The pinhole camera as a concept and its history

Most of you out there have heard for sure of photos taken with a pinhole camera, but do you really know what it is? A form of photography but to put it simpler is a method of taking pictures, very unique, with a camera that lacks a lens.

Nowadays it can be considered a form of art and recently it has become even more popular than it has been until now. This is partly due to the backlash of art forms and to the onslaught of digital photography. Equaling digital photography, the pinhole camera can bring your creativity to life.

The difference is that a pinhole camera can be crafted by your very own hands in your home using some general objects you can find no use for anymore. By that, you are giving it a new and unique twist and once you have fully understood how photography with a pinhole camera can be done you will be entering a world full of possibilities that will captivate you, your limitation will only be your imagination.

Whether you are a pinhole camera user or you are new to this, these few rows are destined for you. The history of the pinhole camera does not begin on an exact date written in some history book. Only evidence proves us that the pinhole camera was first used by the Greeks, because they seem to have been the very first to be familiar with the whole pinhole camera concept. Behind the pinhole camera concept lays the use of the camera obscura, meaning the dark room.

To really understand this concept you need to find a totally dark room with shades that can slightly removed, so move a small bit of the shade when the sun is shining into the window covered shade. Once you have succeeded in doing so, you will be having sunlight protruding through that small hole between the lames of your shades. Next, if you place a small piece of paper in front of those sunrays at approximately one foot from where your window is, you will be noticing a picture of the world outside your window in an upside down position.

You may have also learned that the human eye works on the very same principles. This same process was used by a lot of artists throughout time, especially in the seventeenth century, like Vermeer whose art was based on the principles of the pinhole camera, then called camera obscura. The only problem was that the photographs taken with a pinhole camera soon faded away, so that lead to the discovery of a light sensitive emulsion.

That’s what, traditional papers and films had as a top layer and it worked but it required a lot of exposure time, unlike the level of sensitivity we have on the film rolls today. Slowly but surely, the pinhole camera concept evolved into what we define as photography nowadays.

Let’s get to know a little bit about the history of the pinhole camera and its use.