PINHOLE CAMERA INSTRUCTIONS

There is something special about a pinhole camera. There is a beauty in its simplicity and rawness that technology has not been able to better. There is a timeless quality that can make the most uncomplicated subject seem full of poetry.

1) Draw a small box in the center of the oatmeal box.

Try to place the little box beneath the smiling Quaker's face.

2) CAREFULLY cut out the small box with an Exacto knife. After cutting the small square hole, clean out any paper left in the opening.

This is the "pinhole window" where the pinhole will look out at the world.

Can a tiny hole, which contains nothing but air, see things? We will find out later.

NOTE On the smaller oatmeal box:

The new Quaker oatmeal boxes have plastic lids and the bottoms are recessed 1/4 inch, so the opening in the oatmeal box needs to be centered 2 3/4 inches from the bottom of the box.  Draw a small box 2 3/4 inches from the bottom of the oatmeal box

3) Use a damp washcloth to clean out any oatmeal dust inside the box.

4) Do this on newspapers.  Run a bead of Elmer's glue around the seam where the bottom piece attaches to the cylinder and let it dry before painting.

5) Paint the inside of the box, and both the inside and outside of the lid, too.  Also, paint the outside bottom after the Elmer's glue has dried.

Use as little paint as possible because you must wait for the paint to dry before the pinhole can be installed, and because excess black paint can become "dust" after it dries. Dust is the photographer's worst enemy--it causes white spots on the finished pictures which are hard to remove.

6) Carefully cut the ends off of an aluminum soft drink can. Cut a "pinhole plate", about 2 x 3 inches in size with rounded edges, from the aluminum can. The pinhole will be drilled in the pinhole plate.

7) Before using it, check to make sure no paint has chipped off. Chipped or peeling paint on the lid will allow light to enter the camera and ruin your pictures.

8) Push a No. 10 needle into it from the indented side. You can smooth the rough edges with very fine sandpaper and then open the hole with the tip of the needle.

9) Then tape your pinhole in position over the center of the hole. You can check your pinhole to make sure it's perfectly round by looking through the back of the camera.

10)  In the darkroom with the safelights on:

When you have the size of paper or film you need, tape it firmly tape down on the four corners to the inside of the end of your camera opposite the pinhole.  The emulsion should face the pinhole. The emulsion side of photographic paper is the shiny side.

11)  To expose the paper: 

       Lift the black tape to uncover the pinhole and keep the pinhole uncovered for the recommended time. Cover the pinhole between exposures.  It's a good idea to make three different exposures for each scene, to be sure you'll get a good picture.  To get clear, sharp pictures, you must keep your camera very still while the shutter is open.

In each pinhole picture I take I hope to capture the joy and excitement that

 the early pioneering photographers must have felt when they took and developed

photographs for the very first time. Wolf Howard