Photography 101 – First Lesson? — The Photographer Blog

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Did anyone else go over to the Digital Photography School blog on Monday and read Neil Creek’s first lesson of the Photography 101 course, Light and the Pinhole camera?

I did and I found it really interesting. He is starting with the basics of how photography works which I like, because the better the foundation and knowledge of how photography works the better understanding I will have to take photographs.

Light

He starts off with a basic introduction to light and how it behaves, which takes me back to my physics lessons in school. Seeing as you capture differing levels of light to make an image it’s good to understand a little about light.

Pinhole Camera

Next he looks at how you can capture that light, by explaining about Camera Obscura’s which have been used for 1,000’s of years and are the forerunners to the modern camera. The idea is you have a box (which can be room sized) with a pinhole in one end, the light will then travel through the hole and hit the opposite side or wall to form an image (upside down). Obviously the box has to be light proof except for the hole. Camera Obscura’s were used by artists who would use paper or canvas on the opposite wall of the camera obscura to trace the image produced by the hole.

Pinhole camera’s work the same as camera obscura’s and are usually made out of some sort of box with photographic film or paper attached to the back side to capture the image. You can see how camera’s developed from this, the hole being the aperture of the camera.

Homework assignments

At the end of each lesson there are a list of homework assignments that you can do if you would like, this week I have chosen to make my own camera obscura – hopefully!

The idea being that you choose a room with one window and completely cover the window with card or foil blocking out all the light, and then put a pinhole in the covering, you should then see an image appear on the opposite wall (hopefully) of the outside, but upside down. I’ll let you know how it goes!

There are several room size camera obscura’s around that you can go and visit instead of making one, here’s a few:

Royal Observatory Greenwich, London
Dumfries Museum & Camera Obscura
Griffith Observatory, California
Havana, Cuba Camera Obscura
North Carolina Museum of Art

Mandy

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