Sidney F. Ray - Scientific Photography and Applied Imaging

Scientific Photography and Applied Imaging

Sidney F. Ray
BSc, MSc, ASIS, FBIPP, FMPA, FRPS Senior Lecturer University of Westminster London

First published 1999

This edition published 2015 by Focal Press
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and by Focal Press
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Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Sidney F. Ray 1999. Published by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ray, Sidney F., 1939
Scientific photography and applied imaging
1. Photography Scientific applications 2. Photography Technique
I. Title
778.3

ISBN 13: 978-0-240-51323-2 (hbk)

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Scientific photography and applied imaging/Sidney F. Ray.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 240 51323 1 (hc.)
1. Photography Scientific applications. I. Title.
TR692.R38 1999
770'.24'5dc21

9925855
CIP

Composition by Genesis Typesetting, Rochester, Kent

It frequently happens, moreover and this is one of the charms of photography that the operator himself discovers on examination, perhaps long afterwards, that he has depicted many things he had no notion of at the time ( The Pencil of Nature , 1844: William Henry Fox Talbot (180077)

It is now nearly 30 years since the publication by Focal Press of Applied Photography by C. Arnold, P. Rolls and J. Stewart in 1971. This book gave an almost complete contemporary overview of the proven applications of photography in the fields of science and technology using for the most part a range of general purpose and specialist silver halide materials, and where control of experiments and analysis of results were done without the aid of the now ubiquitous computer.

The subsequent years have seen a considerable consolidation of traditional techniques together with a welcome simplification of implementation and the automation of processes and functions so that a skilled scientific photographer may not be needed to give an input into many routine tasks when the experimenter can now be reasonably sure of obtaining usable results. Given this reduction of skilled input beyond perhaps the experimental design stage, it is useful to have a textbook which outlines many of the most usual applications together with relevant formulae, configurations of apparatus and descriptions of suitable equipment, so that there may be a flow of ideas for the instrumentation and recording of new and novel applications.

The limitations of space do not permit full and comprehensive descriptions of every possible application, so a carefully chosen selection of references and suggestions for further reading provide relevant source material, especially for mathematical derivations, together with a selection of what may be termed case studies to indicate the range of application of techniques.

The reference material is also chosen to include information on the historical development of techniques, materials and applications as well as tutorial and overview papers which themselves contain comprehensive listings of further source material. While some considerable effort has been made to ensure the chapter reference lists are both suitably comprehensive and contemporary, and in publications that are reasonably accessible, it is recognized that omissions may be obvious to the specialist reader. These listings can readily be updated and reviewed in any subsequent editions. Additionally, to reflect current practice, selective use of appropriate Web sites on the Internet will provide excellent examples of images and photographs, as well as copious reference material, catalogues of equipment and materials and accounts of personal experiences.

This book is intended to be suitable as an undergraduate text for courses containing modules concerned with photography and imaging in a range of disciplines, and as a postgraduate reference work for instrumentation design and techniques suited to research into imaging.

Considerable effort has gone into the illustrations accompanying the text so that they show essential configurations and principles in the simplest possible way without the confusion of excessive detail concerning exact positioning and dimensions. Again, reference material provides the necessary detail. It is not possible in a book of this size to illustrate all of the equipment and systems mentioned, or even a few of the considerable range of results obtained in the form of images requiring interpretation and measurement. The task is made more complex by the fact that most of them may not be directly viewable by human visual perception but only captured by the use of optical and recording systems with appropriate spectral response and suitable spatial and temporal resolution.

The pictorial images have been chosen to be representative of a small number of common applications of scientific photography and can be supplemented by a number of specialized textbooks and other more general collections of images suited to the interests of the general reader. Again, these images can be changed and updated in any subsequent editions to reflect changes in applications as well as new forms of imaging.

This book may be considered a companion volume to supplement the contents of related works from Focal Press such as Applied Photographic Optics , High Speed Photography and Photonics and The Manual of Photography .

During the several years of preparation of this book, photography and imaging in general underwent a rapid change towards the significantly greater use of electronic imaging systems, coupled with digital techniques for the subsequent recording, storage, dissemination, duplication and enhancement of images and subject-related data. The traditional techniques of scientific or applied photography have transformed into similar but simpler techniques of applied imaging and make extensive use of the extended capabilities of solid state imaging devices and digital systems. Indeed, applied imaging has often identified the need for particular system characteristics which have subsequently contributed significantly in the commercially vital trickle down path to the general and domestic user. The classic example is perhaps the techniques of image enhancement originally devised for images obtained by techniques of remote sensing.