Foundations of Photography: A Treatise on the Technical Aspects of Digital Photography PDF
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George Pavlidis Foundations of Photography A Treatise on the Technical Aspects of Digital Photography Foundations of Photography George Pavlidis Foundations of Photography A Treatise on the Technical Aspects of Digital Photography GeorgePavlidis AthenaResearchCentre UniversityCampusatKimmeria Xanthi,Greece ISBN 978-3-031-06251-3 ISBN 978-3-031-06252-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06252-0 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNature SwitzerlandAG2022 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuse ofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,and transmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilar ordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Preface Any study of photography naturally relates to the study of how one may use light (Greek ‚ originally pronounced , now simplified to ‘fos’) to write, inscribe,orcreateimages(Greek pronounced ).fos+ gives ,theGreekwordfortophotograph.Lighthashadandcontinuestohave aspecialimpactonhumans,infactineverythingthatrelatestowhatweperceiveas life. It is what wakes us up in the morning, what warms us, and what gives us the imagesoftheworldaroundus.Ithasthepowertoturnasimpleviewattheseainto serenityandanticipation,thegazeattheforestintocalmness,theglanceatthesky andstarsintocosmologicalandexistentialsearch,orthelookatalovedoneintojoy. Recognising the value of light in life, humans throughout history devised ways of capturing the images created by light, while, at the same time, wondering and exploringtheverynatureofthismagicalelement,sometimesusingscience,some- timesusinglogicandphilosophy,andsometimesrelyingonfeelingandsuperstition. Whatiscertainisthatlightisakeyelementoftheuniversethatisourhome,exists regardless of our perception of it, and even plays a defining role in relationships withintheuniverse. Inscience,manyattemptshavebeenmadetoexplainthenatureoflight,which sometimes led to theories about the particle nature, the wave nature, or the elec- tromagnetic nature of light. The first to support a particle theory of light was a brilliant person called Newton, when in 1675 he (but also other scientists of that era) argued that light was a continuous stream of particles travelling in a straight linefromasource,thus,givingapureparticlecharactertolight.Eveninthesame periodbutalsolater,severalgreatscientificmindssupportedawavetheoryoflight, attributingtoitexclusivelyawavenature,likethewavesonthewatersurface.Among themwereRobertHooke(1660),ChristiaanHuygens(1678),LeonhardEuler(1746), TomasYoung(early1800),Augustin-JeanFresnel(1817),andSimeonDenisPoisson (1820s).Withthedevelopmentofelectromagnetictheory,scientistssuchasMichael Faraday(1845),JamesClerkMaxwell(1862,1873),andHeinrichHertzpavedthe waytowardsanelectromagnetictheoryoflight.WiththeadventofEinstein’stheory ofspecialrelativityin1905,theideaofadualnatureoflight wasfirstintroduced, which solved the paradox of the constant speed of light, creating, in this process, vii viii Preface another‘paradox’thatspaceandtimearesomewhatmore‘exotic’parametersofthe universe.Atthesametime,thelightappearedtoplayanevenmoreimportantrole, since first appeared as the connecting element between energy and mass, through thefamousEinsteinsimplifiedequationE =mc2.Inaddition,theacceptanceofthe dualnatureoflightprovidedan‘elegant’interpretationoftheparadoxofthephoto- electriceffect,thereleaseofelectronsfromasurfacewhenlightfallsuponit.Infact, itwasthisinterpretationforwhichEinsteinwasawardedtheNobelPrize.Thisview was supported by scientists such as Max Planck (in 1900) with the interpretation ofblackbodyradiation,whichreinforcedaquantumtheoryoflight (photons)that backedthedualnaturewhilepavingthewayfortheadventofquantummechanics and quantum electrodynamics. Even tothose notparticularlyfond ofmathematics andscience,thenamesoftheaforementionedscientistssoundparticularlyfamiliar andshowtheimportancegivenbyhumansintheunderstandingoflight,highlighting itsuniquenessintheuniverse. One might say that the study of light within subjects like photography is more relatedtoitswavenature.Asawave,lightcorresponds totheknown andmapped spectrumofelectromagneticradiation,sinceitisa‘carrier’ofenergyintheuniverse. Apparently,thepartofthisspectrumthatrelatestophotographyisonlyasmallone, the one called the ‘visible spectrum’, that is, those frequencies (or wavelengths) thataredetectedbythehumaneye.Thesefrequenciesarehigherthanmicrowaves, which are used in communication and some other technologies useful for heating, and are located between the areas defined by infrared and ultraviolet radiation. In addition, one of the characteristic properties of light that plays an important role inthestudyofissuesrelatedtophotographyisthatofrefraction.Refractionisthe phenomenon,inwhich,whenlightpassesthroughdifferentmedia(e.g.fromairto water, or through a lens), a change in its velocity occurs, which is expressed