Black and White

In Light, Sound and Time we explore the interactions light, sound and time have on our everyday lives. Unit 1, Light, had been about light and how it interacts with objects and our brains. During the unit we learned about the electromagnetic spectrum, how light acts as a wave vs particle, the similarities between the eye and camera. This brought us to our first action project, building a pinhole camera.

TS "Pinhole Camera" (2016) GCE Lab School

Pinhole cameras capture light when light from an object shines into a pinhole sized hole where the image of the object is flipped until it is burned onto a special film paper. I had left the shutter open for three minutes to allow the image to develop. Once I closed the shutter I immediately went into the dark room where there are no lights, except for the special red lights on the ground. I then removed the film from my camera and processed it through four chemicals that allow the photo to become visible and safe to light.

TS "Inside Pinhole Camera" (2016) GCE Lab School

The camera does not illustrate refraction because refraction only occurs when light goes from one medium to another, such as air to glass or air to water, which then slows down light causing it to bend. Due to there only being a hole nothing will change the light speed. It is important that the inside of the camera to be completely black in order to prevent the light from reflecting thus causing the picture to be ruined or distorted. If the cameras inside had been white the light coming in would be reflected throughout the box since white is a reflectant of light whereas black is an absorbent of light.

This camera exhibits wave vs particle by when the light crosses through each other and does not collide, like a wave, and the light's energy is transferred onto the special film paper, like a particle, which then causes a chemical reaction to occur in the film paper, creating an image. It represents the visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum since the black inside absorbs all the colors of white light. Below are my calculations I did when figuring out the similar triangles that are involved when taking a picture of an object, in my case my favorite mug. The distance from the lens to paper had been 18.3 centimeters, the height of the mug was 12.3 centimeters, and the height of the pinhole had been 6.3 centimeters.

TS "Similar Triangles" (2016) GCE Lab School

TS "Pinhole Camera Light" (2016) GCE Lab School

For the picture I used a shutter speed of three minutes, this way the film had enough time to absorb the light to create a better picture. I had attempted a second picture because, after the film was developed, I saw the camera was only able to see half the mug due to the height of the pinhole. If I were to do this again I would want to play with the shutter speed to try and get the best picture possible. I would also lower the height of my pinhole in order to capture the full image of the object I am photographing.

TS "Mug Pinhole Photo" (2016) Latin School