Most are familiar with law enforcement’s “Mug Shot”. Hopefully, you’re familiar with it because you watch TV or know someone who works in that field versus having had one taken of yourself after being arrested. The mug shot is probably the most well known use of photography in the law enforcement field. Another well known area where law enforcement has used photography is in the preservation of evidence. When there is a crime, law enforcement officials will send a photographer to take pictures of the scene to preserve the details in a pictorial format. Since digital photography became affordable, it has been combined with computer technology to enhance the two previously described events in law enforcement, but has also added other interesting abilities and tools for finding and capturing the bad guys.
The “mug shot”, or “booking photograph”, was invented by Allan Pinkerton in the 19th century. It is used to keep record of arrested individuals. It could then be used by other law enforcement and victims to identify them. They used to be stored in binders and files. But now, using digital photography and computers, the images are stored in a database along with all the detailed information about the individual. This information is now available 24/7, instead of only when the records office was open. The photographs and records are now being shared much more easily between cities, states and agencies.
Digital photography has had a huge impact on evidence preservation. The cost savings alone is enormous. Multiple photos can be taken at no extra cost. There is no film to buy or processing to pay for. Digital photography also makes the process much faster. No one has to wait any longer for the film to be processed and printed. The photos can be automatically uploaded to a computer where they can be immediately available anyone who has access.
Higher quality, less expensive surveillance cameras are available that can be used to monitor public areas recording crimes when they happen. These photos or videos are digital stored on computers and can later be used in court. San Antonio has recently installed several of these cameras in downtown areas that are known for crime.
Computers and digital imaging can also help catch the criminal. Databases of known criminals are maintained and cameras along with computer software capable of comparing images of people can help identify these criminals. These facial recognition systems can scan thousands of people in crowded places and notify police when one of them is identified.
Digital image quality and enhancing technology has allowed law enforcement to do amazing things to help identify perpetrators. By using imaging techniques with computer software, images can be greatly enhanced to allow improved recognition. Removing unimportant details from an image, reconstructing incomplete or broken images, and improving clarity of details can all make the job of the detectives much easier and the life of the criminal much worse.
Although digital photography in law enforcement is becoming more and more accepted, it has not come without controversy. On of the tests that the courts use to determine admissibility of evidence is that the evidence has not been altered. Digital photos are easily altered with computer software. It is important that agencies develop procedures and processes to preserve the accuracy and security of the images or the courts will not allow them to be used as evidence.
So what does the future hold for law enforcement and the use of digital photography? More ways to identify criminals amongst us is likely get a lot of attention. We should look for things such as satellites and software that can identify people on the ground by the shape and movement of their shadows. The use of digital imaging and biometrics to identify people will continue to grow to new heights. And of course, we should probably look forward to all the controversy that will surround it regarding privacy issues.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Digital Medicine
Imagine going to the hospital emergency room knowing that something serious inside you is wrong, but you do not know what. When you get to the hospital, they have no way to look inside to find the problem. X-ray doesn’t exist, CAT-scan doesn’t exist, MRI doesn’t exist. The only thing they can do is surgery. That will likely mean an expensive overnight stay, even if they don’t find anything serious.
Digital imaging to the rescue. The ability for medical personnel to take pictures of what is inside you without cutting you open is a medical marvel. Since the X-ray came into existence diagnosis and treatment has improved a hundredfold. Even more incredible are the advances made since digital imaging and computer technology have been brought together in medicine.
X-rays were accidentally discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Germany while he was experimenting with his cathode ray generator. One week after he discovered that the rays could penetrate different materials, he took the first X-ray of a human body, his wife’s hand. X-rays are two-dimensional images of the body.
In 1972 the CAT-scan (computerized axial tomography scanner) was developed. It took multiple x-ray images and put them together to produce a 3-dimensional image of the tissues and organs in the body. About that same time, the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) was developed. This also produced 3-dimensional images, but didn’t use harmful radioactivity to produce the images.
With digital images from these technologies, the medical industry has been able to produce incredible images of the body. Diagnosis and treatment has been improved by allowing physicians to better understand the depth and size of tumors, foreign objects, or other problems that plague their patients. Surgery is more precise as the surgeon is able to better locate problems.
