Recently, one of my dad's friends gave me two cases filled with two Nikon SLR film cameras and a few lenses. To be honest, I was perplexed as to what to do with them. I had almost decided to put the whole lot on Ebay when I came across an interesting thread on a strobist group Flickr discussion. The thread detailed how to create your own cookie projector using an old lens, a drain pipe connector, a flash, and a cookie pattern. I was so intrigued that I set out to build my own--and that's just what I did.


Noelle and the Binary Code Setup by budrowilson, on Flickr
(click on the pic for notes regarding the setup)

And here was the result:

Noelle and the Binary Code [16x9] by budrowilson, on Flickr

So I already had the flash and lens, and the drain pipe connector was easily found after a brief search at Lowe's. I created some cookie patterns in Photoshop and had OfficeMax print them on a transparency. I knew this wouldn't give me exactly what I wanted for my final cookies, and here's why:

1) They use copiers to make their prints. The quality of the copy itself means that things like text project with artifacts (notice all the little bumps in the font in the example pic).
2) Also, the toner isn't completely black; that means there will be a good amount of light leakage through the "opaque" part of the cookie.

I do have access to an AGFA film machine that I intend on using for my final cookies. The film is much more durable than the transparency, and the black produced on the negative is completely opaque (no light shines through it). That said, the light leakage actually worked to my advantage in the sample pic because I didn't have to add any other light sources to maintain a certain amount of fill light on the subject. Also, the graininess of the black left an interesting pattern in the fill areas that I wasn't expecting, but I ended up liking.

All in all, I'm quite happy with my progress on this project over the weekend. I'll continue to refine the process and tools so that I can quickly set something up whilie on location if I think it'll add a fair amount of interest to the image.