Pinhole Tin Question

[pinhole_dreamer]

I've got my little truck...and I can move the paper to different distances within the body so it's either closer or farther away from the pinhole. I've not yet experimented with that yet...

I *did* find a tin from some Boy Scout chocolate toffee popcorn. (Yummy. I want more of that!)

What's the 'perfect' or best size paper to fit in the tin? (I plan on using a much smaller pinhole using part of a pop can and a smaller sewing needle.)

My other question is this:

Does the paper sit against the curved back of it or is it better to have a curved plane, meaning instead of the paper curved with the tin but having something in the tin to have the paper curve in the opposite direction so that when you're looking down on the paper and tin, it looks like an oval?

Thanks!

 

[segedi]

I have no experience in this area, but I'd say if you can hit focus in the middle of the curved plane, whether concave or convex, you'd be doing well!
I think most have the paper along the same plane as the tin - curving with it. IMAX movie screens have that curvature I believe. But I think it would be great if you experimented with having the paper bulging towards the pinhole. Could be unique?

A quick search gave me these:
http://www.paintcancamera.com/use.html
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=11865&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=45889

Please share your results!

 

[erikg]

Try it all, you're sure to get something cool! I've made a lot of tin can cameras and have done a bunch with students and I've found that in terms of getting evenness of exposure having the paper curve with the best. That makes sense, keeping the paper as close to equidistant to the pinhole negates light fall off. As far as size of paper in the can I'd say as big as can fit, the angle of view will be very large. This may be just me but I found that I like more than one pinhole in the can, usually three works pretty well, images overlap, you get some pretty interesting stuff.

 

[pinhole_dreamer]

Thanks for the input. I'll have to get to building once it warms up -- if it ever will!

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Everything will be in focus. All you're affecting is perspective. And that might, indeed, produce some very interesting images.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

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[Rick A]

I've used the giant popcorn tins that come out around Christmas. Paint the inside black and use magnetic strip tape to hold 8x10 paper.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

One thing to maybe anticipate. The more drastic the curve, the more light falloff you might incur with your oval shape at the edges. With the curve of the tin might getcha goin' as long as you have the center spaced away from the can a bit.

 

[pinhole_dreamer]

Everything will be in focus. All you're affecting is perspective. And that might, indeed, produce some very interesting images.

That right there is what I'm thinking... and doesn't the curve of the paper have something to do with a vignette?

 

[erikg]

Yup, you've got it. Curve with the can: less fall off, curve opposite: more. Vignette has a lot to do with size of the paper relative to size of the image circle which is controlled by the focal length of the camera. Get the paper close enough to the hole you'll get a circular picture. That can be pretty cool.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

With pinhole, it's not so much vignetting as fall off. And you'll get less of it curving with the can and lightly so. Go extreme and you could end up with some cool 'fun house mirror' kinda stuff.

 

[pinhole_dreamer]

Funhouse mirror huh? I like that.

Now...I need to scan the angel I caught at the park with my current truck pinhole. I'm still trying to figure out how THAT happened.