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How Your Camera Works

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Re: How Your Camera Works

#31

Post by fit2rule »

vedant wrote: post #20
fit2rule wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word you are looking for is onomatopoeia ..

Nope. Skeuomorphism is a design concept whereby things that are in some way derived from other things retain design elements that were necessary in the original but aren't in the copy. The iOS shutter sound is an audio file played out of the device speaker, whereas it was a natural byproduct of the mechanism in the system from which the iOS camera is derived---a film camera.

Ah .. but shutter sound does support a purpose: it lets people know that a picture is being taken.

Re: How Your Camera Works

#32

Post by saiya-jin »

DanBC wrote: post #26
alkonaut wrote: post #23

How your phone camera works. It's a well written article but it seems odd to cover how a camera works and leave out Aperture because of the edge case of having a fixed aperture as in a smartphone. With a longer description of aperture and some picture examples of aperture controlling DoF and exposure this would have been a complete introduction to digital photography, now it's a complete introduction to fixed-apertur…

> because of the edge case Edge case? Phone cameras are very common and more common than DSLRs and probably more common than digital point and shoot.

True, but title is really misleading, and from true photography point of view, smart phone cameras are edge case, on low quality end of spectrum.

Also, most people with smartphone will never care for more than point & click, so suggested slight enhancement of coverage would make much more sense (although it doesn't put in anything that isn't already written out there 1000x times).

Re: How Your Camera Works

#33

Post by vedant »

fit2rule wrote: post #31
vedant wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Skeuomorphism is a design concept whereby things that are in some way derived from other things retain design elements that were necessary in the original but aren't in the copy. The iOS shutter sound is an audio file played out of the device speaker, whereas it was a natural byproduct of the mechanism in the system from which the iOS camera is derived---a film camera.

Ah .. but shutter sound does support a purpose: it lets people know that a picture is being taken.

Yes; in order to qualify as a skeuomorph it doesn't need to _not_ serve a purpose, it just needs to retain design cues that were essential to the function of the original but not to the function of the copy. The iOS camera could very well do its job of taking pictures without making a shutter sound. The shutter sound is an auditory cue for the user, but not a side effect of the camera's function.

As another example, consider the iOS notes app[1] before the iOS6 design transition. The app looked like a legal pad---complete with a leather binding across the top and remnants of pages torn off. These were essential functional characteristics of the original object, but were retained in the copy only to provide visual cues to the user that remind her that the app she is using is just like a notepad.

[1] http://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Notes-2...

Re: How Your Camera Works

#34

Post by danieleggert »

saiya-jin wrote: post #32
DanBC wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because of the edge case Edge case? Phone cameras are very common and more common than DSLRs and probably more common than digital point and shoot.

True, but title is really misleading, and from true photography point of view, smart phone cameras are edge case, on low quality end of spectrum. Also, most people with smartphone will never care for more than point & click, so suggested slight enhancement of coverage would make much more sense (although it doesn't put in anything that isn't already written out there 1000x times).

Thanks for the feedback. The reason I picked this title is simply because "your camera" for most people will be their smartphone. A bit too catchy for people with a DSLR.

But as other people have noted: Most photos today are taken with smartphones. I touch upon aperture, and linked to Wikipedia for those interested in in-depth information.

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