Who made the camera obscura. Camera obscura: an ordinary photographic miracle

In the modern world, photography is a very common form of creativity. And anyone who knows how to press buttons can use a camera. But perhaps not everyone knows that the tribes of North Africa could project an image of the surrounding world onto a plane thousands of years ago.

In Latin, “camera” means room, and “obscura” means dark, together they mean “dark room”. A camera obscura is a dark room with a small hole in the wall. The image, passing through the hole, is displayed on the opposite wall, upside down.

The principle of the camera obscura is very clearly described by Aristotle, using the example of how the image of the sun, formed by light rays passing through a small square hole, had a round shape. It is not known exactly who first discovered the principle of the camera obscura, and who was the first to use it. But the first complete description of it belongs to the pen of Leonardo Da Vinci himself. He gave this name to this device, and used a camera obscura to sketch landscapes.

That is, he copied a reduced color image, which was displayed on a wall covered with white paper opposite the wall with a hole.

The method of sketching using a pinhole camera has become very popular among professional artists.

But somehow it’s not very convenient: everything is upside down, and besides, the camera is stationary - you can’t really get your head around the scenes! And then, in 1686, Johannes Zahn designed a portable camera equipped with a mirror located at an angle of 45°. Now you no longer had to stand upside down to get the desired object on paper.

Further, the camera obscura was increasingly improved: lenses were added to it, first to increase the viewing angle, then to improve image clarity, from a stationary one, it became mobile and smaller in size.

In the Middle Ages, many people familiar with the camera obscura effect made holes in their walls and watched on the opposite wall, as if on a screen, what was happening on the street. Well, there was no television or Internet yet, but people always needed entertainment, well, besides bread, of course!

By the way, in nature, the effect of a camera obscura can be observed during a partial solar eclipse - then crescent-shaped shadows appear on the earth, repeating the shape of the Sun, obscured by the Moon.

Stenope or pinhole - derived from camera obscura

Stenop - “peephole” (from Greek), this is a device for projecting an image using a hole (not a lens, like a camera). They are usually made from old SLR cameras, for example from Zenit (although they can also be made from digital cameras). This direction also has a second name: “pinhole”.

And, I must say, in our time there are a lot of fans of this trend, they form something like a circle, a sect, where they are very reverent and respectful of their boxes with a hole instead of a lens and black inner walls.

On the Internet there are many sites and communities of pinhole enthusiasts and professionals, where everyone can find information and make their own device, even from a tea box!

Exhibitions of pinhole photography and various thematic master classes are held periodically. And for some, pinhole becomes an interesting, lively hobby, and for others, it becomes a completely serious passion. Why is this method of obtaining images so attractive to photographers and amateurs?

The fact is that the pinhole reproduces a completely correct perspective, covers an angle of up to 130°, has a very good depth of field, but, however, produces very soft images, similar to photographs taken with special soft-focus optics. We can say that the pinhole transmits the image almost as the human eye sees it!

It should be noted that when “photographing” with a pinhole, the shutter speed ranges from several minutes to several hours. This value is determined depending on the photosensitivity of the photographic paper (film), lighting, hole diameter...

When light enters a dark space through a tiny hole, something mysterious and amazing happens. Aristotle described this phenomenon back in the 4th century BC, and in Renaissance Italy it was sketched by Leonardo da Vinci. At the end of the 19th century, queues lined up in Coney Island and other seaside resorts to see the magical transformations. We are transported to 1988, to a classroom at one of the art colleges in Boston.

One sunny day, Abelardo Morell turned the classroom into a camera obscura - and the wall opposite came to life like a movie screen.

An introductory photography teacher named Abelardo Morell covered the windows with black plastic sheeting (the classroom became dark as a cave), cut a hole in the curtain the size of a dime, and the wall opposite came to life like a movie screen. It showed blurry outlines of people and cars on Huntington Avenue. The image was inverted: the sky lay near the floor, the pavement was under the ceiling. What happened?

Morell turned the classroom into a camera obscura (Latin for “dark room”). Apparently, this is the oldest imaging instrument known to man - and the distant ancestor of the camera.

A vivid, dream-like and very sharp image of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan materializes above the hallowed sheets. To get a bright, sharp image of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, Morell set up his camera in a room obscura and left the shutter open for five hours. In addition, he used a prism to invert the image.

The most difficult thing about a pinhole camera is the optical principle on which it operates. Images enter the camera the same way they enter the human eye: through a small hole and upside down. Light enters the hole at an angle, and the rays reflected from the top of objects are directed downward, and those reflected from objects located near the ground are directed upward. In the dark space of the camera, the rays intersect and the view is turned upside down. If the image that enters our eye is corrected by the brain, then the image in a regular camera is reversed by the mirror.

