We found that the pinhole viewer works well outside on a sunny day. Look into the opening in the top of the box, squeeze the box so it fits tightly around your face, and use your hands to block light leaking in from around your face. You'll see an upside-down and backward image of the scene in front of you on the waxed paper screen inside the box. If you make the hole bigger, the image will get brighter, but also more blurry. If you make more than one hole in the bottom of the box you'll get more than one image.
Sunlight bounces off the leaves, the trunk, the ground beneath the tree.
A pinhole lets through only a portion of these reflected light rays. Most of the light that reflects from the tree is blocked bv the cardboard surrounding the pinhole. Only a few of the rays of light that bounce off a particular leaf are heading in just the right direction to shine through the pinhole of your viewer. Light rays from leaves at the top of the tree must slope down at a steeper angle to pass through the pinhole. These rays hit the bottom of the screen.