How to Make a Pinhole Camera

Recycle those oatmeal boxes and used cookie tins by making wacky-looking cameras that will amaze your friends.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Constructing the Camera

1. Build your camera using any sturdy container. For your first one, we recommend using a cylindrical oatmeal box, which will have the added advantage of creating pleasantly distorted images that can be quite compelling.
2. Start by spray painting the interior of the box and plastic cap with a coat of flat black paint.
3. Wait for the paint to dry.
4. Tape all the seams with black electrical tape.
5. Fashion a tape baffle around the lid to prevent light from leaking in: Make an overhanging lip of tape around the edge of the lid. You'll need to be able to remove the lid to change the film, but you need it to be light-tight when it's closed.
6. Take a 1-inch-square piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and place it between two pieces of cardboard.
7. Make the pinhole by rotating a No. 8 needle back and forth through all three layers to make the pinhole aperture. Don't puncture the foil; drill.
8. Discard the cardboard.
9. Sand the two sides of the aperture lightly with 300-grit sandpaper or emery paper.
10. Drill or cut a 1/2-inch round hole in the center of the side of the cylinder box and sand off any shaggy cardboard edges.
11. Attach the aperture by lining up and centering the aperture hole to the hole on the outside of the box.
12. Use tape all around the edges of the aperture to attach it to the box.
13. Cut a small piece of electrical tape and place it over your aperture hole. This is the camera's shutter.

Testing the Camera

14. Test the light-tightness of the box by placing a strip of black-and-white photographic printing paper in the camera under safelight conditions in your darkroom.
15. Take the camera out into the daylight for a minimum of 2 minutes.
16. Return to the darkroom, remove the test strip, and process as you would any photographic print. If no dark or foggy areas appear on the paper, your camera is light-tight.

Tips & Warnings

• Light leaks are usually a result of not sealing the seams of the box, not making a baffled lid correctly, or not painting the plastic lid thoroughly. Redo any or all of these steps and retest the camera.