Photographyis thescience,art, application and practice of creating durableimagesby recordinglightor otherelectromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of animage sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such asphotographic film.
Typically, alensis used tofocusthe light reflected or emitted from objects into areal imageon the light-sensitive surface inside acameraduring a timedexposure. With an electronic image sensor, this produces anelectrical chargeat eachpixel, which iselectronically processedand stored in adigital image filefor subsequent display or processing. The result withphotographic emulsionis an invisiblelatent image, which is later chemically"developed"into a visible image, eithernegativeorpositivedepending on the purpose of the photographic material and the method ofprocessing. A negative image on film is traditionally used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as aprint, either by using anenlargeror bycontact printing.
Photography is employed in many fields of science, manufacturing (e.g.,photolithography), and business, as well as its more direct uses for art, film and video production, recreational purposes, hobby, and mass communication.
