The word 'photography' made of two Greek root words 'photo' and 'graph'. Photo means light and graph means drawing and together means "drawing with light." Capturing light using camera is a technology but conveying a message via captured light is an art. Photographers (invariably from non-science background) use the camera to take stunning visuals. The science behind the photographic technology is called optics. Optical scientists and photographers are two sides of same coin. Both of them explain their side very beautifully. A unified view if provided will help the general public to grasp both sides easily.
Camera captures the reflected light from the subject (human being, animal or object of interest). The light may have originated from Sun or artificial light source. The reflected light is channelized via opaque diaphragm with an aperture (a small hole). Present day digital camera with aid of lens, (actually multi-lens arrangement) makes the light to fall on to the two-dimensional array of light sensors. The sensor may be made up of CMOS and CCD technology. Light sensors convert the light into electrical signals and given to Analog-to-Digital converters to provide digital output. This raw digital data is compressed and stored as JPEG image file. The JPEG file can be viewed on a screen present in the camera or can be transferred to computer for further processing.