Digital imaging is also being combined with ultrasonic technologies to produce instant, non-tissue damaging, moving images. The most well-known use for this technology is in the field of obstetrics when gathering information about the unborn fetus. Here, the physician can determine the size and position of the baby with no incisions.
Image technology has also allowed the use of real-time images from inside the body that allows physicians to not only diagnose, but perform minimally invasive surgery. Instead of making large incisions so the surgeon can peek inside the body, very small openings are made that allow a small robotic camera to be inserted. The images are immediately displayed on a computer. Surgical procedures are performed by inserting instruments through other small incisions and then manipulated by the surgeon. Because such small incisions are made, patients often heal much quicker and costs are greatly reduced.
Remote diagnosis saves thousands of dollars. People in the remote islands of the Pacific have a high incidence of rheumatic fever which occasionally results in valvular heart disease. Because of their location, diagnosis is difficult. They would normally have to travel to distant islands for diagnosis and treatment. However, with remote digital echocardiography, images of the patients heart and valves are transmitted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for evaluation. This saves patients a great deal of money and time.
What does the future hold? As imaging rapidly develops, the millions and millions of images being gathered need to be managed. Those images need to be kept organized and made available as quickly and easily as possible. Systems known as Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) are being developed to do just that. Physicians and key medical personnel are able to view and share records and images from computers anywhere in the world quickly and easily.
Remote robotic surgery is a real possibility. Imagine a surgeon performing surgery on a hologram while a robot, thousands of miles away, follows his guidance and operates on a real human.
Digital imaging to the rescue. The ability for medical personnel to take pictures of what is inside you without cutting you open is a medical marvel. Since the X-ray came into existence diagnosis and treatment has improved a hundredfold. Even more incredible are the advances made since digital imaging and computer technology have been brought together in medicine.
X-rays were accidentally discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Germany while he was experimenting with his cathode ray generator. One week after he discovered that the rays could penetrate different materials, he took the first X-ray of a human body, his wife’s hand. X-rays are two-dimensional images of the body.
In 1972 the CAT-scan (computerized axial tomography scanner) was developed. It took multiple x-ray images and put them together to produce a 3-dimensional image of the tissues and organs in the body. About that same time, the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) was developed. This also produced 3-dimensional images, but didn’t use harmful radioactivity to produce the images.
With digital images from these technologies, the medical industry has been able to produce incredible images of the body. Diagnosis and treatment has been improved by allowing physicians to better understand the depth and size of tumors, foreign objects, or other problems that plague their patients. Surgery is more precise as the surgeon is able to better locate problems.
Digital imaging is also being combined with ultrasonic technologies to produce instant, non-tissue damaging, moving images. The most well-known use for this technology is in the field of obstetrics when gathering information about the unborn fetus. Here, the physician can determine the size and position of the baby with no incisions.
Image technology has also allowed the use of real-time images from inside the body that allows physicians to not only diagnose, but perform minimally invasive surgery. Instead of making large incisions so the surgeon can peek inside the body, very small openings are made that allow a small robotic camera to be inserted. The images are immediately displayed on a computer. Surgical procedures are performed by inserting instruments through other small incisions and then manipulated by the surgeon. Because such small incisions are made, patients often heal much quicker and costs are greatly reduced.
Remote diagnosis saves thousands of dollars. People in the remote islands of the Pacific have a high incidence of rheumatic fever which occasionally results in valvular heart disease. Because of their location, diagnosis is difficult. They would normally have to travel to distant islands for diagnosis and treatment. However, with remote digital echocardiography, images of the patients heart and valves are transmitted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for evaluation. This saves patients a great deal of money and time.
What does the future hold? As imaging rapidly develops, the millions and millions of images being gathered need to be managed. Those images need to be kept organized and made available as quickly and easily as possible. Systems known as Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) are being developed to do just that. Physicians and key medical personnel are able to view and share records and images from computers anywhere in the world quickly and easily.
Remote robotic surgery is a real possibility. Imagine a surgeon performing surgery on a hologram while a robot, thousands of miles away, follows his guidance and operates on a real human.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
NASA goes digital
The space race was on. It was the 1950’s and the United States and Russia were neck-and-neck in a race to see who would get into space first. The Russians won with the first satellite ‘Sputnik’ in October of 1957. Both the Russians and the United States understood what might be possible with a camera aboard a satellite. Having an eye in the sky to watch the enemy would give huge superiority to the owner of such technology. NASA also needed to map the surface of the moon for the planned moon landings. There was one big problem. With existing photographic technology, the film from the camera would have to be brought back to earth for development, or it would have to be developed on board the space craft and then the final photographs would have to be brought back. Neither option was acceptable. NASA knew they needed a new technology. In the 1960’s they went digital. This technological advancement gave them the ability to electronically send pictures of the moon’s surface back to earth and record them.
