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Making a room Camera Obscura
Making a tube Camera Obscura
Willett and Patteson’s was born of an enthusiastic interest in Camera Obscura.
Over the last six years, showing and building Camera Obscura, we have gained experience that we can make available to all.
Our background in construction, specializing in traditional flintwork, means we have the skills necessary to build a Camera Obscura from the ground up. Alternatively it is possible to install optics into an existing building, be it a garden summer-house or a top floor room. We are also happy to work in conjunction with designers and architects on new projects.
Site visits can be arranged via our contacts page.
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After hosting a talk on pinhole photography as part of the Pin:Whole exhibition at Essex University,
Photographer Gina Glover saw our mobile booth Camera Obscura and contacted us with a view to turning an old
summerhouse into a Camera Obscura. Having visited the site to confirm the strength and suitability of the structure the design stage got underway. We decided to raise the viewpoint by mounting the optics in a tower on top of the summerhouse. Being a summerhouse it was endowed with a large number of windows, which we would deal with by means of wooden shutters. Once the designs were agreed upon we contacted our optics supplier to have them start making the lens to our requirements. Meanwhile we began to build the tower, turning gear and the viewing table in our Sussex workshop. During the week preceding Easter we travelled up to Northamptonshire and began to convert the summerhouse. We started by strengthening the structure internally to accept the weight of the new tower. We then proceeded to cut a hole in the roof over which we put the tower. Once in position the turning gear and optics were installed. The Camera Obscura was not useable at this stage because of the enormous amount of light flooding in through the windows so we set about making the shutters. The viewing table - a semi-spherical dish - was given vertical movement to enable it to focus equally well on things both near and far.
Gina Glover told us: "As someone who makes pinhole photography I am interested in the special qualities of image that the device produces. Everyone who has seen it finds the effect enchanting and say they have seen nothing like it. When you observe the images in the complete dark of the summerhouse, you feel like you are flying above the grounds of the house." |
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Simple camera obscura can be made in the following ways.
Open cardboard boxes out flat, and then use them to black out the windows in a room by pinning or taping them around the window frame. The room must be completely dark as any light coming in will ruin the image, use some tape to cover any small chinks of light. Next make a hole in one of the cardboard blackouts using a pencil, this will then project an image on to the opposite wall - hang up a white sheet if the wall is a dark colour. The image will be very dim, and it may take a few minutes before your eyes will adjust to the low light levels and the image becomes visible. A larger hole will let more light through, but will make for a more blurry image - experiment with the hole size until you reach a compromise between sharpness and brightness.
A large hole will make the image more blurry - that is unless you put a lens in the hole. A cheap lens can be purchased from any opticians with their own lab, prices vary from shop to shop.
Opticians measure the focal length of a lens in Dioptres. The lens must be a converging lens which opticians denote with a +.
For our purposes the focal length is the distance between the hole and the wall. If the wall is 2m away then the
dioptre value will be 1 divided by the distance 2m which is ½ or +0.5 Dioptres. For 4m it will be 1 divided by 4m
which is ¼ or +0.25 Dioptres.
Cut a hole of a suitable size for the lens and fix it in place with tape. This will give you a brighter image.
Templates - printed onto light card (approx 220gsm) Download Template
Forming Tube - around 70mm diameter cardboard tube
Plastic Lens
Tracing Paper
Sticky Tape
Scissors
Stapler
Instructions
Lenses can be used but due to fixed focal length, camera size needs to relate directly to the focal length of the lens being used. Here is an opportunity for experimentation.
Contact us: Tel: 01273 471741 or 07817311548 e-mail: enquiry@amazingcameraobscura.co.uk
© Amazing Camera Obscura. All pictures are the property of Willett & Patteson do not use without permission.
