Camera Obscura

A camera obscura is a box a room or another square container with a hole in one side. Light from outside passes through the hole and touches the surface inside the cube. As can be seen below, the original image is reproduced upside down while still maintaining accuracy in detail.

15th 16th and 17th century painters like Johannes Vermeer used camera obscuras to project images on to walls, sheets of paper or canvases. The artists then used the images like stencils which they traced around to refine their paintings. In the 17th century astronomist Johannes Kepler drew parallels between the human eye and the camera obscura. For a more detailed analysis of the camera obscura see the links below.

Interesting and useful Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura
http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/camera-obscura-2
http://astromedia.eu/COB_E.pdf