How does a camera obscura work?

How it works. The Camera Obscura is an ancient optical device. In its most basic form it is, quite simply, a dark room with a small hole in one wall. On the wall opposite the hole, an image is formed of whatever is outside. This image is upside-down (inverted) and back to front (laterally transposed). read more

Camera obscura exist in two main forms. Rooms where the viewer is inside the camera looking directly at the image and box types where the image is projected onto a screen which is viewed from outside. The screen is often made of ground glass and normally requires a cowl or hood to block out ambient light. read more

Camera obscura (plural camera obscura or camera obscuras; from Latin, meaning"dark room": camera"(vaulted) chamber or room," and obscura"darkened, dark"), also referred to as pinhole image, is the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or for instance a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. read more

A camera obscura is literally a dark room with a small hole in the outer wall. This causes a projection of the scene outside the wall (with the hole) onto the opposite wall. It's been around for centuries and has been used by artists and the military to accurately record those scenes (drawing or painting). read more