Since the first digital pictures of the moon were beamed back to earth, NASA has been on the digital bandwagon in a major way. Digital imagery of both earth and space have astounded mankind ever since.
Spy satellites have been in use since the early 1960’s. They keep an eye on hot spots around the globe allowing analysts to locate enemy movements from the safety of their homeland. During the early days of this technology, there were many in opposition to the idea. This made the implementation of the technology somewhat difficult but it didn’t stop it. Today, satellite imagery and computer technology are being combined to provide amazing results such as identification of a person based on their shadow. With this technology, the government expects to be able to identify and track known criminals and terrorists.
Other uses of the digital satellite photography have helped us better understand our world. Declassified spy satellite photos have been compared to previous aerial photographs and have shown changes in our environment. Now, we can track environmental changes from year to year which allows us to monitor our environmental management.
Of course, most notable from NASA are the advancements in technology that allow us to peer into the skies and view distant and never before seen planets and solar systems. The Earth’s atmosphere causes many problems for astronomers. They cannot get a clear unobstructed view of space. With NASA’s satellite technology, telescope satellites have been launched into orbit where they can peek into space from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and digitally transmit pictures back to earth instantly. Arguably, the most well known of these is the Hubble telescope. Congress approved the Hubble telescope plans in 1977, but the satellite didn’t launch into orbit until 1990. But immediately there were problems. The giant mirror in the telescope was not made correctly and all the pictures it sent back were blurry. It was finally repaired during a space shuttle mission in 1993. The photographs Hubble has sent back since then have been stunning. In May of this year, NASA replaced the old camera in Hubble with a new ‘Wide Field Camera 3’ (WFC3). This new camera is expected to be more powerful and be able to probe deeper into the universe. It is a 900 pound unit about the size of a baby grand piano. Much more technical information about this camera can be obtained here.
The successor to the Hubble is the Webb Telescope. This new telescope will have more advanced cameras and will be placed into orbit far beyond the moon, allowing it an unobstructed view of the heavens. This satellite is not set to be placed into orbit until sometime in 2013.
Since the first digital pictures of the moon were beamed back to earth, NASA has been on the digital bandwagon in a major way. Digital imagery of both earth and space have astounded mankind ever since.
Spy satellites have been in use since the early 1960’s. They keep an eye on hot spots around the globe allowing analysts to locate enemy movements from the safety of their homeland. During the early days of this technology, there were many in opposition to the idea. This made the implementation of the technology somewhat difficult but it didn’t stop it. Today, satellite imagery and computer technology are being combined to provide amazing results such as identification of a person based on their shadow. With this technology, the government expects to be able to identify and track known criminals and terrorists.
Other uses of the digital satellite photography have helped us better understand our world. Declassified spy satellite photos have been compared to previous aerial photographs and have shown changes in our environment. Now, we can track environmental changes from year to year which allows us to monitor our environmental management.
Of course, most notable from NASA are the advancements in technology that allow us to peer into the skies and view distant and never before seen planets and solar systems. The Earth’s atmosphere causes many problems for astronomers. They cannot get a clear unobstructed view of space. With NASA’s satellite technology, telescope satellites have been launched into orbit where they can peek into space from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and digitally transmit pictures back to earth instantly. Arguably, the most well known of these is the Hubble telescope. Congress approved the Hubble telescope plans in 1977, but the satellite didn’t launch into orbit until 1990. But immediately there were problems. The giant mirror in the telescope was not made correctly and all the pictures it sent back were blurry. It was finally repaired during a space shuttle mission in 1993. The photographs Hubble has sent back since then have been stunning. In May of this year, NASA replaced the old camera in Hubble with a new ‘Wide Field Camera 3’ (WFC3). This new camera is expected to be more powerful and be able to probe deeper into the universe. It is a 900 pound unit about the size of a baby grand piano. Much more technical information about this camera can be obtained here.
