Photograph

A photograph is a picture produced by the action of light on a photosensitive material and obtained by an optical system involving a lens and other optical devices. Initially, photography was mainly a means of preserving portraits and images of nature and of human artifacts and activities. However, the significance of photography to mankind increased rapidly and photography has now become one of the most important means of information distribution and documentation and has provided the technological basis for the art of film making. It is also one of the fundamental technologies used in printing and is a widely used research tool in science and technology. Photography may be regarded, simultaneously, as a branch of science, a technology, and an art. Over-reliance on the photograph as evidence of fact or reality has led to sophisticated falsification techniques for both still and motion pictures. In addition, untouched photographs may be arranged in sequences or contexts to imply events that never occurred.