Compared to photos shot with consumer digital cameras, using a do-it-yourself flatbed scanner camera provides interesting options to tweak supposedly realistic images into strange shots. In utilizing its do-it-yourself camera housing and its scanner glass image processor, it has the ability to take wild and distorted photos in ways that regular cameras can't because it captures the image from the homemade lens to the scanner. The camera mechanism can shoot non-moving objects like an ordinary camera, but it makes moving objects look like paper cut-outs with a more 2D perspective or skews the shapes of objects in motion according to the direction of the movements they make.
Instructions
1. Remove the cover of your flatbed scanner. Depending on the specific scanner you're using, you may manually remove the cover or use a fitting screwdriver to unlock the screws first. A black box made out of foam core (which will serve as the housing on top of the scanner) will replace your cover.
2. Measure the area size of the scanner glass for the base board. This base board will contain the housing for the camera lens, focal length controller and aperture cards.
3. Cut out three pieces of black foam core large enough to completely cover the scanner glass. Use an x-acto knife or cutter to cut the foam core into three identical pieces. Glue them on top of each other to get the right thickness. This will serve as the base board placed on top of the scanner glass.
4. Cut out a square hole with dimensions 7 inches wide by 7 inches in length at the middle of your foam core base board. Note that this will require more effort in terms of cutting since your thick base board is made out of three pieces of foam core glued on top of each other.
5. Create two boxes for the focusing function. The second box should be a bit bigger than the first. Make your first box/inner box by cutting four identical pieces of foam with dimensions 7 inches in length by 7 inches in height. They should be taped together using gaffer's tape to become the four sides of the box while the top and bottom are empty spaces. This box should have a snug fit to the 7 inch square hole of the base board. Attach the box onto the square hole. Cut out four more pieces of foam core with dimensions 7.25 inches in length by 7.25 inches in height, just slightly bigger than the first box's square hole. Tape the four sides together to make your second/outer box. You should be able to attach this second box to cover the first box, just as Russian nesting dolls of varying sizes tend to cover one doll over the next. Secure all the parts together. These two boxes, with one placed over the other, control the flatbed scanner camera's focal length.
6. Cut another piece of foam core with dimensions 7 inches in length by 7 inches in height to fit as the top cover for your two overlapping boxes. Cut a hole in the middle of it. Use a compass to draw a circle that is 3.5 inches in diameter then cut out the circle. Place this inside your second/outer box, which is on top of your first/inner box.
7. Cut another piece of foam core the size of the outside box cover. Make a 6 inch by 6 inch square lens board from it. Then cut a hole from the middle sized a little smaller than the outside box cover's hole. You will attach the magnifying glass, to serve as the camera lens, in it. The magnifying glass must have a diameter slightly smaller than the 3.5 diameter of the outside box cover's hole.
8. Remove the handle of the magnifying glass. Attach the magnifying lens to the lens board's hole using gaffer's tape.
9. Put the lens board over the outside box cover-as if it's a secondary cover to the outside box. Tape it in place using gaffer's tape.
10. Create aperture cards using black cardboard. Each one should have a circular hole in the middle, which will serve as the camera's iris. Each cut-out template will control this opening. Make varying aperture cards with varying hole sizes. Attach one of each, when you shoot a photo, to manually control the amount of light that passes through the lens board. The larger the aperture, the more light passes through to expose the image captured by the flatbed scanner camera. This is necessary when there is less light on the subject. Otherwise, use a smaller aperture card for a subject needing less light to expose the image.
11. Tape the entire housing on top of the scanner. The glass part should be completely covered in order to block any external light that can possibly get through the scanner glass. Remember, in order to capture the photo, the light should pass through the aperture card, the camera lens and the focal length controller before it touches the scanner glass for the image processing. Any light spilling from the outside of your housing will greatly affect the image produced. More often than not, you won't be able to see your photo subject at all.
12. Turn on the scanner connected to the computer. Adjust all of the settings and play around with the software that comes with the scanner to create different images.
Tags: foam core, scanner glass, base board, dimensions inches, inches length, lens board