You are currently not logged in – Login or register | Current Site:

A Room with A Special View
written by miriel on July 31st, 2009 , 31 comments (25 votes)

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.

There are no submissions yet

31 comments

  • its_gone
    by its_gone
    3 months ago

    Ok. Ok. Ok.

    This is awesome!

  • cei_to_the_ley
    by cei_to_the_ley
    3 months ago

    Haha that's awesome! I must give it a go!

  • renovati
    by renovati
    3 months ago

    oOoOooh

  • grenoouille
    by grenoouille
    3 months ago

    Fabulous! And these shots are amazing!

  • disdis
    by disdis
    3 months ago

    mmmm

  • lomosexual_manboy
    by lomosexual_manboy
    3 months ago

    This is a really interesting idea. I would like to give this a try in the future. Shot number 5 is incredible.

  • mandi
    by mandi
    3 months ago

    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
    by mattcharnock
    3 months ago

    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
    by sugiyamasatomi
    3 months ago

    wow, great shots! 5 is specially damn good!

  • abcdefuck
    by abcdefuck
    3 months ago

    holly shit. :D crazyy

  • stouf
    by stouf
    3 months ago

    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
    by torium
    3 months ago

    Wow! I love these shots!

  • stoonja
    by stoonja
    3 months ago

    realy great !!!!

  • rater
    by rater
    3 months ago

    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
    by d_i_hunter
    3 months ago

    Just fantastic!

  • stouf
    by stouf
    3 months ago

    Hoo scapegoat made it clear to me... You're a staff member ! Sorry I forgot.. ;-)

  • lovesmesumcake
    by lovesmesumcake
    3 months ago

    !!! I'm going to try this with my dorm!

  • shhquiet
    by shhquiet
    3 months ago

    <3!!!

  • lomat
    by lomat
    3 months ago

    wow im goona do this asap!! you rule!!

  • deeseeohecks
    by deeseeohecks
    3 months ago

    this is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen!

  • hspada
    by hspada
    3 months ago

    awesome!!!

  • kboboland
    by kboboland
    3 months ago

    I don't understand exactly how this works???
    I'm so confused?!

  • kboboland
    by kboboland
    3 months ago

    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
    by miriel
    3 months ago

    @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

  • by jiatlormee
    about 1 month ago

    love this "moving" wallpAPer idea! hahah cool stuff

  • _ka_
    by _ka_
    about 1 month ago

    Wowwww! I know what we'll all be doing for the weekend!

  • amaan
    by amaan
    about 1 month ago

    crazzy. im gonna try this tomorrow! thanks :D

  • amaan
    by amaan
    about 1 month ago

    btw if i want to move the image can i just patch it up and cut a new one?

  • by reyhansk
    about 1 month ago

    so how do we take the picture? by using digital cameras only? or does it has to be an analog film? and the pinhole template is only a cardboard? because usually in other pinhole camera they use flatten copper. can anyone explain to me about this please? i really want to try it but i dont really understand -_-

  • miriel
    by miriel
    about 1 month ago

    @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
    by miriel
    about 1 month ago

    @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.

Opinion is free and discussion is encouraged on lomography.com, however, neither the content nor the ideas expressed in the comments are supported by or representative of the Lomographic Society International.

Most recent galleries in all sections

Most recent user submissions in all sections

Most recent entries in Tipster

Most recent entries in all other sections

Ongoing competitions

What events are up next?

Most popular tags in Tipster show all tags

120 film 220 agfa ct precisa Black and white blind roll colorsplash flash cool curve cut e6 equivalent focal lenght error expected fed5 ferrania solaris 200 fisheye 2 gallery Gels holga home home developing how to labrats light leak lightpainting lomo cameras lomotipster modification multilens multiple overdeveloped overexposure people pink plastic color gels Québec reload disposable camera scan slice slide Smena 8m sprocket holes Sunny 16 Rule swimming Text Time Camera Tipster tom waits Trick weird

All sections