Capturing the Light of a Skull

        This course is about light, sound, and time. This specific unit was about light. We learned about eyes, trigonometry, reflection, refraction, light waves, speed of light, waves, and more! We even went on a field experience to an eye doctor's place where they talked to us about the different parts of the eye and how they see light. In this unit, our action project was to make a pinhole camera and take photographs, so that we could explore how light, reflection, and cameras work. 

The way a pinhole camera works is there is a tiny pinhole in the camera which is the only way it should capture any light. The inside of the camera is painted completely black so the light doesn’t reflect and bounce around inside the camera. Then later we put light-sensitive paper in the camera so that the light can go through the pinhole and create an image on the paper.

NM "My camera" 2023

NM "Pinhole" 2023

NM "Inside of camera" 2023

For my camera, I used a solid tin cracker container, because I knew it would be the best type of container to keep light out. If there are any light leaks it would mess up my pictures, turning them black. I also painted the inside completely black to stop reflection. Once the inside of the container and top was painted black I cut out a small bit of an aluminum soda can and taped it over where I wanted my pinhole to be. Then I poked a small hole in the center of that piece and through the container, creating the "lens" of the camera. To create the shutter of the camera, I cut out a cardboard flap to tape over the hole. Once our cameras were finished, we headed to Truman college to take our pictures!

 

NM "What I was photographing" 2023

 

NM "Picture set-up" 2023

My camera doesn’t use refraction because refraction is when light bends when hitting another object, but it does stop reflection because of how I have painted the inside of the camera completely black. If it's not all black, light can reflect and bounce around, getting a messed-up image.

                              NM "Diagram" 2023

We had to do multiple calculations throughout this process, the first this we did was we measured the height of the pinhole to the bottom of the camera, then we measured the height of the object we were photographing, then we measured the distance of the pinhole to the paper, then we finally used this information to calculate how far our object would be from our camera in order to get the whole object in the picture. H1/W1 = H2/W2, 4/7 = 10/W2 = 70/4 = W4/4 = 17.5 (W2), then we subtract W1 from W2, to get the minimum distance the object should be from the camera, which in my case was 10.5 inches. The next calculations we did were finding the hypotenuses of the "triangles". To do that we used the Pythagorean theorem (A^2 + B^2 = C^2). So for the smaller triangle, I plugged everything in getting 7^2 + 4^2 = 65, and the square root of that is 8.06 (first hypotenuse). For the bigger triangle, I plugged everything in getting 17.5^2 + 10^2 = 406.25, and the square root of that is 20.15 (second hypotenuse). Lastly, we calculated the angles of these triangles. I found the thetaθ angle with the inverse tangent, tan^-1(H1/W1) = thetaθ which was tan^-1(4/7) = 29.74, and I found the last angle by subtracting my thetaθ(29.74) from 90, which got me 60.26.

Height of pinhole: 4 (H1)’

Distance from Pinhole to Paper: 7 (W1)

Height of Object: 10 (H2)

Distance between lens and object: 10.5 (x)

Smaller Hypotenuse: 8.06 (C1)

Larger Hypotenuse: 20.15 (C2)

Angle 1: 29.74 (Theta/θ)

Angle 2: 60.26 (Last angle)

Length of the object to paper: 17.5 (W2)

                      NM "Calculations" 2023

There is a shutter over the pinhole that you must keep closed when you're not taking a picture. When you want to take a picture, you position everything using your calculations and open the shutter for a certain amount of time. For my first photo, my exposure time was 5 minutes, and for my second photo, my exposure time was 7 minutes. When white light hits the object, the color bounces off of the object. The color from the object then goes in through the pinhole of the camera and hits the paper. The paper absorbs the color it has and turns it black, which is why it is a black-and-white image, it’s negative. So all of the areas that didn’t have color are white and all of the areas that did have color are black. My pictures came out really well because I made sure there were no light leaks, I painted the inside completely black and used a solid container, I lined up the pinhole accurately, I used my calculations wisely, and I also had a relatively big camera, so I got bigger images. 

NM "Photo 1" 2023

NM "Photo 2" 2023

I am extremely happy with how my camera and photographs came out. I am very proud of how well I made my camera. Throughout the process of making the camera, I had lots of stress because of how much of a perfectionist's brain I have, I wanted every part of it to be perfect. But I am so glad that my perfectionism paid off in the end because I think my pictures look really cool. I had trouble with the trigonometry calculations at first, but by the end, I got the hang of it and I am proud of myself for that. Overall this has been a really great and fun experience. Thank you for reading my post!