April 27th, is worldwide pinhole day. Happy snapping!
Edited by Shameez Joubert / Thanks to Microsiervos for the idea
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Wind powered factories In the 1930s and 1940s, decades after steam engines had made wind power obsolete, Dutch researchers obstinately kept improving the – already very sophisticated - traditional windmill. The results were spectacular, and there is no doubt that today an army of ecogeeks could improve them even further. Would it make sense to revive the industrial windmill and again convert kinetic energy directly into mechanical energy?
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Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle If we boost the research on pedal powered technology - trying to make up for seven decades of lost opportunities - and steer it in the right direction, pedals and cranks could make an important contribution to running a post-carbon society that maintains many of the comforts of a modern life. The possibilities of pedal power largely exceed the use of the bicycle.
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How to make your own low-tech vertical farm The ingenious low-cost vertical farms of Willem Van Cotthem are within reach of everybody.
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Wood gas vehicles : firewood in the fuel tank Wood gas cars (also known as producer gas cars) are a not-so-elegant but surprisingly efficient and ecological alternative to their petrol (gasoline) cousins, whilst their range is comparable to that of electric cars.
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How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow For being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history. This is especially true in the East, where it became a universal means of transportation for both passengers and goods, even over long distances. The Chinese wheelbarrow - which was driven by human labour, beasts of burden and wind power - was of a different design than its European counterpart. By placing a large wheel in the middle of the vehicle instead of a smaller wheel in front, one could easily carry three to six times as much weight than if using a European wheelbarrow.
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The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels
Designing a single, often free-standing, passive solar house is quite
different from planning a densely populated city where each building is
heated and cooled using only natural energy sources.
And yet, if we want passive solar design to be more than just a curiosity, this is exactly what we need. Modern research, which combines ancient knowledge with fast computing techniques, shows that passive solar cities are a realistic option, allowing for surprisingly high population densities.
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The art of producing sustainable consumer goods: basketry
The craft of basketry might be one of our species’ most important and
diverse technologies, creating homes, boats, animal traps, armour,
tools, cages, hats, chariots, weirs, beehives, shelters and furniture,
as well as all manner of containers. Basket weaving makes use of
fast-growing biodegradable materials -- branches, twigs or shoots --
that requires the forest to be cultivated rather than cleared. Basketry
allows almost anyone, with little or no money and few tools, to create
a large variety of useful goods in a way that is one hundred percent
sustainable.
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Cargo cyclists replace truck drivers on European city streets Those with strong cycling legs have ever more jobs up for grabs in
Europe these days. A growing number of businesses are using cargo
cycles, a move towards sustainable and free-flowing city traffic that is
now strongly backed by public authorities. A cargo cycle is at least as fast as a delivery van in the city - and
much cheaper to use, giving a strong economic incentive to make the
switch. Cargo cycles also bring important economic advantages to
tradesmen, artisans and service providers.
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