by a change of direction of propagation. In addition, there is also the phenomenon of chromaticdispersion,inwhichshortwavelengths(violetlight)arerefracted(bent) morethanlongwavelengths(red)andthisiswhythewell-known‘lightspectrum’ appearswhenwhitelightpassesthroughaprism,orrainbowsappearinthesky. Inspiredbyhowbiologicalsystems,likethehumanvisualsystem,detectlightand formimages,humanshavealonghistoryoftryingtocapturelightandpermanently imprintimagesusingspecialtechniques,devices,andequipment.Thishistoryhasits rootsinancienttimeswhenearlythinkersgotanideaofwhatadarkroom(camera obscura)mightbe,evenduringtimeswhenitwasimpossibletocreateone.During the later scientific revolution, chemistry has been put to the task, with many great contributions that ultimately made it possible to permanently imprint full-colour images on various media and surfaces. In the following years, the technology to createphotographsswitchedfromachemistrytoanelectro-mechanicalapplication, which,eventually,enabledsmallerdeviceswithbetterresultsandwiderapplicability. Asignificantstepwasmadeduringthetwentieth-centurydigitalrevolution,carrying alongtheimagingtechnology.Significantadvancementsindigitalsystemsmadeit possibleforhigh-qualityimagingwithsmallerandsmallerdevices,atmassivescales withenhancedsharingcapabilities. Preface ix Itseemsthattheartandscienceofphotographyhasbeenthesubjectofnumerous studiesandthereisavastrelevantliterature.Worldwide,photographymaturedtoa state-of-the-arttechnical and artisticlevel around the twentieth century, and in the twenty-first century, it walked boldly into the digital realm. One could easily find severalcurriculathatsupportthestudyofphotographyandthereisavastamountof onlinecoursesonphotography,primarilyfocusingonitsartisticform.Thistreatise departsfromthattreatmentandstudiesphotographyasahighlyscientificandtech- nical subject so that it may be of actual utility to those interested in the principles andtheinnerworkingsoftheapparatuses,providing,thus,anunderstandingofwhy imagesandphotographsarecreatedthewaytheyare,whatthelimitationsmaybe, andwhichconfigurationsmayresultintowhichoutcomesandwhy. Xanthi,Greece GeorgePavlidis December2021 Contents 1 FromVisiontoPhotography .................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................... 2 1.2 TheNatureofLight ......................................... 9 1.3 ColourVision .............................................. 28 1.4 MeasuringLightandColour ................................. 60 1.5 TheScientificPhotograph ................................... 78 2 ABriefHistoryofPhotography .................................. 81 2.1 Introduction ............................................... 81 2.2 MilestonesinPhotography ................................... 83 2.3 Closure? .................................................. 162 3 APhotographyPrimer .......................................... 163 3.1 Introduction ............................................... 163 3.2 AnatomyoftheDigitalCamera ............................... 166 3.2.1 TheLens ........................................... 167 3.2.2 TheShutter ......................................... 177 3.2.3 TheSensor .......................................... 178 3.2.4 ExposureControl .................................... 181 3.2.5 PhotographyCheatSheets ............................. 182 3.3 ACameraModelasaBasisforThisTreatise ................... 183 4 TechnicalAspectsofPhotography ............................... 185 4.1 Optics,LensesandtheAperture .............................. 185 4.1.1 LensTypes .......................................... 192 4.1.2 TheDiaphragmandtheAperture ....................... 194 4.1.3 DepthofField ....................................... 198 4.1.4 FocalLengthMultiplier ............................... 203 4.1.5 LensAberrations ..................................... 206 4.1.6 ACuriosityofConvexLenses ......................... 216 4.2 TheShutter ................................................ 217 4.3 TheImagingSensor ........................................ 219 xi xii Contents 4.3.1 TheImagingSensorinDigitalCameras ................. 219 4.3.2 TheSensorImageArray .............................. 222 4.3.3 TheCropFactorandOtherConsiderations ............... 224 4.3.4 SensorNoise ........................................ 227 4.3.5 Amplification,ConversionandPost-processing ........... 228 4.3.6 Exposure ........................................... 233 4.4 DigitalPost-processing ...................................... 235 4.4.1 Demosaicing ........................................ 235 4.4.2 ColourBalance ...................................... 237 4.4.3 Bit-MappingandGammaCorrection ................... 238 4.4.4 Compression ........................................ 239 Glossary .......................................................... 241 References ........................................................ 245 Index ............................................................. 259
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