The portable camera obscura, a box with a hole equipped with a lens, gained popularity in the 17th century. It served as an auxiliary tool for artists; Scientists began to use it to observe solar eclipses. At the beginning of the 19th century, they figured out how to catch the projected image: sheets of paper or metal plates treated with chemicals were placed against the back wall of the camera obscura. This is how photography was born.

For Abelardo Morell, a photography professor, that classroom experience was a revelation. Seeing the admiring eyes of the students - young people well versed in science and technology - he realized: there is something unusually attractive in this phenomenon.

Morell's first project, intended as a visual aid for students, was to photograph how a camera worked. As a result, the work “Light Bulb” appeared in 1991.

Morell then tried to film a ghostly image that appeared in a room converted into a camera obscura. As far as he knew, no one had ever done this before. Several months were spent on technical preparation: it was necessary to calculate the size of the light hole to ensure both brightness and sharpness, as well as determine the correct exposure time.

All that remained was to find a room with a good view from the window. The choice fell on the photographer's house in Quincy, a suburb of Boston. Morell set up his large-format camera on a tripod in his son's bedroom, where only a thin ray of light entered, and opened the shutter. Then he left the room and waited. Eight hours. The result was fascinating. In the developed photograph, upside-down trees and houses loomed over the children's toys, as if in a fairy tale. “I felt like I had invented photography,” Morell recalls.

Subsequently, Abelardo captured a variety of views: from panoramas of New York to Italian landscapes, and also moved from black and white photographs to color and began to invert images using a prism. By replacing film with a digital sensor, he reduced exposure time from hours to minutes, allowing him to capture shadows, clouds and other fleeting atmospheric phenomena.

Morell himself most likes the work made using a floorless tent - a portable camera obscura, with which he climbed onto the roofs of houses. Morell also installed such a “camera” on streets and parks to create images directly on the ground.

The works of Abelardo Morella mix the real and the fantastic. They allow you to look at the world in a new light.

The postcard view of the Brooklyn Bridge becomes rougher when Morell projects the image onto the tar paper roof. Experimenting with mood and texture, the photographer turned a floorless tent into a camera obscura. Light streaming through the periscope-like opening paints an image on the ground that has “an antique feel,” Morell says.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Geometric optics is based on the idea of ​​the rectilinear propagation of light, and perhaps the main role in it is played by the phenomenon of a light beam. When light is reflected from a polished flat surface, the angle of incidence must be equal to the angle of reflection, therefore, when looking in the mirror, you can see not only your own face, but also the light source. The great invention of geometric and light optics was built on this principle - the camera obscura (from the Latin сamera - “room” and obscura - “dark”).

Ancient invention

The first mention of a camera obscura dates back to the 5th century BC. e. It was then that the Chinese philosopher Mi Ti told the world about the appearance of an image on the wall of a darkened room. Aristotle was the first to describe and analyze the principle of the camera obscura in detail. Following him, the 10th century Arab physicist and mathematician Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen) concluded that the propagation of light is linear. In the Middle Ages, the camera obscura was rediscovered by the English philosopher and naturalist Roger Bacon (1217–1294), and in 1279, Archbishop of Canterbury John Penham suggested that using a camera obscura it was possible to observe the movement of the Sun.

The first prototype of photography

The first camera obscura used for painting was created by Leonardo da Vinci. The “Titan of the Renaissance” described it in detail in his “Treatise on Painting.” “...When images of illuminated objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room, you will see on paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colors...”, wrote the great painter, observing how rays of light, reflected on frosted glass, created inverted color image.

Of course, this technology cannot capture anything dynamic, so if you are interested, read a separate article about it. will also be problematic. But with a camera obscura it was possible to write, which is what Leonardo used.

"A dark room?" - you ask. Yes, in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that followed them, the camera obscura was stationary - a large dark room with a hole in one of the walls. The artist was inside it, sketching what was happening outside on the opposite wall. For large canvases this was very convenient. Leonardo da Vinci also designed an instrument for measuring light intensity and a photometer, which was brought to life only three centuries later. It is not surprising that among the inventions of the great artist, the camera obscura, the prototype of the future camera, occupied a place of honor.

Yet the great Leonardo's camera obscura had a significant disadvantage. As an optical scientist, Leonardo da Vinci knew that visual images are projected upside down on the cornea of ​​the eye, so he was not surprised that everything in the camera obscura was displayed upside down. But the artists who, following Leonardo, tried to combine painting and the achievements of applied optics, found it very inconvenient to put everything on its head each time. This was taken into account by Johannes Zahn, who in 1686, based on the drawings and calculations of the great Leonardo, designed a portable camera obscura, significantly improving it. He equipped the camera with a mirror located at an angle of 45 degrees and projecting the image onto a matte horizontal plate, which allowed artists to easily transfer landscapes onto paper no longer upside down.

