Students
Ramzi Haddad, Daniel Hampton, David Harding
Project Description
As with any camera obscura, the most important thing to consider is to create a box that is completely resistant to light. Any light entering our camera other than through the lens will sacrifice the integrity of the camera and interfere with the quality of the image we produce. As such, many of our material considerations are dependent on their ability to create a sealed environment. The most important considerations are the precision of the cut and the type of sealant used to reinforce the connections. We decided to use PVA (Polyvinyl adhesive) because it is made specifically for wood and easy to apply. This sealant also becomes clear after it dries which allows us to stain over the top and create a clean aesthetic appearance. The next consideration is the lens. We elected to use a magnifying glass lens with a 1inch diameter. We chose this for two reasons. First, the larger the lens the more distance it takes to focus the image. Our box is only 12 inches deep and is designed to have the light hit our reflecting mirror at around 8 inches. With a 1-inch diameter lens it takes roughly 10 centimeters to focus the image and that focus extends reasonably for about a foot.
The second reason for a 1-inch diameter lens is that it will fit proportionally with our design. Any bigger lens would look cumbersome and oversized. Our final project produces realistic and detailed images with the potential to retro-fit our trace paper viewing window with special film, capturing images at long exposure. The retrofit of this film will be an easy process as the window will be specifically designed to allow modifications. We began our two-part prototype project design by testing the visibility of the camera obscura. We had to make sure we used the correct trace paper as to illuminate the images with great detail. Following the visibility test, we made sure that the mirror reflection was correctly positioned considering our final design is entirely predicated on the refraction of light (via mirror) into an easily viewable window on top of our camera obscura.