Studio as Camera Obscura

large edited image | large unedited image | related: Abelardo Morell

In my previous studio in the Carter Building in Downtown Raleigh I blocked out all my windows with black foam so I could also use it as a darkroom. In the middle of one of the south facing windows, I cut a little circle out of the foam core and then stuck in an old metal film canister open on each end. When I developed old-fashioned prints, and I needed it to be dark, I just pluged the hole.

On bright days, when I turned out all of the lights and unpluged the hole, the room was transformed into a camera obscura and I could see a dim upside-down image of the the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Glenwood Avenue spread over the entire room. (In Latin camera means chamber and obscura means dark. The very first cameras were called camera obscuras, but it was eventually shortened to camera.)

I took this photograph with my digital camera mounted on a tripod. (It has been inverted and rotated 180 degrees.) In order to get a better image, I set up a white piece of foam core on an easel. I tried several different settings on my camera to try to get the best image. Eventually I decided on an ISO of 100 at F/4. I chose the 100 ISO in order to keep noise to a minimum and f/4 because I was too impatient to hold the shutter button down for longer than half a minute.

For this shot, I put the shutter speed on “bulb” and held down the shutter button for around 30 seconds.

The original image was much dimmer. I probably needed at least another 30 seconds of exposure. I have brightened things up, punched the color and increased the contrast and some of the sharpness in Photoshop . The image is pretty acceptable considering that it is a fairly wide hole and no lens is being used. Here is a large view of the above image, and here is a large view of the original image without any rotation, flipping or Photoshop adjustments.

While I was holding the button, I was not able to clearly see what was being recorded, so I was quite amazed to see the automobile in the enhanced image. I figured the road would look deserted due to the constant movement of cars. I must have timed it so that he was sitting still during most of the exposure time.

But the light is green, so that does not seem to make sense. Regardless, it is what it is. Let me know if you can offer any explanation.

Ablelardo Morell is a photographer who has a large body of work recording camera obscura images.