It is difficult to imagine life in an information and computerized world without photography. But the camera obscura is the predecessor of today's cameras. The principle of its operation is still used in the production of photographic equipment.

General information

This invention is the simplest optical device created centuries ago. Among other things, it was also a device with which it was possible to obtain images of certain objects.

Design

In appearance, a camera obscura is a dark box with a small hole in one of the walls. On the opposite side there is a so-called screen, which is covered either with frosted glass or with a thin white sheet of paper. When light rays pass through the hole, an inverted image of the outside world appears on the screen. This principle is similar to the principle of operation of our eye, because images of objects in it are also turned over and processed. In addition, in modern cameras the image is rotated according to a similar principle.

The first mention of a camera obscura

The exact date of its invention is unknown. The first mentions date back to the 11th century. And even earlier, in the 10th century, the Arab researcher Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) observed solar eclipses using a tent, in one of the walls of which the scientist made a hole. He watched the sun on the opposite wall, where an image of the celestial body was formed after the rays passed through the hole.

In the works of the English philosopher Roger Bacon there are passages that resemble the description of the camera obscura, which became the prototype of the lens in modern cameras. However, it is certain that this invention does not belong to him. Back in Antiquity, a method of constructing an image through a small hole appeared.

During the same era, it was observed that a ray of sunlight entering a dark room through a small opening creates a light pattern in the outer space. Aristotle noticed that this image appears upside down on the opposite wall. In addition, although it is smaller in size, it has the same colors and proportions as the real object.

During the Middle Ages, scientists very often used the camera obscura in their astronomical research.

Principle of operation

It was first outlined by the Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci. A description of this device made by da Vinci can be found in the works of G. Venturi. The great Italian explains the principle of operation of a camera obscura after sunlight enters a dark room through a small gap. Da Vinci also created the layout of the holes for the rays, the trajectory of the sun's rays themselves, and the screen on which the image is produced. However, Leonardo never called this invention a camera obscura in his treatise.

There is other evidence that for centuries, scientists in different countries used a device similar to what we today call a camera obscura. Among them were, for example, Kepler and Zahn.

However, the camera obscura is a device that was used not only by many scientists, but also by some artists to create their paintings.

Device prototypes

In the 17th century, German astronomer Johannes Kepler decided to create his own camera obscura. To do this, he set up a tent in a field, made a hole in it and inserted a lens there. He watched as an inverted image of the outside world appeared on an attached piece of paper opposite the lens. Naturally, this could be seen when the sun's rays passed through the glass in the tent.

A new type of camera obscura was created in the same 17th century by Johann Zahn. The box he invented contained a mirror at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the lens. The image that appeared when light passed through the lens was reflected on the top of the box, covered with frosted glass with tracing paper. Thanks to this, Tsang could trace the outline of the image that appeared. You could say it was a photograph of its own kind. Among Tsang's other achievements is a similar camera obscura, only smaller and with a built-in lens. This was the prototype of a device that, one hundred and fifty years later, would be used by the famous inventor of photography, Joseph Niepce.

Discoveries in the field of optics

The camera obscura is an invention that gave rise to the desire to understand optics. As a result, discoveries of physical laws in the field of light reflection began. The first to use them in his scientific works was Kepler. This happened in 1604. And after a couple of years, Galileo designed a rather complex telescope. Two years later, Kepler substantiated the theory of lenses, which was accepted by scientists.

It has long been noted that the influence of sunlight on the world around us is very great. For example, its effect on silver salts has been established, causing silver items to noticeably darken. This phenomenon marked the beginning of the great history of photography.

The first person to prove this theory was physicist Johann Schulze. In the 18th century, he conducted experiments to create a substance that glows in the dark. During his experiment, the scientist mixed nitric acid, which contained dissolved silver, with chalk. The professor noticed that the liquid gradually darkens when exposed to the sun. Having discovered this phenomenon, Schulze conducted several experiments using figures and letters. He cut out figures from paper and applied them to a bottle of solution. During this experiment, it was possible to obtain photographic prints on chalk mixed with silver. Unaware of the importance of his discovery, he shook the bottle, after which the image was lost. The physicist published the results of this experiment a few years later.

First photos

Beginning in the 18th century, the demand for portraits increased. Considering that at that time it was an expensive pleasure, the results of new inventions became an alternative to a painted portrait. Such a portrait was created by tracing a silhouette, which was projected onto paper. Then the blank was cut out and glued. In 1786, Gilles-Louis Chretien came up with the idea of ​​facial contouring. The process was similar to outlining a silhouette, but this image was then engraved on a copper plate, from which impressions were made on paper.

