Camera Obscura Diagram

I turned my bedroom into a camera.
In this age of megapixels and retina displays I wanted to see how basic of a camera I could make myself that could compete, or surpass in resolution the quality of the latest high-end digital cameras. Turns out all I needed was a light tight box with a hole on one end: the most primitive of all cameras – the camera obscura.

The light tight box ended up being my bedroom, or half of it to be precise. Using a lot of black out cloth and a lot of gaffers tape I divided my room. One side was my ‘studio’ where my subject would pose and the other side would function as the camera. After cutting a small hole at about eye level in the cloth that divided the room I inserted a lens (a 12 inch process lens) that was supported on a light stand. Once sure that all was light tight I was ready to make my exposure.

Using a rig I put together out of a few spare tripod (this being the most complex part of the camera) that allows me to control my focus to a fair degree I would clip my paper in place, turn on the lights in the ‘studio’ side of the room and expose the print.
The final piece that makes this a unique process is the use of the direct positive paper. This paper, as the name implies, produces a positive image when used in a camera. No need for a negative or an enlarger. This means that I can make large, extremely sharp and finely detailed one of a kind images.