Digital photography was born with the development of the CCD (Charged Coupled Device), an array of light sensitive diodes. Engineers at Bell laboratories, in the late 1960's, were working on capturing images digitally for use in computer memories, primarily for use in video telephony.
Today, CCD and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors) arrays are primarily used in still and motion (video) cameras. While CCD arrays are used primarily in digital still cameras, CMOS devices, because they are cheaper to manufacture, are becoming the device most used in still and motion cameras.
In traditional photography, the photographer selects the film he wants to use, which will yield the best picture quality for his subject, and once the image is captured on film, there are 3 basic steps that must take place to view the photo as it was composed by the photographer. Firstly, the film must be chemically developed transforming the film into a negative. Secondly, light is passed through the negative and projected onto photosensitive paper, in an enlarger. This step serves two purposes. It enlarges the small negative image into a larger image on the photosensitive paper and secondly allows the photographer, by manipulating the light from the enlarger, to soften, create shadow effects or otherwise modify the original composition of the image. Finally, the photosensitive paper is then chemically developed to yield the final result, the finished "positive" photo.
Compared to digital photography, the above steps are time consuming and cumbersome. Once the image is captured in a digital camera, the results can be viewed immediately on a small screen attached to the camera and as with many digital cameras, the image will be free of blurrs, caused by the movement of the photographer during exposure, by image stabilization circuitry in the camera.
All that is needed to achieve the final print is to connect the camera to a computer and upload the digital images where specialized photo software will allow the photographer to recompose the image by, adjusting size, contrast, color, light balance, depth of field, merge other images, and other special effects such as morphing.
