Build your own camera!

It is much easier than you think and fun aswell! I have been curious on how to do it for a long time and have just started to experiment with it after looking up on tips and tricks in books and on the internet. There is actually not so much to find out there so I thought I'd contribute with my own experiences. Illustrations are waiting to be scanned as images, for now read this:

What you need to get started:
• A dark space to enclose light-sensitive material in (for example a box with photographic paper).
• lightsensitive material (film, paper)
• Tape to stop light from getting into the container (red darkroom tape or black tape is best).
• Aliminium Foil to make the 'lens', if you're using cardboard.

How to build it:
• Make a tiny, as round as possible, in one end of the container. If you are using a tin you can make the hole direktly in it. For cardboard, cut a hole, cover it with foil that you have pierced with a needle to make a tiny hole. Thicker foil from f.i. a yoghurt pot or owen foil works best.
• Load the camera with a piece of film or other light-sensitive material (if you have a roll of film, cut a piece off) in compleate darkness, or if you use paper, in the recommended safelight.
• Tape aroud the lid if you think there is a risk of leakage of light into the container.
• Do not forget to cover the hole with a piece of tape.

Shoot!:
• When you have found your motif, point the still covered towards it (may seem obvious).
• Carefully pull off the tape and expose your image, will appear positive and upside-down inside.
• The exposure varies very much depending on the light-sensitive surface used, the size of the hole and how well lit the subject is. For a 200 ASA film try somewhere around 1 sek, for photopaper 30 s- 1 min, you have to experiment a bit. You can 'save' over or under-exposed film easier than paper or slide film.
• Cover the hole. Take the picture out in darkness and store in a black bag until developing.
• Load your camera once more.

The first camera I built was an easter egg. It turned out to work quite well since it was sturdy, since they are round I also got a certain amount of distortion, a rather nice effect.
I later used a shoebox, which turned out to be a bit too flimsy. I'm now on the lookout for a small tin, or maybe a big cake tin that you could make a 360 degree camera with by piercing several holes.
Black film containers also work very well and have tight lids that do not need to be taped.

Pinhole cameras have infinite depth of field. Everything from the closest object to the most distant object is in the same relative focus; objects at a far distance will be less sharp due to particles in the atmosphere. A pinhole reproduces a scene just as the eye sees it. While there is no focus for different planes in pinhole photography, there is a relation of pinhole to film that gives the maximum definition and it is this combination of softness with strength that gives to the pinhole photograph its essential character.

f-stops, exact pinhole diameters, view finders and light meters are not necessary when using the pinhole camera. Its simplicity allows you to concentrate on the freedom of personal expression. Explore, experiment and above all...Enjoy the magical art of painting with light!

Personnaly I do not believe that technical perfection and sharp images are the main goal when using pinholes, too many guidelines could just kill the joy and make things seem more complicated than they really are, so next paragraph with advices could be skipped.

(Start off near a darkroom so that you can easily take a new picture if the first one did not work out, that way you'll learn proximate times for that camera and that fim or paper. Also take notes on light conditions, cloudy, striplights? If you want to be really scientific about it take a light reading with the help of a camera or a separate lightmeter.
Remember that if you want a sharp picture the camera/subject need to be fairly still during the exposure.
The size of the hole will also effect sharpness, as size of image, we can compare it to the resolution on a computorized image, the fewer pixels the unsharper image)

The History of Pinholes by Anita Chernewski