Physics of Digital Photography

Physics is fundamental to all aspects of digital photography. This book works through the photographic imaging chain starting from the physics of image capture and the physics underlying the nature of the captured camera raw data, through to the conversion of the raw data into a viewable output image. The goal of the book is to show how knowledge of the underlying physics can be used by a photographer or imaging scientist to maximise the technical quality of the final image.

Surprisingly, given the ubiquity of digital photography, while there are numerous academic titles devoted to areas of digital photography, there is not a single text providing an overview of the detailed physics involved for an audience of scientists and engineers. The numerous introductory books ignore the technical and physics aspects and tend to concentrate on a photography approach. With the increasing use of digital photography in a research environment, and in areas where it is used as a tool in support of research, modern scientists and engineers need to better understand the science behind all aspects of digital photography to maximise the exploitation of digital photography in their research.

In addition to an academic readership, this book will be of interest to professional and serious amateur photographers wanting a better understanding of the technical aspects of digital photography.