technology of photography

Introduction
Cameras and lenses
- Basic camera functions
- Principal camera types
  - The 35-mm miniature camera
  - The ultraminiature or subminiature
  - The view, or technical, camera
  - The medium-size hand camera
  - The folding roll-film camera
  - The single-lens reflex
  - The twin-lens reflex
- Shutter and diaphragm systems
  - The leaf shutter
  - Focal-plane shutter
  - Diaphragm and shutter settings
  - Exposure values
  - Automatic-diaphragm systems
- Methods of focusing and framing
  - Focusing aids
  - Autofocus systems
  - Viewfinders
- Exposure-metering systems
- Flash systems
  - Electronic flash
  - Automatic and dedicated flash
  - Flashbulbs
  - Firing and synchronization
- System cameras
- Characteristics and parameters of lenses
  - Focal length and image scale
  - Aperture
  - Angle of coverage
- Optical performance
  - Aberrations
  - Resolving power and contrast-transfer function
- Special lens types
  - Telephoto lenses
  - Wide-angle and retrofocus lenses
  - Fish-eye lenses
  - Mirror lenses
  - Variable-focus lenses
- Lens-changing systems
- Lens coating
Black-and-white films
- The latent image
- Sensitometry and speed
- Colour sensitivity
- Filters
- Other film characteristics
  - Grain
  - Resolving power and acutance
  - Contrast
- Film structure and forms
  - Sheet film
  - Roll film
  - Perforated film
  - Disk film
Picture-taking technique
- Sharpness control
  - Depth of field
  - Subject and camera movement
- Exposure technique
  - Automatic meter control
  - Flash exposures
  - Exposure latitude
- Lighting technique
Black-and-white processing and printing
- Negative development
  - Developers and their characteristics
  - Fixing
  - Washing and drying
  - High-speed processing
- Printing
  - Enlargers
  - Printing papers
  - Printing exposures
  - Print processing
  - Stabilization processing
  - Dry processing
Colour photography
- Colour reproduction
- Colour films
  - Reversal (slide) films
  - Negative (print) films
  - Colour-film structure
  - Additive colour films
  - Colour balance
- Colour-film processing
  - Reversal colour-film processing
  - Negative colour processing
- Colour printing
  - Positive prints from colour negatives
  - Reversal colour printing
  - Dye-destruction processes
  - Diffusion-transfer colour prints
  - Assembly colour prints
- Transparency projection
Instant-picture photography
- History and evolution
- Black-and-white diffusion transfer
- The Polacolor process
  - Single-sheet process
  - Autoprocess materials
- Applications
Special photosensitive systems
- Electrophotography
- Colloid and photopolymer processes
- Diazonium processes
- Photochromic systems
- Electronic photography
Special techniques and applied photography
- High-speed and stroboscopic photography
  - High-speed shutters
  - High-speed light sources
  - Synchronization
  - Stroboscopic photography
- Aerial photography
- Satellite and space photography
- Underwater photography
- Close-range and large-scale photography
  - Close-up and macrophotography
  - Photomicrography
- Stereoscopic and three-dimensional photography
- Infrared photography
- Ultraviolet photography
- Radiography and other radiation recording techniques
  - X-ray radiography
  - Gamma radiography
  - Autoradiography
- Nuclear-track recording
- Astronomical photography
- Microfilming and microreproduction
The photography industry

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Diagram showing the negative-positive photographic process: a scene is captured on film in a camera, developed into a negative, projected onto paper with an enlarger, and developed again to produce a positive print.

A person in glasses examines a strip of film in a darkroom. Overlaid text reads "What's the point of film photography?" with "film photography?" highlighted in blue.

Frank Sadorus: Photographing Life on the Illinois Plains

single-lens reflex principle

twin-lens reflex camera

using lenses of different focal lengths

characteristic curves of low-contrast and high-contrast film

A Venn diagram shows the three primary colors of light-green, blue, and red-as overlapping circles. Their intersections create cyan, magenta, yellow, and white at the center, illustrating additive color mixing.

Diagram showing the subtractive primary colors of pigments: yellow, cyan, and magenta as overlapping rectangles, with secondary colors green, red, and blue where they intersect, and black at the center where all three overlap.

Related Questions

Diagram showing the negative-positive photographic process: a scene is captured on film in a camera, developed into a negative, projected onto paper with an enlarger, and developed again to produce a positive print. — sequence of negative–positive process Figure 1: Sequence of negative–positive process, from the photographing of the original scene to enlarged print (see text).

technology of photography

Written by

L. Andrew MannheimAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

technology of photography, equipment, techniques, and processes used in the production of photographs. The most widely used photographic process is the black-and-white negative–positive system (Figure 1). In the camera the lens projects an image of the scene being photographed onto a film coated with light-sensitive silver salts, such as silver bromide. A shutter built into the lens admits light reflected from the scene for a given time to produce an invisible but developable image in...

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