What is Photography: Definition and 53 Discussions

Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many fields of science, manufacturing (e.g., photolithography), and business, as well as its more direct uses for art, film and video production, recreational purposes, hobby, and mass communication.Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. With an electronic image sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel, which is electronically processed and stored in a digital image file for subsequent display or processing. The result with photographic emulsion is an invisible latent image, which is later chemically "developed" into a visible image, either negative or positive depending on the purpose of the photographic material and the method of processing. A negative image on film is traditionally used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as a print, either by using an enlarger or by contact printing.

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  1. C

    Double Sunrise Phenomenon Explanation?

    How did you find PF?: Googling about a double sunrise phenomenon, since I have just photographed and videoed one. I just want to share some photos, and a video, I personally took sitting in the observation deck of a cruise ship between Cabo, San, Lucas, and Ensenada, Mexico, while out at sea...
  2. A

    Photographing Coloured Flame KCl

    Hello everyone, I’m not a chemist at all, I studied physics which entailed a fair amount of chemistry in the learning but that was five lives ago. Nowadays I m a photographer, mostly editorial portraits but also fine arts. For my latest project I take pictures of a wide range of phenomena on...
  3. DennisN

    History British Isles - a piece of visual history

    British Isles - a piece of visual history (1/2) TL;DR (too long; didn't read): Old photos of historical sites on the British Isles. Since there seems to be quite a few PF members interested in history, I thought I'd share a couple of old photos of mine of historical sites in the United Kingdom...
  4. BadgerBadger92

    Art Do You Think Photography is an Art?

    I am an artistic photographer and am wondering if others think it is an art or not and why
  5. yucheng

    Astronomy Technical, physical text on (astro)photography & telescopes?

    It appears that many texts on astrophotography and telescopes for amateurs tend to avoid mathematical formulas, as such, they are of little use to do some practical calculations. What I am interested in is: Magnification Image scale Focal length Focal plane and sensor plane! (CCDs!) Focal-ratio...
  6. J

    Optical Converting non-visible light to visible spectrum for photography

    I am trying to capture corona discharge on metal conductors. I am using a Canon DSLR and it works pretty good. I think there may be light from outside of the visible spectrum being emitted during these discharge events so I would like to see if it's possible to capture this light and actually...
  7. T

    B Star Photography: Can We See Stars as Disks?

    Has the telescopes gotten good enough to photograph an actual disk of any star? Or are they all just points of light? tex
  8. fluidistic

    Macro/close up photography equipment

    Hello, I would like to jump into close up/macro photography, primarily for insects and arachnids (more precisely I would love to take picture of Trombidiidae and other monsters barely visible to the naked eyes.) I have a point and shoot camera (some panasonic with a huge optical zoom, 16x if I...
  9. BillTre

    Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition

    Entries can be viewed here. Here is the winner, some bouncing drops with quantum properties:
  10. S

    Radiation interference with camera at Chernobyl?

    Hi all, My first post on this forum. I couldn’t think of anywhere better to come than to here with a question I’ve had since a recent trip to Chernobyl! Whilst visiting Pripyat I took several videos. Great care was taken to stay away from any contamination hot spots and we had an experienced...
  11. A

    I Schlieren or BOS photography?

    hi I have two sets of images, one schlieren and the other BOS. I need some ideas to explain the flow and see which one gives better flow properties. The flow is just a jet out of a heat gun. Any help is much appreciated
  12. Graeme M

    How does ultraviolet photography (fluorescence) work?

    I was reading my latest Reader's Digest in which appears an article about ultraviolet photography. The article explains that this kind of photography utilises a technique known as ultraviolet induced visible fluorescence. The article says that the technique allows flowers to reveal spectacular...
  13. sophiecentaur

    Stargazing Focussing a Pentax K S2 with Live View for Moon Photography

    I have been struggling with focussing my Pentax K S2 using Live view. The image of the Moon (or the Sun, with filter) is too burned out to focus. The photos are OK so the camera takes care of that. Anyway, I have a tedious workaround which involves focussing on a bright star (with bhatinov...
  14. P

    I How many ticks would an instantaneous clock have in a minute?

    just wondering why no one has made a camera that can truly capture an instant of time. I'm talking about an instant which is defined as an instantaneous moment that has 0 duration. Why do all cameras have shutters that open for a specified amount of time instead of just capturing a true...
  15. Andy Resnick

    Insights Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: DSLR - Comments

    Andy Resnick submitted a new PF Insights post Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: DSLR Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.
  16. Andy Resnick

    Insights Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: Real Cameras - Comments

    Andy Resnick submitted a new PF Insights post Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: Real Cameras Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.
  17. Andy Resnick

    Insights Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: Compact Point and Shoot - Comments

    Andy Resnick submitted a new PF Insights post Digital Camera Buyer's Guide: Compact Point and Shoot Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.
  18. C

    B Are colors in astro photos 'real'?

