Re: Teaching Pinhole to 7th graders

Hello Beau,

On Saturday, March 09, 2002, Beau Schwarz wrote:
> Hi,
> My wife has given me the opporitunity of teaching a class of gifted (meaning
> 'divergent thinkers' in teacher lingo) 7th graders to build and then
> photograph with pinhole cameras. The proposed budjet is $50 to $75 and the
> length would be 3 to 4 weeks. I have done this 3 times before with 3rd grade
> classes. Each time we have had limited success.

> Building the cameras with shoeboxes or storage boxes has never been a
> problem. A pinvice and 600 grit is used for aperatures. Liberal use of tape
> and flat black paint corrected most construction problems. Getting usable
> negatives and controlling contrast has been our downfall. Previously we have
> used Ilford Mult. (for both the negative and the final image) and Dektol as
> the developer (along with other kodak products for stop and fix). The
> results were mixed at best, the few exposures that did print were had
> extreame contrast.

[...]

If you aren't getting useable images, double check light control.
Make sure the paper isn't getting flashed at any point in the
process. Make sure the "darkroom" where you do all loading and
processing is dark (sit in it for 10-15 minutes, it should still be
dark), and your safelight is safe.

Also, make sure your pinholes are big enough to match the focal
length of your container, exposure times are long enough, and the
cameras are reasonably steady during exposure.

I'd stick with paper negatives for this project. They can give
very satisfying results.

Good luck!

-- 
Scott Sellers
mailto:scottsellers@mindspring.com