How does a pinhole camera work?
How does a pinhole camera work? A pinhole camera is the simplest camera possible. It consists of a light-proof box, some sort of film and a pinhole. The pinhole is simply an extremely small hole like you would make with the tip of a pin in a piece of thick aluminum foil. A pinhole camera works on a simple principle. Imagine you are inside a large, dark, room-sized box containing a pinhole. Imagine that outside the room is a friend with a flashlight, and he is shining the flashlight at different angles through the pinhole. When you look at the wall opposite the pinhole, what you will see is a small dot created by the flashlight’s beam shining through the pinhole. The small dot will move as your friend moves his flashlight. The smaller the pinhole (within limits), the smaller and sharper the point of light that the flashlight creates. Now imagine that you take your large, dark, pinhole-equipped room outside and you point it at a nice landscape scene. When you look at the wall opposite th
Almost every child has made a simple pinhole camera in elementary school or at some other time during their youth. In basic terms, a pinhole camera reduces the idea of taking photos to its simplest terms. The key is to make sure that the only light that enters the camera comes through that tiny hole. Film has to be placed correctly in the box so that the small amount of light strikes the surface of the film. A chemical compound on the film changes when exposed to light, producing an image. The reason this is called a pinhole camera is that the hole has to be extremely small. Making this with a pin produces a hole that is easier to focus onto the film surface. Sharper images are produced with a smaller hole. If the hole is too large the image won’t be sharp and it won’t be possible to focus the light onto the film surface accurately. Some light passes through the pinhole from every object or surface that could be seen through the pinhole from inside the box. A shoe box works well but so