The successor to the Hubble is the Webb Telescope. This new telescope will have more advanced cameras and will be placed into orbit far beyond the moon, allowing it an unobstructed view of the heavens. This satellite is not set to be placed into orbit until sometime in 2013.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Consumer Camera Market
With the advent of the consumer digital camera, along came a tidal wave of interest in personal photography. People immediately saw the benefits and began to take advantage. In 2004, 22 million digital cameras were sold in North America. 37 million were sold in 2007 and 40 million were sold in 2008. In 2005, there was a noticeable difference in the make-up of the buyer. Prior to that year, the vast majority of buyers were first timers. However in 2005, we began to see that many repeat buyers entered the market.
The proliferation of the digital camera coincided with the proliferation of the cell phone. The two technologies have been combined giving consumers a quick easy way to share photos instantly across the globe. Twenty years ago, if one had entered a college classroom and asked how many students were carrying a camera with them, you might have found one or two. But today, almost every student has a camera on their cell phone and many others will have a digital camera in their purse or backpack.
The first digital cameras produced such low resolution or were so heavy and bulky that they really weren’t usable by the average consumer. It wasn’t until 1999 that the first two megapixel camera was manufactured that was light-weight enough and produced the resolution necessary to interest consumers. Since then, consumers have been the beneficiaries of megapixel envy amongst manufacturers. We quickly realized that the more megapixels in a camera, the better the picture. Manufacturers have pushed their engineers fast and furious to produce higher and higher resolution cameras. Today, one can find several cameras at local stores that flaunt 12-14 megapixel resolution and sell for under $200.
The megapixel war is now coming to an end. This is because the average person cannot tell the difference between an 8 megapixel photo printed at 8x10 inches versus a14 megapixel photo printed the same size. Where one would begin seeing the difference between these resolutions would be when they print enlargements of the photos. An 8 megapixel photo can produce a nice quality photo at 16x20 inches but starts to noticeably diminish in quality with larger prints. A 10 megapixel photo can produce nice quality in a 17x22 inch print. I typically print 8x10 inch or smaller prints so I don’t notice the difference between the two. I think that most people are similar to me in this respect.
Since the megapixel war is winding down, what are manufacturers doing to attract buyers? Features, features, and more features. Digital imagery is ideal for combining with computing technology. That is exactly what is being done. After the camera’s sensor measures the scene it sees, software inside the camera process it in many ways. The very basic adjustments are to remove imperfections (noise) created by the electronics, and color and exposure adjustments based on the settings the user selected on the camera. Beyond that, manufacturers are getting creative and trying to make it easier and easier for the average person to take flawless photos.
Image stabilization allows the camera to adjust for shaky hands. Sometimes when taking long exposures or with high zoom, slight movement of the camera causes blurring. Cameras can reduce these affects through hardware or software.
Face recognition is a feature that allows the camera to automatically focus on and adjust exposure settings for any human faces that it detects. Some cameras allow the photographer to select a face from a group as the primary subject. The camera follows that individual and keeps him/her in focus and at proper exposure.
Red-eye prevention is another popular feature. Often when using flash, the eyes of people in the photograph turn bright red as the flash lights up their retinas. Many of today’s cameras have a setting that will cause the flash to give very brief short burst or two of light just before the main flash and the picture is taken. This causes the pupils of the subject to close, this minimizing the amount of red that can reflect from their retinas.
Smile detection allows the user to let the camera take the picture automatically as soon as it detects a smile. Some cameras even allow you to adjust its sensitivity so that you don’t get belly laughs or small smirks.
The blink detection feature tells the camera to take two pictures in rapid succession. The software in the camera then examines the pictures and picks the one where the eyes are most open. This all happens so fast that the subjects don’t have time to do anything but open their eyes between pictures.
The proliferation of the digital camera coincided with the proliferation of the cell phone. The two technologies have been combined giving consumers a quick easy way to share photos instantly across the globe. Twenty years ago, if one had entered a college classroom and asked how many students were carrying a camera with them, you might have found one or two. But today, almost every student has a camera on their cell phone and many others will have a digital camera in their purse or backpack.