The first photograph was taken in 1822. The French inventor Joseph Niepce managed to do this. The oldest photograph to survive was one taken by Niepce from a window in 1826 using a camera obscura. It had a tin plate covered with a light layer of asphalt. It was difficult to create an image, since the photographing process itself lasted eight hours, and even in bright daylight. Nevertheless, this was a real advance, since the presence of a dark room for image acquisition was no longer required.

How to make a camera obscura at home

Many who are interested in optics and physics often wondered how to do it yourself? There are several ways in which you can see how an invention works.

Method No. 1

To make a camera obscura with your own hands, you need a box in which a hole is made for the future lens. The inside surface of the box is painted black to get rid of excess light and not spoil the film. In front of the shutter you need to install a cardboard holder and glue it to the outside with electrical tape. A small hole is made in the shutter cover itself, and a plate of opaque material is installed between its holder.

The supply and receiving chambers are tightly attached to the structure. In addition, you need to take into account the tightness, because if there are gaps, the photo will not work.

New film should be inserted into the supply compartment. You can purchase it or get it from old cameras.

At the last stage, foil with an already pierced hole is glued, which should be placed over the existing hole in the box. The edges should be smooth. After this, you can insert the film into the camera and use it.

Method No. 2

For the next method, take a piece of thick cardboard. It is desirable that its interior be black. This is necessary to ensure that unnecessary rays of light do not enter the camera, otherwise the result may be spoiled. In addition, it is for this reason that all the contents of cameras were made black and continue to be made. If, instead of cardboard blanks that you need to assemble yourself, you take a ready-made box, then it is important not to forget to paint its interior with black paint. To ensure maximum safety for your camera obscura, cover it on all sides with black adhesive tape. This will serve as additional protection so that light cannot enter and spoil the result of the work.

For this method, you should use cardboard blanks: rectangles, strips of different sizes. From them you need to glue the back of the camera, where the film will be located. On the front of the camera you need to create a “lens” in which, just like in the first method, make a small hole. It must be smooth, otherwise it will greatly affect the image quality. When the design is ready, you can begin to use it.

It is quite possible to create a camera obscura with your own hands. The main thing is to follow the instructions. And the benefits from it can be great.

For example, such a homemade camera obscura is a great opportunity to study the laws of optics and get to know science better.

So, on the one hand, “Camera Obscura” is a festival art-house thriller, appealing with a very promising idea and unpredictable plot development. On the other hand, this is a debut full-length work, which does not avoid the unfortunate mistakes of many debut full-length works.

Let's start with the positives. In good directorial hands, this script could receive a truly high-quality implementation: there is more than enough potential here. Firstly, the topic of photography is used very rarely in cinema, and there is a hunt for rare diamonds. Secondly, how wonderful it is when you can’t immediately guess what the hell is going on with the main character. It all starts as a typical mystical story: the protagonist is given the task of, if not unraveling where evil came from, then at least trying to destroy it. Everything continues like a thriller, in which illusions become deadly, and one can no longer trust one’s own mind. Here it is important to confuse and intimidate the poor viewer with feeling, with sense, with arrangement, so that he racks his brains over the metamorphoses of the plot and at the same time wants to find out how either psychosis or a pandemonium of ghosts will ultimately turn out. And thirdly, “Camera Obscura” is an almost ideal movie for singles at night, for whom it is important to properly set themselves up for sleep, avoiding evening melancholy. If you wait through the rather dull beginning, then events will begin to flow as expected and you will hardly want to interrupt the viewing. A nice bonus: the colorful Katie Curtin, who played a policewoman, was especially good from the cast. It's a pity she wasn't allowed to fully open up.

And now to the cons. Well, again, no matter how promising the idea was, a coherent production did not work out. All of it is somehow uncertain, raw and made almost like a student. Koontz does not try to strain the cameraman for the sake of well-thought-out plans and angles, the actors for the sake of good performance, or himself for the sake of at least the narrative not falling apart. Besides, I didn’t believe in the chemistry between the main characters at all. They behaved so awkwardly, as if they had just started a relationship, although it was initially clear that these two had been together for a long time. And in general, when terrible things begin to happen, Claire's hysteria and John's confusion together look more ridiculous than impressive. Disavowing the sweet couple, we can also mention that moments of such everyday calm coexist very poorly with the horrors that arise subsequently: the film seems to jump on the scale of interest from “hmm, not bad!” to “let’s waste it, otherwise I’ll go on a break.” Most likely, it is precisely this circumstance that prevents one from fully concentrating on the protagonist’s growing problem: the balance between the important and the petty has not been maintained, a solution has not been found on how to gradually provoke the audience, either by throwing up new riddles, or shocking with the next elements of horror, from which you never know. what to expect.

All of the above, of course, implies the most neutral assessment for Camera Obscura. This is the case when you realize that you might well like the film, but in your head its different interpretation looks much more tempting than on the screen. Alas, A.B. Kunz is not the best candidate for the post of director to implement such interesting ideas.