Photography is the primary tool for visually documenting specimens, experimental findings and laboratory setups in many scientific fields. Photographic illustrations in these fields must satisfy criteria of clarity, objectivity and adherence to accepted standards, in addition to a pleasant but not distracting composition and illumination. This book concentrates on the choice and practical use of digital cameras, lenses and related equipment of types commonly available at research institutions and museums. The described techniques are suitable for subject sizes between approximately half a millimeter and half a meter, and differ from those used in general photography and microscopy. The intended audience of this book includes professional scientific photographers, scientists and students who need to carry out photography in support of their own research or as part-time scientific photographers at a research institution, and advanced amateur photographers who wish to master these techniques.

This book provides an overview of the detailed physics involved in the imaging chain for an audience of scientists and engineers. With the increasing use of digital photography in a research environment, modern scientists and engineers need to better understand the science behind digital photography to fully exploit this invaluable research tool.

While there are many books that teach the "how-to" of photography, Science for the Curious Photographer is a book for those who also want to understand how photography works. Beginning with an introduction to the history and science of photography, Charles S. Johnson, Jr. addresses questions about the principles of photography, such as why a camera needs a lens, how lenses work, and why modern lenses are so complicated. Addressing the complex aspects of digital photography, the book discusses color management, resolution, "noise" in images, and the limits of human perception. The creation and appreciation of art in photography is discussed from the standpoint of modern cognitive science. A crucial read for those seeking the scientific context to photographic practice, this second edition has been comprehensively updated, including discussion of DSLRs, mirror-less cameras, and a new chapter on the limits of human vision and perception.

Physics is fundamental to all aspects of digital photography. This book works through the physics underlying the photographic imaging chain, from image capture through to the production of a viewable output digital image. It provides an invaluable insight into the connections between imaging science and photographic practice and is intended for use by both graduate students and established researchers. In this updated and expanded new edition, the material has been re-organised and extensively rewritten and the figures have been enhanced.

Make digital photography an important part of your early childhood program! Young children love to investigate the natural world, and they love to take photographs. Picture Science will help you go beyond just documenting class projects. It will show you how to use digital photography to make each step in the scientific process—from posing a question, to gathering data, to showing your findings—concrete and fun for children. Keyed throughout to early learning standards, Picture Science provides inspiring examples that will stimulate you to design your own lesson plans. Technical advice and tips for buying a camera for your center or family child care business are included as well. Picture Science won the prestigious 2007 Directors' Choice Award and Judges' Selection Award from Early Childhood News

Digital Photography and Everyday Life: Empirical studies on material visual practices explores the role that digital photography plays within everyday life. With contributors from ten different countries and backgrounds in a range of academic disciplines - including anthropology, media studies and visual culture - this collection takes a uniquely broad perspective on photography by situating the image-making process in wider discussions on the materiality and visuality of photographic practices and explores these through empirical case studies. By focusing on material visual practices, the book presents a comprehensive overview of some of the main challenges digital photography is bringing to everyday life. It explores how the digitization of photography has a wide-reaching impact on the use of the medium, as well as on the kinds of images that can be produced and the ways in which camera technology is developed. The exploration goes beyond mere images to think about cameras, mediations and technologies as key elements in the development of visual digital cultures. Digital Photography and Everyday Life will be of great interest to students and scholars of Photography, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture and Media Studies, as well as those studying Communication, Cultural Anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies.

This book can serve as a missing guide for technical features of digital photography that many enthusiasts are unaware of or remain bewildered about. An interesting example is that cameras with sensor sizes differing by a factor of three or four can have the same size resolution. The advantages of sensors — found in larger and more expensive cameras — are elucidated to readers. Another example is the explanation to why the depth of field increases as the lens aperture becomes smaller. The transition from diffraction-limited to sensor-limited resolution is also discussed. Through these examples, one discovers that the optics of practical, thick compound lenses can be understood using the formulas for the more familiar thin lenses.The book further expounds on procedures that are necessary to obtain true color images. For example, CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors are equipped with color filters such that the intensity of the red, green and blue colors are recorded separately. Since the colors must be combined for print and digital displays, the separate colors recorded in the camera must somehow be merged. This process known as demosaicing is vividly explained. In fact, the technology for defining colors is a separate issue that is also treated in this book.Readers will learn that both our vision and computer displays respond in a nonlinear fashion that requires an operation known as gamma mapping, which is built into all monitors. An important takeaway for camera and photography enthusiasts is that in order to avoid moiré effects in certain types of photographs, most cameras have an anti-aliasing filter that has the unfortunate effect of smearing the resolution. This filter can, however, be removed in certain high-end cameras.