Project 2

### Building a Pinhole Camera

Project Members

Valkyrie Savage (cs194-fh), Natalia Bilenko (cs194-mb), & Michael Ball (cs194-ft)

Camera Obscura

Our camera obscura was manufactured from a 5”x11”x14” cardboard box. We used black construction paper to cover all of the inside walls but one, and white printer paper to cover the remaining wall. We cut two holes in the wall opposite the white paper: one to mount the aperture tile, and one to insert the camera, a Canon Powershot G10. We positioned the camera upside down to capture the image right side up. To create the aperture tiles, we took advantage of the CITRIS Invention Lab equipment by laser cutting apertures with three diameters: 0.1 mm, 1 mm, and 5 mm in squares of blue acrylic. We used black duct tape to tape the construction paper and the outside of the box and white gaffer tape to attach the white screen paper.

We chose to capture photographs of two classic Berkeley campus landmarks: the Sather Tower and the Doe Library. We successfully captured the scenes with the 5mm and the 1mm aperture. To capture the shots, we set ISO to its highest setting of 1600 and varied the shutter speed to obtain optimal lighting. The shutter speeds that were chosen for each aperture and scene are listed below the photos. The 1mm aperture produced a more focused image, but optimizing the lighting was more difficult. We also experimented with Photoshop-free smart object editing technology by pasting in a marker-shaped blimp in the sky above the Campanile.

For the smallest aperture of 0.1 mm, we had difficulty getting an image. The camera we used initially could not be set to a shutter speed above 15 seconds. At that setting, the image was poorly lit and had a blue tint due to light diffusion from the acrylic aperture tile. The tile was also fairly thick, which limited the field of view. We tried using a better camera, but it had a much wider lens and could not fit in our box. We experimented with a tripod and novel sweater-based light shield technology (see Setup), but still did not get a good result.

Images

Campanile

• Aperture = 5 mm

• Shutter speed = 0.6 seconds

Campanile

• Aperture = 1 mm

• Shutter speed = 4 seconds

Campanile

• Aperture = 0.1 mm

• Shutter speed = 15 seconds

Campanile with flyover sharpie-shaped blimp

• Manual smart object insertion technology

Doe Library

• Aperture = 5 mm

• Shutter speed = 1 second

Doe Library

• Aperture = 1 mm

• Shutter speed = 10 seconds

Additional Images

All additional images were taken with aperture of 1 mm, since that gave us the best focus. We took them later in the day, so we used the shutter speed of 15 seconds, but they were still slightly dark.

Roof of Soda Hall walkway

Palm tree

“Macro mode”: flowers in grass

Autumn tree

Selfie in the courtyard of Sutardja Dai Hall

Setup

For our macro photography, we set our box in a planter.

We lasercut our apertures.

Two sets, in fact.

Sometimes it became complicated to use the larger DSLR to make photos.

Bells and Whistles

Camera Camera Obscura (Pinhole camera in a room)

We created a camera obscura in a room by taping a “blackout” curtain over a window and cutting a small hole in the middle of it. All doors had to be covered and taped as well. A sheet was hung on the wall opposite the window to capture the view, which was then photographed. The resulting image and the pictures of the setup are below.

• Shutter speed = 3.2 seconds

Painting with light

We painted with light using both a digital camera and our camera obscura. Here are the results.

With the regular camera

For these photos we took a long exposure image (usually ~10 seconds) but used a flash burst at the start of the image.

Cats!

The Campanile…

Having Some Fun

Lassos!

Monkeys For this photo, we used 1 long exposure, with 3 flash bursts, 1 after we changed each position.

In the future, it would improve the photo to have taken larger flash bursts as with each successive shot to eliminate some bursting.

With camera obscura

Smiley face

Smirking smiley face

Stereo Cam

We added a second pinhole and some snazzy red and blue filters to make a stereo cam. And what is a stereo image good for without the glasses to view it?

Unfortunately, the larger box camera we built for this had a lot of light leakage around the SLR lens. Here are some photos of the setup, and an example of things not working very well…

You can see the blue and red highlights, but not much else appears in the photo.

We used a system of rails on a tripod to hold everything together.