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Photography Accessories: What You Need To Be A Photographer
By Andrew Kelly

There are many photography accessories. The most important one is the camera. A camera is a device used to take pictures, either singly or in sequence, with or without sound recording, such as with video cameras. A camera that takes pictures singly is sometimes called a photo camera to distinguish it from a video camera. The name is derived from camera obscura, Latin for dark chamber, an early mechanism for projecting images in which an entire room functioned much as the internal workings of a modern photographic camera, except there was no way at this time to record the image short of manually tracing it. Cameras may work with the visual spectrum or other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock. Historically there have been three major types of film base in use: cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate and polyester.

A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding the image capture of still film or the image capture and projection of motion picture film. In the latter case, it may also encompass audio parameters. These characteristics usually include the film gauge, pull down method, lens anamorphosis and film gate or projector aperture dimensions, all of which need to be defined for photography as well as projection, as they may differ.

A filter is a camera accessory consisting of an optical filter that can be inserted in the optical path. The filter can be a square or rectangle shape mounted on a holder accessory or, more commonly, a glass or plastic disk with a metal or plastic ring frame, which can be screwed in front of the lens. Filters allow added control for the photographer of the images being produced. Sometimes they are used to make only subtle changes to images; other times the image would simply not be possible without them.

A flash is a device that produces an instantaneous flash of light at a color temperature of about five thousand five hundred kilowatts to help illuminate a scene. While flashes can be used for a variety of reasons they are mostly used to illuminate scenes that do not have enough available light to adequately expose the photograph. The term flash can either refer to the flash of light itself, or as a colloquialism for the electronic flash unit which discharges the flash of light. The vast majority of flash units today are electronic, having evolved from single use flash bulbs and inflammable powders.

Author Details:
Andrew Kelly, copywriter for various websites including, Photo Gallery and The A to Z of Photography with his main interests being photography and travel.

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