Like to see things big through a tiny hole? Why not transform your room in to a giant Camera Obscura!
For this, you’ll need the following:
- Sticky tape, ideally black duct tape
- Thick black garbage bags
- Strong cardboard, ideally black
- Scissors
- And a room with a view (works best in a small but bright room with a single window, a well closing door and a plain white wall)
How to:
- Double or triple layer the garbage bags, depending on how thick they are. Just make sure they’re thick enough not to let any light pass through.
- Cut a hole with a 5 cm diameter into the middle of one bag.
- Cut the cardboard into pieces large enough to cover the hole in the garbage bag and provide each piece with a different sized hole – Now you have some pinhole templates!
- Stick the garbage bags to the window and seal them with black duct tape.
- Cover the hole in the window cover with a pinhole template and try different templates to see which works best in your room. The larger the hole, the brighter the image, but it will be blurry. If you have decided which one you want to use, stick the template permanently to the hole.
- Finally check if there are further small light sources (e.g. keyholes, …) and cover them. You can use some cloth to seal the door (as you might not want to use duct tape for that ;-))
Maybe you will see almost nothing in the first minutes but when your eyes get used to the dark, an upside down panorama will appear on your wall. Just enjoy the beautiful view or take some cool pictures with a tripod and a cable release.
33 comments
its_gone
Ok. Ok. Ok.
This is awesome!
cei_to_the_ley
renovati
oOoOooh
grenoouille
Fabulous! And these shots are amazing!
disdis
mmmm
lomosexual_manboy
This is a really interesting idea. I would like to give this a try in the future. Shot number 5 is incredible.
mandi
trust me, it's amazing to watch the street within your bedroom. it's like peeping out of your window without moving, and without being watched at all. it's a fascinating thing and teaching a lot about pinhole, etc. (if you dare to notice)
mattcharnock
i love camera obscurers, i made one for the kids in my street back in the uk and it was exciting! great shots, really great!
sugiyamasatomi
wow, great shots! 5 is specially damn good!
abcdefuck
holly shit. :D crazyy
stouf
GENIUS ! Whaaat ? It's not the tipster of the week ? Can't wait to see what tipster can beat that one... Anyway... Great job miriel !
torium
Wow! I love these shots!
stoonja
realy great !!!!
rater
That is awesome, so so awesome! You really deserve th etipster of the week, the month and the year. Great job, will try it when have some time and spare garbage bags!!!!
d_i_hunter
Just fantastic!
stouf
Hoo scapegoat made it clear to me... You're a staff member ! Sorry I forgot.. ;-)
lovesmesumcake
!!! I'm going to try this with my dorm!
shhquiet
<3!!!
lomat
wow im goona do this asap!! you rule!!
deeseeohecks
this is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen!
hspada
awesome!!!
kboboland
I don't understand exactly how this works???
I'm so confused?!
kboboland
Oh, I think I'm starting to get how this works.
Do you put a color negative exposure in the template and let the light shine through it on your wall?
This is really cool, I like it
miriel
@kboboland:
no negatives or slides required. for this you'll only need a hole and nothing else ;) the projection on the wall is the flipped image of what you see when you look out of your window... if your room is facing a street you can even watch the cars drive by on the ceiling.
think of a very primitive camera with a single aperture and no lens (a camera obscura/pinhole camera) - you are sitting inside this camera :)
http://en.wikipedia.(…)era_obscura
http://en.wikipedia.(…)hole_camera
jiatlormee
_ka_
Wowwww! I know what we'll all be doing for the weekend!
amaan
crazzy. im gonna try this tomorrow! thanks :D
amaan
btw if i want to move the image can i just patch it up and cut a new one?
reyhansk
miriel
@reyhansk
you can use any camera that provides a bulb setting/long time exposure.
we used cardboard with pretty wide holes (almost 1 cm diameter) as pinhole templates because the whole idea was not about building a perfect pinhole camera but having a large and bright projection. the image is quite blurry but i think that doesn''t matter at this scale.
miriel
@amaan
sure! if you have more than one window go ahead, but it will not make such a difference with another hole on the same window.
meerwasser
masfoto
S U P E R !!!!!!