Coffee Cup Photography

Coffee Cup

Aluminium beverage can

Light sensitive, Photographic paper

Black insulation tape

Developer and Fixer solutions

Take a paper coffee cup, wash and dry it.

Place the cup in an old box which will act as a spray booth and spray both the inside and outside of the cup with matt black paint. Allow to dry and then apply another coat.

Try to find a coffee cup with a black lid as you may find spray painting a white lid can weaken the lid due to the paint solvent reacting with the plastic.

Cut a strip of aluminum sheet from an aluminium beverage can. This will be used to create a pinhole 'lens'. Sand where you will make the hole with some 180 grit sandpaper to make the metal thinner. Press the point of a pin through the metal sheet but only go a millimeter through to create as small a hole as possible. While pressing the pin rotate the metal strip around it to assist in creating the small hole.

Sandpaper both sides of the hole to make them smooth. Cut the aluminium strip to a suitable size disk.

Cut a hole into the side of the coffee cup and attach the aluminium disc over it, check alignment and then secure with black tape.

Place a light shutter over the pinhole, made from 2 layers of black insulation tape. Apply two layers of black tape to any hole in the lid. Cover the lid with black tape to ensure it is light proof. Place some black plasticine around the bottom edge of the cup to make it light proof.

In a darkroom, cut some photographic paper so it fits into the pinhole camera with the light sensitive side opposite the pinhole. Put on the lid and seal with a strip of black insulation taped wrapped twice around.

Place the pinhole camera on a tripod and take a photo by removing the shutter from over the pinhole. If you don't have a tripod, tape it to a fixed object. Exposure time may vary between 20 seconds and 2 minutes depending on pinhole size and available light. After developing you will have a negative image.

Develop the photo in a room which has been made completely dark. I used my bathroom as it has no windows and is almost completely dark when the door is closed.

To stop light sneaking in from around the edge of the door, strips of black card were blue-tacked and taped around the door's edge.

A low powered head torch with the red light option enabled me to see without effecting the photographic paper.

Two plastic trays from a supermarket were used to hold the developer and fixer solutions and I wore a disposable glove. Rather than also having a stop bath, the photo was rinsed with water in the sink between the developer and fixer baths.

There are a number of things to watch out for when taking photos with your coffee cup pinhole camera:

Make sure no stray light can get into the camera. Hold the body up to a desk light and check no light can get in. I found some was coming in around the base of the cup so stopped this by applying some black plasticine around the join.

Black tape can also be applied to the body of your pinhole camera to ensure it is light proof and to secure the lid.

With pearl photographic paper it is possible to place the wrong side facing the pinhole, so watch out for this, the photographic side is a little more shinny.

For better photos, ensure the sun is behind you. Avoid taking photos in the middle of a sunny day, taking photos a few hours at the start of the morning or later in the afternoon tends to give better results. Work out how long to take the photo for by 'snapping' a series of photos with different exposure times and recording the results. This will help you to home in to the best exposure time for the light conditions and pinhole camera build (diameter of pinhole, distance from pinhole to photographic paper and speed of paper).