From: nareid@due.unit.no (Helge Nareid)
Subject: Re: Query: Books on physics of photography (followup)
Organization: University of Trondheim, Norway
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 00:39:11 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.090437.2016@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> dtalmage@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.111403.2011@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu>, dtalmage@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
>> Who can recommend some books on the physics of photography?  They're 
>> for my wife, a chemist w/strong math background.  She's interested in 
>> the way lenses work and why exposures work the way they do (e.g. f/8 @ 
>> 1/100 sec == f/16 @ 1/50 sec).
>
>Thanks to all who replied.  Here's a summary of the recommendations.
>
[... some stuff deleted ...]
>bercov@csg.lbl.gov (John Bercovitz) and mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu 
>(Michael Covington) recommended the books by Rudolph Kingslake, particularly
>
>_Optics in Photography_
>Rudolf Kingslake
>ISBN 0-8194-0763-1
>SPIE order desk: Tel no. 206-676-3290

I'll second this recommendation, but I would also add  :

Rudolf Kingslake :
"A History of the Photographic Lens"
Academic Press, 1989
ISBN 0-12-408640-3

An Excellent book on optical design, but slighty old is :
W.J. Smith :
"Modern Optical Engineering"
McGraw-Hill, 1966
(I have a slight recollection that I've seen mention of a more recent
edition of this book somewhere, but I'm not sure)

An excellent book for the non-casual reader (physics degree required!) is :
W.T. Welford :
"Aberrations of Optical Systems"
Adam Hilger, Bristol, UK, 1986

>For film and development, Michael suggested Mees and James, _The Theory of 
>the Photographic Process_.

Again an excellent recommendation, but this book is heavy going if you
don't have a good background in physics and chemistry. 

A slightly more accessible alternative (in my opinion) is :
B.H. Carroll, G.C. Higgins & T.H. James :
"Introduction to Photographic Theory - The Silver Halide Process"
John Wiley & Sons, 1980

I would also like to recommend the following book, which covers the
oft-neglected field of sensitometry :
Todd, H.N & Zakia, Richard :
"Photographic Sensitometry - The Study of Tone Reproduction".
Morgan & Morgan, 1974

Basically, speaking as a photographer with a doctorate in physics, I would
say that the physics of photography is no single subject. In my personal
opinion, it can roughly be split into three different subjects, which
are :
	Imaging optics - lenses, geometrical optics and related subjects.
	Photochemistry - which isn't physics ... :-)
	Sensitometry - the quantitative relationship between exposure and
                           the resulting image.

I have tried to give some recommendations on each of these disciplines,
but most of them are fairly technical, and may be heavy going for 
readers without technical background (with the possible exception
of Kingslake's books). For a more accessible presentation, I would
definitely recommend the Ansel Adams series.

As a digression, I would recommend looking into any book written
by Richard D. Zakia, one of my personal favourites is :
Richard D. Zakia :
"Perception and Photography"
(I'm sorry I don't have any bibliographical details at hand).
This is a book which covers perception physocology seen from a
photographer's view - recommended !!

- Helge Nareid



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