How Pinhole cameras work

A pinhole camera is a very simple camera that is a light-proof box with no lens and a single very small pin size hole in one side this is called the aperture you control the aperture by changing the size of the hole in modern cameras the aperture is used to change the light setting so you can take clear pictures in light and dark areas.

A pinhole camera works by moving a piece of material from over the pin hole allowing Light from a scene to pass through the pinhole and project an inverted image on the opposite side of the box which has a piece of light sensitive photo paper on it,. The pinhole is then covered and the camera is taken to a dark room. You control the exposure of a pinhole camera by changing the length of time you leave the pinhole uncovered. Getting the right exposure is very important on a pinhole camera as if the exposure time isn’t long enough the picture will come out as a white blob and if the exposure time is to long it will come out as a black blob. You can work out roughly the correct exposure time by measuring the space in-between the pin hole and the photographic paper (this is called the focal length) and measuring the diameter of the pin hole and then divide them by each other and using that number with an estimate or a correct measurement with a light meter of the amount of light in the room you can work out how long the exposure should be.

Once the camera has been used it is taken to the dark room where the photographic paper is taken out of the camera and developed by being put into two different chemicals which cause the image to appear on the paper which is then removed from the dark room and dried producing a finished photograph.