MAKE A PINHOLE CAMERA

Make a Pinhole Camera
(Continued jrompage 48)
ready to make your "lens." The pinhole
itself is made in a small square piece of
aluminum foil, the kind used around
kitchens. (See page 46 for step-by-step
illustrations.) Place the aluminum foil between
two pieces of smooth writing paper
and then put this "sandwich" on a soft
wood support. A drawing board is good.
Now, using a #10 sewing needle, push the
needle through the combination. This will
leave a hole about 1/100 inch in diameter.
(The needle can be pushed through a
cork first so that you don't accidentally
make a bigger hole than you need when
pressing down on the paper and foil.)
Remove the aluminum foil carefully
from between the papers and tape it
over the opening in the cardboard on
the front end of your pinhole camera.
A heavy rubber band can be used to
keep the front and back sections of the
camera together. Remember, all loading
or unloading must be done under darkness
of a loading bag or a darkroom when
using this single-shot camera.
A step beyond the simple one-shot
pinhole camera is the film-pack pinhole.
Extra effort is required to make this
unit, but it pays off. The photographer
with a sheet-film-pack pinhole has 12
times the shooting power of his fellow
photographer who has a single-shot camera.
The "pack" pinhole allows several
different exposures or test exposures to
be made of a scene with only the pull of
the black tabs in the pack. (Plans for
"pack" pinhole are on pages 48-49.)
Extreme care must be taken when
working on the film-pack back of the
camera. If you use the plans given here,
a piece of heavy black velvet should be
attached to the outer, front side of the
back slot in the pack. The cloth will
make the back light-tight.
A few "do's" to remember while working
on either of the cameras: paint the
inside surfaces of your camera with diluted
India ink to insure that stray light
rays are not reflected inside the camera.
Check the edges and corners of the
camera for light leaks. Seal any leaks
with pieces of black photographic tape.
Cut pieces for the camera with great
care so parts will fit together well.
Here's what makes a picture:
FILM: Since pinhole apertures vary