    There are lots of amazing photographs of nebula around. The colors contribute greatly to their grandeur. But if we were able to get near enough to a nebula to see it with the naked eye would it possesses the colors we see in published photographs taken by telescopes? Or are the colors in astro...
  19. J

    Femto Photography: Capturing the Unseen World

    Posting here, I think someone here would be interested in this:
  20. A

    Photographing the Unusual: Exploring Special Effects with Plasma Balls

    Hi Found this by googling Plasma Ball, as I am a keen photographer looking to photograph the unusual , to get special effects, Hope you don't mind me being here as not a scientist or student, Anyone interested can take a look at my work on Flickr...
  21. excelsior

    Favorite Prominent / Professional Astrophotographers

    This is actually a question for a project I'm working on for work and thought this would be a great outlet to ask. What are some of your favorite "pro" photographers that specialize in astrophotography or at least have a lot in their portfolio? They don't have to necessarily even deep dive...
  22. WhatmoughG

    Designing a Kite for a Truck Adventure

    Hey, I am embarking on a drive to the arctic circle. I have spent a bit of time googling looking for a kite to pull behind my truck to film the adventure and can't find much useful information. Is there anyone that could design or point me in the direction of a place to design a decent kite to...
  23. B0b-A

    Have you seen the meteoric smoke-ring?

    4 seconds from start ... vimeo.com/110535098 [ it's time-lapse : "...120 consecutive 30 second exposures ..." , so about 360x normal speed ]
  24. E

    Is it possible to take a picture of the radio-waves on earth?

    I was wondering If anyone knows if this is possible, or why it might be a silly idea.
  25. G

    How does exposure time affect motion blur in photography?

    Suppose we want to take a picture of a highway at night, see attachments. As far as i understood, whether image is freezed or with this blured moving effect determines by the shutter speed. Short exposure time corresponds to freezed picture, long expisure time to motion effect. I don't...
  26. Astronuc

    Hidden Miracles of the Natural World & Time Lapse Photography

    Louie Schwarzberg has used time lapse and high speed photography and microscopy to look at various aspects of Nature, Life on Earth and Natural Phenomena. http://www.youtube.com/embed/FiZqn6fV-4Y Enjoy!
  27. J

    Light Plane Photography - Is my explanation correct?

    Dear Forum I'm an experimental photographer. During the last two years I've been developing a technique which I call light plane photography (LPP). LPP is a photographic technique that uses a plane of light and a camera to record photographs with unique optical effects. Here's three...
  28. D

    Building an efficient coil gun for photography.

    I have been doing various experiments with my photography and recently built a coil gun. I simply pulled apart a starter-motor solenoid and wrapped the windings around an 8mm tube and fire a short piece of a bolt out of it using a charged 3300uf capacitor and an SCR. None of this is calculated...
  29. D

    Photographing Atoms: Closest and Best Photos of Molecules

    What is the most accurate,closest and best photo that exists of an individual atom or molecule? There is the scanning tunneling microscope which is way better than the electron microscope,yet it doesn't photographs them by reflecting light off them,it uses quantum tunneling of electrons.I would...
  30. Dembadon

    1,000,000,000,000 Frames/Second Photography

    I found this demonstration fascinating! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoHeWgLvlXI
  31. P

    Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and Photography

    Hi firstly I am a photographer not a physicist, When taking photos there is always 'noise' in the image, especially at higher ISO. I presumed this is the same noise that we would hear on a radio, or see on a tv? Would it be possible to create a room that blocked out the background radiation...
  32. A

    X-Ray Photography Safety: Risks, Precautions, and Resources

    Hi, (I'm not native in English, sorry for if bad English) Some background: As a programmer I got more and more distance with physics. I bought a US x-ray tube off ebay to step to a hobby project that naturally keeps me on with refreshing physics knowledge. After the tube came, I jumped...
  33. T

    Can Scientists Capture Images of Distant Stars Like Betelgeuse?

