To make a pinhole camera, blacken the inside of a light-tight box, prick a needle hole in a square of aluminium fixed to one wall, cover it with a flap of black tape and load a sheet of photo paper under safelight.
All it takes is an empty box, a tiny hole and a little patience to turn an object forgotten at the back of a cupboard into a camera capable of capturing light. A pinhole camera can be made from whatever you have to hand, and that is precisely what makes it so endearing.
In short, in 6 steps:
- Gather the materials: box, aluminium, black tape and photo paper
- Give the inside of the box a matt black finish
- Make a clean hole in the aluminium
- Make the shutter from black tape
- Load the photo paper under safelight
- Develop the paper negative after the exposure
Before you pierce anything, you need to understand that pinhole photography comes from a clean hole, perfect blackness and a box that lets light in through that single opening and nowhere else. Everything in the construction depends on these three conditions.
If you are new to the process, the complete pinhole photography guide lays down the basics of how it works before moving on to the practical steps.
Materials for making a pinhole camera
There is no need to buy anything special, because most of the items are already lying around at home.
- A light-tight box, such as a tin can with a lid, a sturdy shoebox or a metal biscuit tin.
- A drinks can or a thin sheet of aluminium to make the hole in.
- Matt black paint or black card for the inside.
- A fine sewing needle for the hole.
- Opaque black tape, such as gaffer tape or electrical tape.
- Very fine sandpaper to remove the burr.
The depth of the box determines the framing, since this distance between the hole and the paper acts as the focal length. The closer the hole is to the paper, in a shallow box, the wider the angle, whereas a hole far from the paper in a deep box gives tighter framing.
A tall tin can is a good compromise for beginners, but nothing stops you going smaller: the matchbox pinhole camera takes the exercise to its miniature version, with its own very wide framing. A simple drinks can with a hole in it even serves as the camera body for solargraphy, those exposures lasting several months that trace the path of the sun.
Give the inside of the box a matt black finish
The inside must be matt black, without the slightest reflection, and this is the step most often neglected, even though it is what saves the image.
Paint every wall, the bottom and the lid, bearing in mind that two coats are better than one, then let it dry completely before carrying on.
Make a clean hole in the aluminium
The hole is not made directly in the box, because the metal is too thick: the edge would be rough and the image blurred.
First make a hole 5 to 10 mm wide in the wall of the box, then fix over it, on the inside, a small square of thin aluminium with the real hole in it.
How to make a round, clean hole with a needle
Place the aluminium on a soft surface and turn the needle while pressing gently, without pushing straight through in one go, then turn the sheet over, sand off the burr with sandpaper, turn it over again and refine the hole.
Finally, fix the aluminium square centred over the large hole with black tape, on the inside.
A black tape shutter for the pinhole camera
No mechanism is needed, because a simple flap of opaque black tape stuck over the hole is enough: you lift it to expose and fold it back down to end the exposure.
The movement must be decisive and free of vibration, because any shake during the exposure shows up as motion blur. So set the box on a stable support before opening.
For the exposure time, allow:
- a few seconds in full sun;
- several tens of seconds under an overcast sky;
- several minutes indoors near a window.
Adjust according to your first test.
Load the photo paper under safelight
A homemade pinhole camera is most often exposed on black and white photo paper, a paper that can only be handled under safelight, in other words a red light to which it is not very sensitive.
Cut a sheet to the size of the back of the box, place it with the sensitive side (the emulsion) facing the hole, then close the box and seal with black tape any edges through which light could get in.
The limits of the homemade pinhole camera
Making your own box is a great introduction, but two obstacles often stop beginners. The chemistry first, since you have to get hold of developer and fixer, measure them out and manage the baths. Then the paper, which you load blind in an improvised darkroom.
This is precisely what the Sténoflex kit takes care of, with a ready-made pinhole dark chamber, a built-in shutter, and the photo paper, the developer and fixer as concentrated liquids in two bottles of 15 ml each, the red filter and an exposure table all supplied. You make your first images without the hassle of a botched hole or chemicals you cannot find.
The two approaches complement each other for a session with the family or in class: the homemade box for the pleasure of DIY, and the kit to get to a successful image quickly. If you are still torn between making and buying, the pinhole camera kit comparison weighs up the two options according to what you are really looking for.
Wood or cardboard for the box
Both materials work. Cardboard is more than enough for beginners: it is easy to cut, and a well-closed shoebox makes an excellent pinhole camera. Wood is mainly for anyone who wants a durable camera, handled often, with a back that opens cleanly. Either way, what matters stays the same: perfect light-tightness, a matt black interior and a box rigid enough to keep the paper perfectly flat.
Develop the paper negative after the exposure
Once the exposure is done, the image does not exist yet: it lies dormant in the paper, latent and invisible, until you develop it, the step that turns the exposed paper into a photograph.
The paper goes successively into the developer, which brings out the image, the stop bath, then the fixer, before a wash in water and drying.
You will first get a negative on paper, an inverted image in which the light areas correspond to the dark parts of the scene, which comes from the very nature of the process.
Making a pinhole camera means accepting a degree of unpredictability, because the first hole is rarely perfect and the first exposure often fails, before the image comes and, with it, the urge to start again.
Éric Marais — Photographer, author of two books on pinhole photography (published by Pearson) and creator of the Sténoflex. He has run introductory workshops in pinhole photography and analogue developing from the very beginning.