The first digital cameras produced such low resolution or were so heavy and bulky that they really weren’t usable by the average consumer. It wasn’t until 1999 that the first two megapixel camera was manufactured that was light-weight enough and produced the resolution necessary to interest consumers. Since then, consumers have been the beneficiaries of megapixel envy amongst manufacturers. We quickly realized that the more megapixels in a camera, the better the picture. Manufacturers have pushed their engineers fast and furious to produce higher and higher resolution cameras. Today, one can find several cameras at local stores that flaunt 12-14 megapixel resolution and sell for under $200.
The megapixel war is now coming to an end. This is because the average person cannot tell the difference between an 8 megapixel photo printed at 8x10 inches versus a14 megapixel photo printed the same size. Where one would begin seeing the difference between these resolutions would be when they print enlargements of the photos. An 8 megapixel photo can produce a nice quality photo at 16x20 inches but starts to noticeably diminish in quality with larger prints. A 10 megapixel photo can produce nice quality in a 17x22 inch print. I typically print 8x10 inch or smaller prints so I don’t notice the difference between the two. I think that most people are similar to me in this respect.
Since the megapixel war is winding down, what are manufacturers doing to attract buyers? Features, features, and more features. Digital imagery is ideal for combining with computing technology. That is exactly what is being done. After the camera’s sensor measures the scene it sees, software inside the camera process it in many ways. The very basic adjustments are to remove imperfections (noise) created by the electronics, and color and exposure adjustments based on the settings the user selected on the camera. Beyond that, manufacturers are getting creative and trying to make it easier and easier for the average person to take flawless photos.
Image stabilization allows the camera to adjust for shaky hands. Sometimes when taking long exposures or with high zoom, slight movement of the camera causes blurring. Cameras can reduce these affects through hardware or software.
Face recognition is a feature that allows the camera to automatically focus on and adjust exposure settings for any human faces that it detects. Some cameras allow the photographer to select a face from a group as the primary subject. The camera follows that individual and keeps him/her in focus and at proper exposure.
Red-eye prevention is another popular feature. Often when using flash, the eyes of people in the photograph turn bright red as the flash lights up their retinas. Many of today’s cameras have a setting that will cause the flash to give very brief short burst or two of light just before the main flash and the picture is taken. This causes the pupils of the subject to close, this minimizing the amount of red that can reflect from their retinas.
Smile detection allows the user to let the camera take the picture automatically as soon as it detects a smile. Some cameras even allow you to adjust its sensitivity so that you don’t get belly laughs or small smirks.
The blink detection feature tells the camera to take two pictures in rapid succession. The software in the camera then examines the pictures and picks the one where the eyes are most open. This all happens so fast that the subjects don’t have time to do anything but open their eyes between pictures.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
History & Technology
Digital photography or digital imaging touches nearly every industry in some way. Without it our lives would surely be very different. In my this and future blog postings, I will be discussing the history of photography and the advent of digital photography. Particularly, how it has affected business and what the future holds.
Since the first photograph was taken in the early 1800’s in France, thousands upon thousands of people have taken photographs of some sort. According to ZDNet, fifty billion digital photos were taken in 2007. That’s a lot of photos.
The first photograph, taken in 1826 in France by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, had an eight hour exposure. By today’s standards, that’s unheard of. It was a very grainy picture of the landscape from a window in his home using a technique he called “heliography”. But it wasn’t until 1939 that the term “photography” was coined by Sir John Frederick William Herschel. It was in that same year that the that Robert Cornelius took the very first human portrait.
The first commercially viable process developed by French chemist Louis Daguerre was called “daguerreotype”. This was an expensive process and required special equipment but was used widely by professionals in France and the US.
In 1888, George Eastman invented Celluloid Film which is still in use today, although it is quickly being replaced with the advent of digital photography.
NASA began using digital signals in the 1960’s to get pictures of the moon sent back to earth from space probes. This technology was instrumental in the development of today’s digital camera technology. George Smith and Willard Boyle are credited with developing the charge-coupled device (CCD) that has been used in most of today’s digital cameras.
Photos from the early CCD were not very usable as the resolution was very low. Finally in 1986, Kodak developed the first megapixel CCD. Since then, the megapixel hype has dominated the digital market. Manufactures have worked feverishly to increase the resolution of their devices. Today, the average consumer can purchase 12 megapixel point-and-shoot digital cameras for under $200. Photos at this resolution can be printed with very high quality at 20x30 inches or more. When was the last time the average camera user printed anything that large?
