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How do pictures get into a camera? |
by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author
Cameras help you have lots of pictures of your favorite memories! To get those pictures into the camera, it’s made with special devices inside of it that copy and hold onto your images.
When you press a camera’s button, its shutter opens and closes really quickly, kind of like a blinking eye. This allows the energies and colors of light from the scene in front of the camera to enter through the lens, and gives the camera a chance to see whatever you are pointing it at and trying to photograph. Just like an image you see goes into your memory and you store it there, the image a camera sees goes into its memory too!
Today, most cameras store the images they collect using digital technology. This includes a sensor made up of lots and lots of pixels, which are like teeny tiny dots in a grid. All of these little dots together help make up your picture! So, for example, if you’ve taken a picture of your sister wearing a funny purple hat, the camera’s light-sensitive pixels record her hat as a series of purple dots. If you were able to zoom in really, really close on your photo, you might be able to see some of the individual dots, but otherwise, because they’re packed so closely together, the tiny dots combine together to form your picture! You can then transfer the image from the camera to your computer, or have it printed onto paper!
For many years, cameras recorded images on film instead of digitally. Film works like special light-sensitive paper; when the camera’s shutter opened and closed, the light it let in caused a chemical reaction on the film, which recorded the shapes and colors captured! Some people still use film cameras today. Ask your family if there’s one in your house!
A picture worth 1,000 words!
Next time you have a birthday, vacation, or other special event at which someone is taking pictures with a camera, try making your own pictures to keep in addition to the photographs!
When you get home, do you best to remember some of the most special moments, and then draw a picture of what that looked like! Later on, ask to see the pictures that were taken with a camera. Compare your picture with some of the photographs. What are the similarities between the two? What are the differences?
When you press a camera’s button, its shutter opens and closes really quickly, kind of like a blinking eye. This allows the energies and colors of light from the scene in front of the camera to enter through the lens, and gives the camera a chance to see whatever you are pointing it at and trying to photograph. Just like an image you see goes into your memory and you store it there, the image a camera sees goes into its memory too!
Today, most cameras store the images they collect using digital technology. This includes a sensor made up of lots and lots of pixels, which are like teeny tiny dots in a grid. All of these little dots together help make up your picture! So, for example, if you’ve taken a picture of your sister wearing a funny purple hat, the camera’s light-sensitive pixels record her hat as a series of purple dots. If you were able to zoom in really, really close on your photo, you might be able to see some of the individual dots, but otherwise, because they’re packed so closely together, the tiny dots combine together to form your picture! You can then transfer the image from the camera to your computer, or have it printed onto paper!
For many years, cameras recorded images on film instead of digitally. Film works like special light-sensitive paper; when the camera’s shutter opened and closed, the light it let in caused a chemical reaction on the film, which recorded the shapes and colors captured! Some people still use film cameras today. Ask your family if there’s one in your house!
A picture worth 1,000 words!
Next time you have a birthday, vacation, or other special event at which someone is taking pictures with a camera, try making your own pictures to keep in addition to the photographs!
When you get home, do you best to remember some of the most special moments, and then draw a picture of what that looked like! Later on, ask to see the pictures that were taken with a camera. Compare your picture with some of the photographs. What are the similarities between the two? What are the differences?
