How do you imagine a pinhole camera designed for an artist? Obviously, she has a large frosted glass on which to put tracing paper, as in the device shown in the illustration below?
This is one option, but there is another. Make a hinged cover that allows you to put the sheet inside the case. Make a hole in the middle in the lid to look at this sheet, and on the sides - two more, in which you can stick your hands. And frosted glass is not required, and the paper can be any, not necessarily translucent. True, the hand will cast a shadow, but you will quickly learn to hold your hand so that the shadow does not bother you. The author of Instructables under the nickname hugheswho invented and put up for the competition of optical homemade your version of such a pinhole camera, which, if you spend a bit of work, may be on your table.
It is immediately clear that the author of this construction does not think in a standard way. If in pinhole cameras with frosted glass, the light first enters the lens, and then, passing through it, is reflected from the diagonal mirror, then here it is the other way around. First a diagonal mirror, then a lens. This allowed changing the horizontal layout to the vertical one, keeping the position of the sheet horizontal.
Before proceeding with the manufacture of homemade products, it is necessary to purchase a collecting lens with a diameter of about 100 mm with a focal length of 300-350 mm. Since hugheswho lives in China, this component cost him quite cheaply, but in the rest of the world, such lenses are also inexpensive.
Still need a mirror. Normal square, with sides from 120 to 180 mm. Or rectangular - with different sides, but close in size. And of the optical components, that's ... all that is required. Lens and mirror. The rest is a building, all the manufacturing operations of which you have to repeat after the master. In total, about two square meters of corrugated cardboard with a thickness of about 7 mm will be required.
Hugheswho begins work on the body with sketches. More precisely, from two - three-dimensional and two-dimensional.
When repeating homemade work, the sketches must be adjusted to the exact dimensions of your existing mirrors and lenses. Note that there are no focusing devices in this pinhole camera, so you have to experiment with the distance from the portrait customer to the lens. Well, or you can come up with some mechanism to move the lens - remember cameras with furs, for example.
Dividing the second of the sketches into flat components, the master cuts out the body parts of the corresponding sizes and shapes:
Of these, he collects the case:
Adds a hinged door with an oval hole:
It cuts the lower corners at the door and sets a hood around the hole - it improves contrast and just looks beautiful:
It paints the walls of the body black inside, which also increases the contrast due to the reduction of re-reflection of the scattered light. Therefore, the device is called a pinhole camera, that is, a dark room. They are also very large, really the size of a room where the entire artist is placed.
Hugheswho now cuts a hole for the lens from above:
Installs the lens and holder of the diagonal mirror, glues the mirror itself inside it, adds a tape for measuring distance:
What does it resemble? Giant metronome? Cashier from Fallout 4 or our real past? But the purpose of the device is different: draw!
A bright light should be directed to the customer of the portrait, best of all sunny. And an artist with a pinhole camera should sit in the shade. If you immediately draw portraits will seem like a difficult task, you can practice first with motionless objects about the size of a person’s face. Suitable, for example, a table lamp - off, but well-lit from the outside.
When you finally take up the first portrait using this device and manage to persuade the customer to sit still on the chair, you can still get it like this:
But this is an occasion not to ruin the homemade product, shouting that you spent so much time on it, and all the dog down the drain, and train until at least something like this comes out:
Gradually, such a pinhole camera will make you a good portrait painter in gratitude for the fact that you did it.