The charge-coupled device that is the heart of most of today’s digital cameras works because it has millions of small light receptors called “photosites”. Each of these photosites represents one of the primary colors for one pixel. When the photographer presses the camera’s button, light is allowed to enter the lens and is focused on the CCD sensor. The amount of light that hits each of the photosites is registered as a number that represents the intensity of the light at that point. This array of numbers is then stored in memory. When one views one of these photos on a computer, the numbers are converted back into colored dots (pixels) and displayed on a screen.
Most cameras have software built in that processes the images before they are actually stored in memory. The software in most cameras convert the image from its raw format right from the sensor to the common jpg format for storage. It is often during this conversion process that the built-in software makes adjustments to the image based on camera settings such as exposure and type of lighting. Most manufacturers add other tasks to this conversion process to clean up the image from sensor noise and other inherent image problems caused by the imperfect technology. Thanks to the programming efforts by the manufacturer, we see nice clean and sometimes corrected images.
Some of the higher end digital cameras will allow the photographer to save the original “raw” image just as it comes from the sensor. This image format is ingeniously called “RAW” format. Before it can be viewed by traditional software, it must be converted to one of the more common image formats such as jpg, bmp, or gif. The advantage with the raw format is that photographers have more power to manipulate the image they way they want instead of having to live with what the manufacturer decided was best. From this format, photographers can manipulate the photos in ways that cannot be done once the image is in one of the traditional formats.
Since the first photograph was taken in the early 1800’s in France, thousands upon thousands of people have taken photographs of some sort. According to ZDNet, fifty billion digital photos were taken in 2007. That’s a lot of photos.
The first photograph, taken in 1826 in France by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, had an eight hour exposure. By today’s standards, that’s unheard of. It was a very grainy picture of the landscape from a window in his home using a technique he called “heliography”. But it wasn’t until 1939 that the term “photography” was coined by Sir John Frederick William Herschel. It was in that same year that the that Robert Cornelius took the very first human portrait.
The first commercially viable process developed by French chemist Louis Daguerre was called “daguerreotype”. This was an expensive process and required special equipment but was used widely by professionals in France and the US.
In 1888, George Eastman invented Celluloid Film which is still in use today, although it is quickly being replaced with the advent of digital photography.
NASA began using digital signals in the 1960’s to get pictures of the moon sent back to earth from space probes. This technology was instrumental in the development of today’s digital camera technology. George Smith and Willard Boyle are credited with developing the charge-coupled device (CCD) that has been used in most of today’s digital cameras.
Photos from the early CCD were not very usable as the resolution was very low. Finally in 1986, Kodak developed the first megapixel CCD. Since then, the megapixel hype has dominated the digital market. Manufactures have worked feverishly to increase the resolution of their devices. Today, the average consumer can purchase 12 megapixel point-and-shoot digital cameras for under $200. Photos at this resolution can be printed with very high quality at 20x30 inches or more. When was the last time the average camera user printed anything that large?
The charge-coupled device that is the heart of most of today’s digital cameras works because it has millions of small light receptors called “photosites”. Each of these photosites represents one of the primary colors for one pixel. When the photographer presses the camera’s button, light is allowed to enter the lens and is focused on the CCD sensor. The amount of light that hits each of the photosites is registered as a number that represents the intensity of the light at that point. This array of numbers is then stored in memory. When one views one of these photos on a computer, the numbers are converted back into colored dots (pixels) and displayed on a screen.
Most cameras have software built in that processes the images before they are actually stored in memory. The software in most cameras convert the image from its raw format right from the sensor to the common jpg format for storage. It is often during this conversion process that the built-in software makes adjustments to the image based on camera settings such as exposure and type of lighting. Most manufacturers add other tasks to this conversion process to clean up the image from sensor noise and other inherent image problems caused by the imperfect technology. Thanks to the programming efforts by the manufacturer, we see nice clean and sometimes corrected images.
Some of the higher end digital cameras will allow the photographer to save the original “raw” image just as it comes from the sensor. This image format is ingeniously called “RAW” format. Before it can be viewed by traditional software, it must be converted to one of the more common image formats such as jpg, bmp, or gif. The advantage with the raw format is that photographers have more power to manipulate the image they way they want instead of having to live with what the manufacturer decided was best. From this format, photographers can manipulate the photos in ways that cannot be done once the image is in one of the traditional formats.
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