Pin Hole Photography

Over the last two days I have been using a beer can to take photos. No! I haven’t been drinking, apart from one can that is, Rob and Danny shown me how to make a pin hole camera out of a single beer can, a piece of black card, and some tape. Sounds simple, well it was. After being told that we were to make a camera out of a beer can I was slightly sceptical, however, having made it and tested it, I discovered it does actually work!

The can took about 5 minutes to make and then I was ready to go. I simply popped in a sheet of photo sensitive paper and then went out side to take the picture. The hole on the can was covered by a piece of tape and in order to take the image the hole had to be explosed allow light in. Depending on the amount of light outside depended on how long the exposure was.

The photos were developed in a dark room lit only by a safe light so that no more light can be exposed onto the photosensitive paper. To develop the photo I placed it in the developer, which makes the latent image visible. After a couple of seconds the image starts to appear, as soon as this happens the photo has to be placed in a stop bath, which stops the action of developer - typically a dilute solution of Acetic acid. It is then placed in the fixer which made the image permanent and light-resistant. Finally the photo is dipped in clean water to remove any fixer and the photos are then dried. This whole process takes about 5 minuets.

Here are some of the photos that I took over the two days:



My very first image I only exposed the light for a few seconds, which was not long enough as the image hardly appeared. However, it still looked quite effective and the part of the image that did appear was very clear and sharp. I inverted the photo in Photoshop and adjusted the brightness and contrast to give the final image.



The next two photos had a longer exposure time and more of the image appeared. What were common on all the photos everyone took that day were the blurry spirals. It was later discovered that this could have been caused by the "safe" light, which was not as "safe" as we thought.






The next day we had a new safe light and the photos turned out slightly better.