Essentials of Photography

In todays world as we witness everyday around us that-a visual impression has the most vital importance over a verbal medium. A picture, an image, a drawing or a visionary appears more convincing than the words that express. In the true sense A picture speaks thousand words. The easiest way to make a picture is to capture the moment with a camera. In simple terms the act of capturing the image is called Photography. If we are asked to name the machine that is most popular among the people of all ages then the obvious answer is Camera. Modern technology has made camera operations surprisingly simple & reliable & Photography, the most enjoyable Fun & Pastime. What is photography? Photography is a perfect blend of Art & Technique that freezes time or moment which otherwise is ever moving. This property helps us permanently record a precious moment in form of a picture that would otherwise be just a part of our memory & difficult to share with others. We will neither go deeper into the history of photography; such as, who discovered it & who invented the tool called Camera nor will see how was the journey of camera from its very crude form to the todays most precise professional tool as well. But to understand this magic tool called Camera we have to go to the basics i.e. the principles on which this most popular machine is based. Obviously we need to know the elements that play a vital role in taking pictures. This may sound little technical but it shouldnt be difficult to digest the technicalities for all of us living in High Tech world. The word photography has derived out of 2 words1. Photus (photo) means Light i.e. Drawing or painting with light. This means, a Camera should be capable of producing the image with the help of light & obviously light sensitive material on which the image will be recorded. Elements of Camera: 1. A Lens to mould the light into an image (Image formation) 2. A screen to view the formed image (Projected image) 3. A light sensitive material to register the image (Picture taking) The above three are the very basic in nature & other parameters are added to improve the outcome. 2. Graph (graphy) means Drawing

The Eye & the Camera: A Camera functions almost similarly as the eye. If we compare Eye with the camera we could see that the above basic things are common to both though the actual processing of image differs. Other additions are: 1. Diaphragm- to control the light entering the lens. 2. A shutter to allow the light inside the lens (only) when required. 3. A mechanism to replace the sensitive material (Film) with a fresh after recording the image. 4. A light measuring device to decide the diameter of the diaphragm. To understand these parameters we need to understand the function of the Eye.

Human Eye:
Here we see that the construction of the camera & that of human eye is almost similar. Human eye is a muscular ball filled with liquid with a lens at one end & a light sensitive screen called Retina at the other end. A tail like structure called optic nerves at the back of this ball carries the signals from the eye to the brain & the brain reads these signals & perceives as Image. The intensity of the light coming in is controlled by again a muscular diaphragm called Iris which surrounds the Lens & according to the feedback from the brain adjusts its diameter to allow appropriate amount of light through the lens. These rays converge behind the lens & project an image on the retina. The sensitive material on the retina (in form of rods & cones) undergoes some kind of chemistry & generates electrochemical signals which are carried to the brain via optic nerve & brain senses the image. This process is continuous & the retina continuously gets refreshed for the next image. The rate at which retina gets refreshed is 25 frames /sec.

Camera:
Camera functions in the similar manner except that the retina is replaced by Film (now image sensor in modern digital camera) & the exposed film is replaced by another film (next frame). The chemical process carried out outside the camera; i.e. in the Dark room. The intensity is controlled by a diaphragm like structure called Aperture & an addition to this construction is a movable blind called shutter in front of the screen called film plane or focal plane. The open/close mechanism of this blind keeps the film in dark till the desired time of picture taking. Lets see each element one by one & then we will move to other essentials. Before we move further we have to take a brief review of the most vital essential raw material i.e. Light. Light is the prime energy which is going to leave its mark on the film the moment the shutter is tripped. Therefore we will have to take this energy very seriously.

Light & its Properties

Can we see light? Is the light visible? The spontaneous answer from many will be Yes. Very few will think twice before answering & hardly anybody will rightly say that light by itself is not visible, else light makes things visible. What we see as light is either the light source itself or the object on which light falls & reflects from it. The path between the source & the object that it strikes upon is not visible. Wavelength 7600x10-10m 3800x10-10m Frequency 4.50x1014Hz 6.75x1014Hz

In scientific terms, Light is an energy emerging from a light source that propagates in the form of electromagnetic waves & travels in a straight line unless & until interrupted, absorbed, reflected or refracted by an opaque, translucent, transparent or reflective surface or an object. Properties of light: Reflection Refraction Dispersion Diffraction Transmission Polarization

These electromagnetic waves are of very high frequency & its velocity is 3x108 m/s in the air or in vacuum. The velocity of the light varies according to the density of the medium through which it travels. The velocity of light in glass is 2x108 m/s where as that in water is 2.25x108 m/s. 1. Reflection: Velocity of light in: Air: 3x108m/s Water: 2.25x108m/s Glass: 2x108m/s

When light falls on an opaque object some of the light is absorbed by the object & rest of the light is bounced back into the medium (air). This property is called reflection. This reflected light is sensed by the eye to register the presence of that object. The above phenomenon works equally with all kind of surfaces. What differs is the amount of light reflected in the air depending on the quality of the surface. If the surface is matt the light reflected back is diverted in all possible directions. If the surface is high gloss the most of the light is reflected in one direction & we see a glitter at the reflecting spot. 2. Refraction:

Light always travels in a straight path. This is true only as long as the light rays are travelling in the same medium having the uniform density throughout. However, when the rays of light travelling in one medium are incident obliquely on the surface of another transparent medium, then a small part of the light is reflected back into the initial medium & the remaining part of the light is transmitted into the other medium. Definition: When a ray of light travels from one medium to another, the ray bends. This bending of light or the change in direction of light when it passes from one medium to another medium is called Refraction of light. This property of light contributes the most in photography.

