Photography

Photography is the science, practice, and art of making pictures out of light. This can be done chemically using a substance like photographic film or electronically with an image sensor. It is used in numerous industries, including manufacturing (such as photolithography) and business, in addition to its more obvious applications in the arts, film and video production, leisure activities, hobbies, and mass communication.

The light reflected or transmitted from objects is often focused using a lens to create a genuine image on the light-sensitive surface within a camera during a timed exposure. An electrical charge is generated at each pixel of an electronic image sensor, which is then processed electronically and saved in a digital image file for further display or processing. Photographic emulsion produces an invisible latent image that, depending on the use of the photographic material and the processing technique, is later chemically "developed" into a visible image, either negative or positive. By utilizing an enlarger or contact printing, a negative picture on film is traditionally utilized to make a positive image, or print, on a foundation of paper.

Etymology

The Greek roots (phtós), genitive of (phs), "light," and (graphé), "representation by means of lines" or "drawing," combined meaning "drawing with light," were used to produce the English term "photography."

The same new term may have been separately created by several people from these roots. French painter and inventor Hércules Florence, who resided in Campinas, Brazil, used the word photographie in private notes that a Brazilian historian believes were written in 1834. Although widely publicized, this claim is still not commonly accepted internationally. After Boris Kossoy's research in 1980, the word's original use by Florence was generally understood.

The German journal Vossische Zeitung published an article titled Photographie on February 25, 1839. It discussed a number of priority claims, including Henry Fox Talbot's, in relation to Daguerre's invention claim. The word first appears in print in the piece, according to records. It was inscribed "J.M." and was possibly the work of Berlin astronomer Johann von Maedler. Independent of Talbot, the term is also claimed to astronomer John Herschel as having been created in 1839.

History

The development of photography came about as a result of various technical advancements related to perceiving and capturing images. The camera obscura, or "dark chamber" in Latin, which produces an image of a scene, was first discovered in prehistoric China. In the fifth and fourth century BCE, the Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid both independently described a camera obscura. Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles utilized a particular kind of camera obscura in his research in the sixth century CE.

In addition to the first true pinhole camera, the Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1040) also created a camera obscura. Ibn al-Haytham's work is credited with the creation of the camera.[16] Ibn al-Haytham was the first to use a screen in a dark room to project an image from one side of a hole in the surface onto a screen on the other side. While the effects of a single light passing through a pinhole had been described earlier, Ibn al-Haytham provided the first correct analysis of the camera obscura, including the first geometrical and quantitative descriptions of the phenomenon.