I-Essay

 How Do Cameras Work?

By TannerB.

“Cheese!” Snap!

These are common sounds right before a picture is taken; However, when someone is smiling for the photo, do they even know how the camera works? Cameras are used every day, yet almost no one knows how the camera works or the history of it. How do cameras capture images? The shutter blocks out light before finally letting it in, a digital sensor detects the light, and a digital array makes the correct colors and sorts those colors into place.

Moments before the image is captured, the shutter of the camera flies open. The shutter's function is only to block all light from entering the camera before the picture is captured. Otherwise, light would come through the lens, hitting the digital sensor, therefore creating an infinite amount of pictures. Light reflects off all objects, and with different amounts of original light, the reflected light is all. When the shutter opens, the light streams through the lens. This is why when it is too dark, or even too bright, the picture won't turn out well. It is impossible to reflect light when there is no light to reflect, and with too much light, the reflected light is too bright for the camera.


 * The inventor of the camera, Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre could have created the camera a different way that doesn't have anything to do with light, but here we are, with light involved. There is a digital sensor behind the lense, which takes in the light of the objects in front of it. Someone could say that this is really "the camera," though it would be absolutely incorrect. It is one of the most important parts. Without this, the camera would be nothing. While some sensors can see only small images, some can see large things clearly. This is also how you can zoom on cameras nowadays. The sensor shuts off and turns on parts of it, making the picture move in and out, creating the zoom effect. The sensor is made up of a pixel array that catches the light. There are filters that are made of the primary colors, blue, green, and red. Certain parts of light are rejected by the camera. Different colors reflect differently, so different amounts of blue, green, and red are allowed into an array that collect all of the different hues that come through the filters. **


 * The final step in the process starts when all of the different colors created by the color filter comes through the filter and are sorted into the correct position in an array, which is eventually the final picture. But the system isn't absolutely complete yet. The image on the right is an example of a regular photo, or the original scene, and on the left is what the camera first saw. If the right picture is studied closely, the only colors are green, blue, and red, even though the shape is the same the original scene.The camera changes the picture after its first image, like makes it clearer, and does other things to make it look more like the actual scene. **

This is what the camera does; opens the shutter, allows the light to come in, makes the colors from the light, and sorts the colors into place... one photo at a time.

Sources

[|__http://www.howstuffworks.com/camera.htm__]

[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera__]

[|__http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cameras-photography/digital/digital-camera.htm__]

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