An Oatmeal Container as a Pinhole Camera
Drawing prop. 45 second exposure with ambient side lighting from a window.
The camera is an oatmeal container spray painted flat black with tape seals at the top and bottom. A flattened empty film cassette was a prime choice to create the “lens” because the metal plate was already black on one side and, on the other side, the zero on the 400 label provided a target for poking a small hole with a bead needle.
Empty, flattened film cassette for the pinhole.
Expired photographic paper was used for the paper negative. I worked with two options for making a positive image - one was to sandwich a second piece of paper with the negative and make a contact print in the darkroom; the second was scanning the negative then inverting the digital file into a positive image. The age of the paper gave the image an interesting distressed look for either option without resorting to enlarger filters or digital presets.
Paper negative on 2004 Kodak Polycontrast glossy paper.
For more pinhole images, please go to the Portraits page on this website.