The human race has been fascinated by the quest to comprehend the nature of light and its behavior ever since the emergence of formal schools of thought in Ancient Greece in about 500 BC. Around this time, Mo Tzu, who is regarded as one of the earliest major philosophers of China, highlighted the significance of pragmatism in philosophical thought.
His disciples started employing flat and curved mirrors to gauge and study light's behavior. They may have also discovered the camera obscura, which was improved upon by Alhazen (AD965), an Iraqi mathematician and physicist who was born in Basra. The camera obscura might be thought of as the origin of photography because it provided the first projected images of the outside world. The word "camera obscura" is Latin for "dark chamber."
An inverted picture is created on the surface opposite when light enters through a pinhole from the exterior of a light-tight chamber or box. The camera obscura was modified by adding a lens in front of the aperture by the seventeenth century, and portable versions were used by painters as a tool to precisely trace landscapes.
The spectrum power distribution of the illuminant, the features of the surface on which the light falls, along with the spectral responsiveness of the sensor, all contribute to the colors that are recorded from an original scene. Therefore, choosing the right light source and sensor are crucial components in defining the image's final color quality. By putting colored "gels" or optical filters over the lens to filter the light sources, it is possible to change the wavelengths that reach the sensor.
The choice of suitable reproduction tools and materials controls color reproduction throughout the image chain. Filtering affects color in photographic imaging both during the capture stage (by using various color-sensitive layers in emulsions) and during the output stage (by filtration during printing). Digital image processing is a potent tool for handling color in digital photos, enabling easy alteration of the image's overall color balance as well as specific color ranges or localized locations.
Color translation between devices is challenging because of the several phases involved in the digital imaging process and the wide variety of devices and technologies available. The color gamuts of input and output devices are extremely device dependant, which means that various devices with the same pixel value may create different colors depending on the devices' attributes, age, and calibration. Digital color management requires rigorous characterisation and calibration of all input and output devices, as well as knowledge of the various ways that colors are represented digitally across the image chain and color-processing software.
Photos by @anna89