The Science behind Photography

Dear Viewers and Fellow Photographers,

To be able to use your camera well, you need to understand how it works. There is a lot more than just picking any camera up and clicking a photo, as you need to understand the typical scientific bits to actually be able to successfully take brilliant photos. Photographers who don't know what their camera is all about don't do very well in taking photos.

Let's start with the lens. (To see details on how the camera zooms, check out the last post Digital Zooming vs. Optical Zooming)

A lens in a camera is a curved clear glass. This glass is called convex because it is wider in the middle:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/convex+lens

A simple science phenomenon takes place in a curved glass, refraction. Light rays change direction when they are hitting a more dense or less dense material (in this case more dense - glass). The glass above is biconvex, meaning the ray are converging, so therefore there is a point when the rays of light meet. This point varies from how strong the lens is, but gives you an idea for how the camera 'autofocus' or why if you move the focus ring you only get a sharp image on one single setting:

                                                         

http://photographyguide99.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/how-lens-works.html

So that's how a Camera focuses. The next thing to find out about how digital cameras make a photo from just light rays. The Camera has a magnetic film called a sensor fitted onto it. Every area of this sensor picks up a block of colour which it translates into a single pixel. This involves precision, so that too much light does not leak in or too little, so the shutter 'blinks', letting in a required amount. This can be altered for different things you are taking a photo of, such as a picture outside of a mountain or a picture inside a low-light party, and is called the shutter speed. Also, you can control the amount of light coming through; this is called Aperture. Both these options are very useful for photographers working outside the 'Auto' mode:                       

http://photographycourse.net/exposure-control

The image above is a literal drawing of what happens to the light rays. The upside down picture is flipped automatically by cameras. This explains how the camera can get receive a photo, and how the photographer has total control over it.

You must now have a little clue for how your camera works. Any other burning questions you want to ask, please feel free to comment, and I will reply promptly.

Yours Truly,

Snapography.