Abstract
Photochemical imaging is dominated by silver halide technology. The early history of photography is described while introducing the essential ingredients of modern photography. The technology is described by reference to modern materials and current understanding of the photochemical processes involved. At the core is the photolysis of silver halide crystals leading to the formation of latent images. Their manufacture and chemical and spectral sensitisation are briefly described. The development of the silver images is explained. Variations on the technology of development lead to the variety of types of familiar and less familiar photographic products. Non-silver photographic systems have also provided significant commercial imaging systems, for example, Blueprints, Diazotypes and dichromated colloid/polymer systems. The last was important in the early development of photography and is still exploited today. The principles of electrophotographic systems are also briefly described.
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The rods in the retina respond to much lower light levels. They are saturated at normal light levels but at low levels they produce an achromatic response to the wavelength range below about 600 nm. Moonlit scenes are therefore lacking in colour. To become active the rods need to recover from the saturation caused by high light levels and this process of dark adaptation takes up to 30 min or so. Their activity can be preserved by using red illumination. For example, in a submarine if the red lights used were to fail suddenly the rods would still be responsive whereas white light failure would leave the crew essentially blind for several minutes
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Evans, G.B., Ledger, M.B., Adam, H.H. (2013). Photochemical Imaging. In: Evans, R., Douglas, P., Burrow, H. (eds) Applied Photochemistry. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3830-2_11
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