1. To know where to cut, the first thing I did was draw the line that went all around the can.
2. I cut the can at the mark to make a long piece and a short piece. I used my grandpa's hacksaw.
3. I turned the short piece with the metal side up and made a mark in the center.
4. On the end that was cut I wrapped some tape a few times around the can until the lid fit.
5. I used a pushpin to punch a hole in the center.
6. It helps to make the inside black. With my grandpa's help I painted mine black with spray paint.
7. After the paint was dry I placed the cap on the short piece and placed the long piece on the short piece.
8. I taped the two pieces together so one end of the long piece is open and the other end will be the one with the tiny hole.
9. To use it, go to a very bright place. Hold the large opening up to your eye with your hands covering the edges to keep light from getting inside Point it at whatever you would like. The image will appear upside down inside the lid.
My name is Bri and I am in the second grade.
For the science fair at my school in 2003 I decided to make
"Camera Obscura" means "dark room".
Aristotle was a very wise scientist. He lived almost 400 years before Jesus in Greece.
One day there was a partial eclipse of the sun. He noticed an upside down image of the eclipse on the ground from the light coming between the leaves of a tree. The image of the eclipse had followed a tiny beam of light.
He experimented with a strainer to see if he could make it happen again. It worked. He found out the smaller the pinhole is the sharper the picture is.
Some people have made a camera obscura out of a whole room. You can learn more about this at these websites:
Find more by searching on:
1. Start with a small coffee can and a piece of film for the image.
2. Make a hole in the side of the coffee can about as big as a pencil.
3. Cut a piece of a pop can about an inch square. Be careful because it's sharp.
4. Use a beading needle to punch a hole in the pop can square. Just like in the camera obscura the smaller the needle the sharper the image will be.
5. Place the popcan square with the needle hole in it over the pencil size hole and tape it down.
6. Mark the place on the inside of the can straight across from the pinhole with tape or something you can feel so you know where to tape the film when you are in the dark.
7. Spray paint the entire inside flat black. Let it dry.
8. Good scientists take a lot of notes.
9. In a completely dark room ( I used grandpa's garage darkroom) I put half of a piece of 4"x5" black and white sheet film in the can on the side across from the pinhole. Tape down the corners or edges. I used half a sheet because it was just a test. For the real picture I'll use a whole sheet.
10. Cover the pinhole on the side of the can with a piece of tape.
11. I went outside and pointed the camera at my grandma's fountain. I tried a ten minute exposure by setting thecamera down and removing the tape from the tiny hole.
12. After ten minutes I quickly closed the hole, went to the garage and developed it.
13. I put the film in the chemicals that my grandpa showed me. Then I switched chemicals. I took it out and washed it off. It was perfect. I loved it.
14. Then I went back in the dark garage and reloaded the camera with a whole sheet of 4"x5" black and white sheet film and made sure the tape was back over the pinhole.
15. For the final picture I put the camera on a six foot tall ladder in front of my grandma's house.
16. I took the tape off the pinhole. I set the timer for ten minutes.
17. When the timer went off I put the tape back over the hole and went into the garage to develop it the same way I did the first one.
17. After the negative was dry I put it into my grandma's scanner and scanned it.
18. I printed it on photo paper and the photo is displayed below.
Because the camera took ten minutes to make the picture things that were moving don't show up. The flag was waving so you can't see it very well on the front of the house. My grandpa and I even went in and out of the house and you can't see us.
I learned a lot from building these cameras. I'm going to use them more this summer.
For more information and instructions go to http://www.google.com and type in "pinhole camera" with the quotation marks.
