Camera Obscura Tent

Here are photos of the printed publication from the Camera Obscura Tent experiment. It explains the process behind the project and the unusual and quite unsuccessful attempts at photographing from inside the camera obscura. You can read the booklet in the previous post below.

Camera Obscura Tent

Unfortunately my camera obscura tent project didn't go exactly to plan. I had many difficulties inside the tent photographing the projection, most images were way too under exposed and came out black. I did my best to edit them in photoshop but I didn't get much from them. Nobody will ever see what I saw inside the tent! Instead I have designed this publication to show my process behind the project.

Open publication - Free publishing - More camera obscura

Obscura Experiment

Yesterday I took my Dora the explorer camera obscura tent to St Andrews Park to test it out. It was a horrible experience being cooped up in the tiniest tent in complete darkness! Anyone's worst nightmare really! Suffering for my work! 

Alice and Ellie helped me out and taped me inside until it was completely light proof then opened up the pinhole. It was amazing inside, so bright, I could see the whole park projected inside the walls of the tent. I got Alice to make shapes for me to photograph but I had a disaster with my digital camera inside and couldn't find the right setting. 

The longer I was inside and the more frustrated and hot I was getting the worse the camera worked! After about 20 minutes I gave up and had to burst out, coming away with another load of black images.. another black squares project on the way maybe..?? Will have to test this out again, but really not looking forward to getting back inside!

Dora the Obscura

Today I built my camera obscura tent. This started to become a very expensive project so I ended up going to Toys 'R' Us and getting the cheapest dora the explorer toddler tent. It turned out it didn't have a bottom so spent quite a long time today sewing and sticking it all together. 

Nine hours later my tent was light proof. Its a pretty tight squeeze, but both Ellie and I managed to fit inside. I have made a complete mess of the living room now though! Need to take my tent outside in the next few days to see if it will work.

Camera Obscura Room

As my camera obscura box was a success, I thought I would try it in my room again. I bought lots of insulation tape and blacked out every little gap i could find. I even taped up my entire door which meant I was in darkness for a few hours! Unfortunately the pin hole did not project on to my wall opposite and I was very disappointed. Next time I need to use thicker card.

I was about to take the tape down when I noticed a tree projecting on to my white desk next to the window. I attached lots of white paper around the same place and was very excited to see the image of the two buildings opposite projected on to the paper. Again, the photos aren't the best because the light was leaking through the card, but this is early days. I plan to make camera obscuras and pin hole cameras out of lots of different interesting objects.

Obscura Box

I tested my camera obscura shoe box outside today. In the bright light the image projecting on to the tracing paper was much better. I was able to look at buildings and trees, and even people walking past on the street, all projected on to the tracing paper upside down.

Photographing this however proved very difficult. I used two tripods to attach the camera obscura and camera and had to hold it altogether whilst covering myself in thick blankets.. very tricky! The blanket I used was blue and has given the photo a very pink tint where the light is seeping through.

Camera Obscura Box

I tried to turn my room into a camera obscura last week, but it failed miserably! Instead, I thought I would start small and try again. Using a shoe box I created a tracing paper window with a pin hole opposite. I used insulation tape to block out any areas where light could leak. Covering myself in a dark blanket I pointed the box at a lamp and was very excited to see the images projected on to the paper! 

The photos aren't the best as it was dark by the time I had finished, but I will try again tomorrow outside in the daylight. I intend to make bigger camera obscuras using objects like tents.