    Have scientists ever been able to resolve the disk of a distant star in a photograph besides our own sun?
  34. Andre

    Photography, the flight of the dragon fly

    The other day I posted this in the France thread: I sent the pic to an entomology institute, asking about this behavior and got a quick reply. It is asserted that dragon flies avoid desorientation with keeping the head horizontal during steep manoeuvres. Actually this tilt is from an...
  35. M

    Radar Camera for Large Format Photography

    Large Format Photograph Machines usually uses 8x10 inches size negative. Can I make a radar large format camera with using similar or bigger size plate as antenna and when transmitter was a cw radio transmitter ? I know only need of mixing transmitted to received. If this does not work , can...
  36. Andre

    HDR Photography: Remembering Larkspur's World

    Remembering this post: Larkspurs pictures are always so rich on color, almost too saturated but especially the dynamic range from light to dark are so well balanced. Too bad she doesn't drop by anymore. So I want to live in that world too and I was going over all my summer pics, like this...
  37. Redbelly98

    The optics of circular polarizers in photography

    For some years I've had a nagging question about the details of how a circular polarizer, as used by photographers, actually works. After a google search, I see lots of sites saying that the filter consists of a linear polarizer and a quarter wave plate. The wave plate is supposed to...
  38. K

    Geometric optics and photography

    Hi there, I have a question about photography. We know that in geometric optics, a bunch of parallel rays which going into the len will focus on the focus (a point). But as we see, the image is a set of points on a 2 dimensional plane. It is quite confusing that a focus is only a point...
  39. T

    Have you explored the world of photography at DeviantART?

    Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know about a wonderful site for posting your photography, and I've been using it for a few months now. The feedback I'm receiving from my new hobby is wonderful and constructive, I implore everyone who shares a passion for photography to check it out...
  40. Andy Resnick

    Macro/Micro Photography: Exploring the Butterflies Thread

    The "butterflies" thread has inspired me to get my act together and take some proper images. I spent a couple hours (!) last night trying to take a picture of a flower, but at the magnifications I am working at, I need the optomechanical equipment in my lab to keep everything stable. To see...
  41. Andre

    Photography drizzle, roses and noise

    This is what happens to roses after a night in the drizzle. I'm sure, Drizzle, that you'll think of a witty reaxion. :biggrin: Unfortunately, the day was still dull, so I had to tweak contrast to get some dynamics back in the exposure. and sure enough, -you know me- getting in...
  42. matthyaouw

    VOTE PF PHOTO CONTEST - Wet foot photography

    I'm glad I'm not the only one to risk a good soaking, risk my camera and in some cases my personal safety to get a good shot! Vote for your faves 1.Matthyaouw 2.ZapperZ 3.Hypatia 4.Borek 5.Andre Contest Thread
  43. matthyaouw

    PF PHOTO CONTEST - Wet foot photography (may 9th-16th)

    Wet foot photography Wet foot photography is as follows. There's something you want to photograph. The best positon to photograph it from presents a significant risk of ending up in a body of water. You decide to go for it anyway. You can see where this is going... This week's theme is for...
  44. N

    High Speed Photography Circuit

    I want to take high speed shots. My problem is I don't want to buy an expensive flash, so I thought let me make a sound activated shutter. In other words the moment their is a sound my camera takes a picture. After spending hours on the internet I was only able to find circuits that give me and...
  45. N

    Required Unveiling the Mysteries of Kirlian Photography

    Hello, I am a new user here, and I am not too much into physics myself, so I don't know if this is the right section for this particular topic. I am looking for a particular book, which I can't find. I want to buy it, but its out of print, even old copies are not available. Book details...
  46. E

    What type of camera is needed for solar corona photography?

    I want to photograph the solar corona and I don't know what type of ccd camera I need to purchase. Can anyone please help me?
  47. ~christina~

    ClearWater Photography | Guess the Front Page Song

    I made a photography website!. It's called ClearWater Photography It's so cool :biggrin: I made a layout, put up pics and even picked a song for the front page. I want to see if anyone can guess the front page song. :wink: hint: it's an oldie. link...
  48. M

    PF Photography: Tips, Tricks, & Photo Sharing

    This thread is for anything related to Photography. I am quite new to photography and I do not know a lot about it, so any pointers would be great. I've seen some really great shots in the competition threads, so let's see what PF has to offer :cool: Hosting your Photos I use...
  49. Evo

    Unravelling the Mystery of Orb Photography

    I found this to be an interesting article by Benjamin Radford on orb photography. Anyone have any photos with really unexplained effects? I tend to think that most "orb" photographs I've seen are so obviously dust or small insects. Who was the first to claim dust was actually "ghosts" Does...
  50. G

    Waiting for a photography contest

    i finally had a moment so i thought i'd stop in and say how's it goin. i haven't been around much, i know, but i lurk when i have a little spare time. I'm waiting for a photography contest that showcases my camp photos. how's everyone and all that? i have an hour or so tonight to try and catch...
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