Pinhole camera Evaluation

For this task we had to make our own pinhole camera and take and develop our own shots. Before we started making the cameras we done some research on genres of photography, by doing this research I hoped that it would help me decide on what shots to take when it came to shooting. At the beginning of the task I hoped to find out how to make and work a pinhole camera, as I only had a small understanding about them, and I also hoped to gain more experience in the dark room, as just like the pinhole cameras, I didn’t have a huge understanding on how everything works inside there. When we first found out about our task I was feeling fairly unconfident as photography isn’t my strong point, I was worried about where I’d take my shots as I felt I couldn’t think of any interesting places, so I hoped that the research we done in class would help inspire me and build my confidence. More importantly I hoped to enjoy this task and produce some clear and interesting images to put onto my blog.

I enjoyed making our pinhole cameras as I never knew it was possible to make a camera using a Pringles tube. I learnt that we had to make sure the inside of the tube was all black so that no light would enter or reflect of the sides, because if light enters than the process won’t work as the exposure will be too high. After painting the inside we cut out a square shaped and taped a piece of tin foil over the top to produce the lens, which we then pierced a small hole into using a pin, we then had to make a shutter with a piece of card and make sure there were tabs on the side which could be taped so the light wouldn’t enter when the shutter was closed. I learnt that it’s defiantly a lot easier to make a pinhole camera than I thought, as all the equipment used was household items, but you couldn’t do this process at home unless you had a dark room. I also learnt that the time the shutter is open depends on the size of the focal length, if the focal length is short, than the time the shutter is open will be a lower time, but the time also varies depending on if you’re inside or outside.





When researching different genres of photography and different artists, it inspired me and gave me some ideas for shots I could take. I wanted my images to be as interesting as they could so I had to take in to consideration the angle of the shot, for example, 1 of my shots were looking diagonally at the roof.

I never knew how everything in the dark room worked, so before we went in individually and processed our shots we were taught how to use all the chemicals and all the names for them. Three of my shots didn’t process properly in the dark room as unfortunately I had too much exposure in my shot, which resorted in the shot being black.

I decided to try my last 2 shots inside to see if this would make a difference and it did, the shots were a lot clearer and you could see detail in the shot. After developing the images, I scanned them onto the computer and edited them on Photoshop; I inverted all the shots and really enjoyed doing this. I enjoy using Photoshop and love the way you can get a completely different feel of your pictures once they’ve been edited, for example my first image wasn’t to great as it was very dark, but once I inverted it into negative, it looked spooky and you could actually make out one of the objects, which was a tree.

Overall I know a lot more than what I started with, as I had a very low understanding on how pinhole cameras work. Photography has never been my favourite element of media production as I’ve never really had an understanding on it all works. But after the research we done and using the dark room, my views have changed as I really enjoyed the task. I preferred being in the dark room and developing the images rather than being out shooting the images, but I think this was because my camera wasn’t the greatest as wasn’t working to well. My favourite part of the whole task was definitely being able to use Photoshop and have a play around on there, as I enjoy editing and using the different computer software’s. If I were to do this task again I would definitely consider my shots more, I would take in the angle of my shots, for example, make sure the camera isn’t facing the sun, as I think this may be why not all my shots worked. I feel I could have done better with this task, but overall I enjoyed going out and taking the pictures as well as developing them in the dark room.