The Camera

    The "camera obscura" effect, or the dark room effect, is created when light travels through a small  hole in a dark room and is focused on the opposite wall, creating an upside down image of the outside  on the wall. The hole works like a lens, focusing and projecting light on the opposite wall.

    During the 17th century, the modern camera was brought one step closer when Isaac Newton and Christian Huygens perfected the understanding of lens and of making high quality glass lenses.

    The first modern camera was made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and was made of a dark box, glass lens, and film. Niepce's camera and the modern camera still are made up of a Dark box, glass lens, and film. Modern cameras now use digital film, however, and capture images using an electronic sensor called a CCD. The photographs are stored on computer memory devices. 

    The difference between auto mode and program mode on a camera is that auto mode completely controls flash and exposure, but program let you control flash and some other camera settings. However, they are mostly the same. 

    The portrait mode on a camera is used for blurring out the background by using the fastest available camera setting (aperture).
    The Sports mode is used to freeze motion by using the highest shutter speed possible.

    The benefit of half-pressing on a camera is that the camera will focus lock, showing you where the point of focus would be, and that the camera will respond quicker with less shutter lag.

    If there is an x over a lightning strike, this means that the flash is disabled. You would want to use this when the natural light would look better in the picture for the mood than a flash.
    If there is lightning and an a next to it, this means that the camera is on auto focus mode. You would use this if you are not sure if you should have flash or not, or if you want to keep the settings on default.

    If your picture has too much light, the picture will be washed out. If there is not enough light, then the picture will be too dark. Either way, the result will not look like "real life".
    A stop is a way to represent a change in the brightness of light. The new planet would be 1 stop brighter if it had two suns instead of one, and two stops brighter if it had 4 suns.

    A longer shutter speed time results in more light, whereas a shorter shutter speed time results in less light. Aperture also controls the brightness of a photo, but by closing and opening the hole in which the light goes through. You increase the light by using the aperture by making the f-stops smaller, which means that the hole is bigger. (ex. f8 to f 2.8)