Experiments in camera obscura

 When approaching this project I decided to do some research first. I found out that Camera obscura is Latin for darkened room and is a natural occurring phenonium when light goes through a small hole and it's light is automatically brought into focus. There has been evidence that this method has been used since classical times and Leonardo di Vinci was experimenting and wrote the first clear description of the process. Some photographers still use this technique in their work to this day.

For my first experiment, I did have a go in blocking the light out of our bedroom window. Unfortunately, we live in a house that was made in the 1960's that have over 1/2 a wall as windows. Dustbin sacks were not big enough to cover everything without using more than I had and, there was still too much light pollution when I used thick blankets for this process to be useful at all. Luckily, I did have a plan B in trying to use a pinhole as a camera obscura.

For my second attempt. I initially wrapped my mini studio with plastic bags so it let in less light (as the sides were white) and had some overlap so I could Sellotape a piece of cardboard at the front as these two photos show.

Also, I kept a couple of towels handy to cut out more light around the box.

After getting everything prepared I made a hole using the small end of a ball point pen. I then sellotaped most of the cardboard up to the dustbin sacks. I then placed the camera via a remote inside of the apparatus and sealed the rest of the carboard up and started shooting.

When it came to actually shooting under this setup, I found out that there was still too much light pollution. I did drape more towels over the mini studio but I found that the cardboard itself was letting in too much light. The best I could achieve is shown with this unedited photo.

This turned out not to be as useless as it looked at first. I found out that in only messing around a couple of minutes in editing in each photo, by cropping, inverting, converting it to black and white and messing around with the highlights and shadows, what I eventually ended up with was an effect that I did actually like and, reminded me of photographs in it's early beginnings.

After messing around with this configuration for quite a while. I decided to do something different. This time I will try to use an enlarging lens instead of a pinhole. I used one that cost me about £0.25p and is shown in this photo.

I also see if I could project an object. The object I decided to use was an old brooch that we had lying around. A picture of the brooch is shown below.

This time, I made up a primitive holder and an adjustable workspace so I could raise, lower and move the object. My construction was made out of books, Sellotape, and old cereal packets. I also used one of my mini studio lights and the previous apparatus I made before. The finished construction is shown with the photo below.

After messing around for about an hour, I did manage to get a greatly magnified portion of the brooch to project onto the screen and then waited until it became dark.

Unfortunately, whilst waiting for darkness, my whole apparatus must have shifted and, when it came to projecting part of the brooch I was successfully was projecting earlier, whatever I tried did not work this time. The only thing I managed to do was to get the enlarger lens to focus on my light source and to cast shadows. Two examples of this is shown with the photos below.

I also tried another enlarger lens with a different focal length (which also cost me about £0.25p) but the results was just the same. 

 Overall, as a conclusion, I found that you can use camera obscura for various photographic means. I think if I had a few weeks more and spent more than a budget of about £1.50, I could have got the results I was after. This is certainly something that can be used in photography but, it is better to spend time making sure that everything is correct before giving it a go (as light pollution is a very big problem) and once your kit is correct, then go out in the world to show your art.