Looking Through a Pinhole

Posted on September 25, 2009

Meriah Burman’s Intermediate Photography class has been experimenting with creating and using pinhole cameras. Here are some of the results. More pictures can be found in the Flickr photo gallery. All of Ms. Burman’s photography classes use an online community called the Beaver Country Day School Photography Ning to share their work with each other.

Taylor Hayes ’12

Pinhole Photography - Taylor Hayes '12

For my pinhole camera I used a cylinder-like cardboard can. Because of this I had to trim the edges of my picture a little. I discovered that the best exposure for sunlight was 30 seconds. When I first took a picture I tried a minute, and it was too long and made my picture really dark. The next day when it was a little overcast I found 35 seconds was a better time for exposure. Sometimes when I moved too much when taking the picture it would come out blurry, so I realized I should rest it on a table or the ground for the best exposure.

Pinhole Photography - David Taus '12

David Taus ’12

The pinhole pictures were very fun. I enjoyed taking pictures of the school building. To make the pinhole camera, I cut a hole in the top of a box right in the center. Then I poked a hole in a piece of a soda can to let light in. I then taped the soda can piece to the box and taped up every single spot where light could possibly get in. Finally, I made a shutter for my camera and got ready to shoot.