Visible Spectrum: Out of a vast range in wavelength of electromagnetic rays a human eye is capable of sensing a very narrow band ranging between 3800x10-10m to 7600x10-10m in wavelength. This band which is visible or makes things visible is called visible spectrum. The longest wavelength i.e. 7600x10-10m represents Red colour & the shortest wavelength i.e. 3800x10-10m represent Violet colour. This we will elaborate more while discussing another property-Dispersion. The frequencies beyond this range are not visible to naked eye but optical instruments are capable of sensing & measuring it. Infra-red & ultra-violet fall in this range just outside of our visible spectrum. 3. Dispersion: The refractive index of the glass varies for different colors. According to the equation : Refractive index =Speed of light in air / speed of light in the new medium When the light passes through one medium to another medium of different density it refracts depending on the refractive index of the new medium. But the light consists of a range of wavelengths or we can say a range of frequencies ranging from 4.5x1014 Hz to 6.75x1014Hz. Each represent a colour. Different frequencies react differently to the same medium & refract at different angles producing a diverging band of different colours. This diverging band is called colour spectrum. This spectrum can be distinctly seen when a white light (sunlight) is passed through a triangular prism. The property of splitting white light into different colours is called Dispersion. This behavior of light creates some aberrations in the image & are called chromatic aberrations. A specially developed glass to reduce these aberrations is used in photographic lenses. This glass is called Low dispersion or simply LD glass. Some companies have named their glass as ED suggesting extra low dispersion. 4. Diffraction: When the light passes through a very narrow opening the rays brushing the edges of the opening tend to bend towards the edge resulting into a halo around the opening/hole. This phenomenon is called diffraction. In practice this diffraction takes place at every edge of the opening of any size; but in case of larger openings the incoming light being enough bright this diffracted halo goes un-noticed. But in photography the aperture in the lens being a smaller opening has a considerable effect on picture quality. Hence very small openings i.e. apertures of the range of f=22 or f=32 are rarely used. These do enhance depth of field but take away quality. 5. Polarization: Light travels in straight line in the form of waves, which vibrate in all directions about the axis of the beam. When the light is at an angle to a surface the reflected light bouncing off the surface may come out in realigned form, i.e. instead of vibrating in all directions it will now vibrate only in one plane. This realignment is called polarization of light & the emerging light is called polarized light. This polarized light produces the glare upon the surface & the subject colour is subdued resulting in low contrast. The degree of polarization depends upon the angle of the light &the texture of the surface. Special polarizing filter is used on the camera lens to reduce such reflections. The reflections on the paint polished wood, floor etc can be reduced but reflections from the metal or chrome plating, mirror etc. cant be removed.

6. Transmission: The tendency or the ability of the light to pass through certain material is called transmission. The transmission can be direct or indirect. If the rays passes through the material on one to one basis without loss & their direction remains unchanged then the transmission is called direct. If the rays pass through the material & are equally scattered then the transmission is indirect or diffused- similar to the reflection on matt surface. Direct transmission can occur through air, clear glass & water. Diffuse transmission can occur through translucent materials such as plastic, PVC, ground glass & frost. Colour filters can be treated as special case as they transmit only selective wavelength & rest are absorbed. 7. Absorption: Some light rays are never transmitted, nor passed on to be seen. They are absorbed by opaque materials such as matt, black plaster or black paper 7 light rays are converted into heat. (Energy in the universe is constant & neither be created nor destroyed; it can be converted from one form to another.) 8. Inverse square law: Mostly we witness the natural light as the light coming from the Sun. The Sun being a infinitely distant object & the distances across the globe are negligible we see the sunlight as evenly distributed. But this is nit the case with man made light sources. As the light emerging from the source travels further it propagates in form of diverging waves. Due to this its intensity drops. The rate of drop in intensity is the square of the distance it traveled. i.e. intensity

distance2

e.g. if the light travels 2m the intensity is dropped to 1/4th This phenomenon is called inverse square law. While using artificial lights it is necessary to read the intensity of the light according to the subject distance or directly read off the subject with the help of a suitable light meter. At the same time this property proves to be very useful for creative lighting. While placing lights for shade & light picture, by just moving the second light also called fill light- farther gives the required drop in intensity to create the shadow of appropriate density or to fill the shadowed area by appropriate illumination. In absince of this phenomenon everything would have been full bright & the play of light & shadow would have never existed. It is said that the photographic lighting is all about placing shadows at appropriate places than placing lights.