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Making a Camera Obscura was created as part of Photograph - online learning and teaching photography resources. This text accompanies the Making a Camera Obscura Online Resource. - What is a Camera Obscura In an age of digital, the Photograph online resources concentrate upon elemental and experimental ways of making images with light. While many of the ideas can be used just as easily with digital cameras (such as snapshot and narrative), other modules focus on lower tech methods which remind us of the origins of photography (such as making sun pictures and building a camera obscura. These resources concern themselves with making black and white images, and with tone, contrast, shadow and light. Resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource Camera Obscura comes from the Latin “Camera” meaning room, and “Obscura” meaning dark. A Camera Obscura is literally a dark room, in which you limit the amount of light coming from the outside. This limited light throws an image of the outside world onto the wall of the darkened room. Bathrooms often make ideal camera obscura as do bedrooms. Making a Camera Obscura in your home The room you choose needs to:
If you use a bathroom make sure that the glass is not frosted. If the glass is frosted, make sure that you can open the window to allow the light in cleanly. Whichever room you decide to use, black out the room as follows:
The panoramic view of your window should appear magically on the opposite wall of the room - upside down however! The light might be obscure and fuzzy - depending on the size of hole you’ve cut. If it doesn't work, check that you’ve taped the dustbin liner tightly to the frame and that not much light escapes through the seams. Make sure it is daylight outside! If you have a larger window which cannot easily be covered with dustbin liners, you could use black thin cardboard cut to size to cover the area. Use a twopenny piece as a guide and cut out hole with surgical knife. Tape the board to the frame avoiding light pollution. Check doors and other light sources are not interfering. In principle you have created a camera here! Camera is the Latin word for room, but we tend to associate photography with it now. If you scale down your Camera Obscura to a table-top model you will in principle have a small camera! The pinhole camera is a small Camera Obscura.
Other resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource |
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