If you have access to a small box and a needle, you can make a small camera of your own as a science fair project. To make a pinhole camera, all you need to do is pierce a box with a black interior using a needle, then hang a flap of black paper or cardboard over the pinhole. This simple design is enough to create an upside-down image, the necessary prerequisite to creating a photo.
One of the most common problems affecting amateur and professional photographers alike is red eye. Red eye is caused by light being reflected from the pupil to the camera lens. Modern digital imaging software can be used to eliminate red eye from pictures; however, it is still interesting as an experiment to practice different positioning methods for removing red eye. In this project, you try different strategies for preventing red eye. Strategies include shooting at lower and higher angles, and shooting under different lighting.
Many modern digital cameras have settings that can modify the way a picture turns out. On traditional cameras, you need to change lenses to change any effects you want to apply to a picture. One science fair project you can do with lenses involves testing which types of lenses produce the most flaws (such as glares, red eye blurs) in pictures. In this project, you need to take pictures in the same location with the same camera, using different lenses. The trick is to make the shot angle as similar as possible in every photo, so the photos can be compared with each other.
There are many different file formats in which you can save photos. These formats include JPEG, BMP, and PNG. One idea for a science project involving these different graphics formats is to copy one photograph into each of the three formats, and test which format maintains the integrity of the photo best. Once you have the photos saved in the different formats, you then import the photos into an image editing program and stretch the photos both horizontally and vertically. The photos that look the most like the original photo after being stretched back to the original dimensions are the ones that maintained their integrity the best.