Some UT students in Rob Heller's photojournalism class found out what it was like to be inside of a camera Wednesday afternoon.

It was the first time Heller has conducted the experiment in class, but its origins could date back to the ancient Egyptians. He explained how ancient Egyptians would sometimes crawl through tunnels carved into the giant pyramids, which were used to house various mummies.

As they continued to trek down the ever-narrowing tunnels into a complete dark room, light from the entrance would shine through and create an upside-down picture on the pyramid wall.

Following this premise of a simple pinhole camera, Heller and the class worked to eliminate all outside sources of light in the room so that the light would be cast from only one point, a small penny-sized hole, or the "lens" of the camera.

The three windows, all about 12 feet tall, were covered with thick black plastic and secured with metallic duct tape so that no light could enter the room.

Then Heller cut a hole, about 3-by-5 inches, in the middle plastic. This hole was covered up by a cardboard cutout with a penny-sized hole cored from the middle. This would act as a perfectly circular lens for the light to pass through.

All that was left was to turn off the lights and sit in awe as the picture appeared on the wall.

Heller's Photo Journalism Camera Obscura from Rob Baldus on Vimeo.