Thread 4477601

Where can I learn about optics and optical science? I want to know more about cameras to the point I could know everything about a camera’s settings without looking at metadata. I want to know if I can work out a camera’s settings or lens just by looking at a photograph and analysing it.
For instance, can you work out the shutter speed or aperture through deduction if you already know the ISO or focal length or distance to subject or depth of field? My question is about the exposure triangle and knowing whether one element in a camera’s setting can give you clues to the other elements.
Surely there have been forensics used on this level, in some sort of criminal case. Or do they usually only look for manufacturing clues for the camera’s build and make?

>>4477601 (OP)
With experience you can get a feel for f number, focus distance, and focal length, but it's not very scientific. I'm curious about the forensics perspective but it possibly just doesn't matter so I'm not sure you'll find much. Studying optics won't do a whole lot for you here.

>>4477601 (OP)
them maybe start here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmFQrYnDzhM

>>4477608
*then

>>4477601 (OP)
>For instance, can you work out the shutter speed or aperture through deduction if you already know the ISO or focal length or distance to subject or depth of field? My question is about the exposure triangle and knowing whether one element in a camera’s setting can give you clues to the other elements.

Yes. There are tons of exposure calculators. Google EV DOF calculator to mess around with them. Knowing the time and place can help you figure out the general light level (EV) which gives you an idea of typical exposures. Perspective helps find focal length e.g. a landscape with compressed features is more telephoto unless it was a crop. Noise levels helps find ISO unless they used a denoiser. Motion blur helps find shutter speed. Depth of field will tell you aperture assuming you know subject distance and it's not a crop or stitch. Dynamic range can help you find out sensor size and color science can help you identify the manufacturer. Without EXIF, just the resolution gives big clues. Chromatic aberration, vignetting, field curvature, bokeh are useful for figuring out the lens e.g. apochromatic, apodization, the swirly bokeh Helios etc.

For optics in general, there are some good tutorials out there. There's a good beginner series by the guy behind the Google Pixel phones on Youtube. 1001 lens nights by Nikon is fun read about the development of their lenses historically and the Zeiss Lenspire site has PDFs from engineers that are great resources for design. If you know a photo was an ultrawide for instance you probably guess it is more recent since those weren't common in the past for example. At some point you'll want to learn about MTF and the articles on Lensrental are good for that. Roger Clark also had a good website on optics. Canon had a lens brochure that was informative. Brandon Dube (sp?) is an optical engineer who comments on Lensrentals and some other photo sites so if you find his profile on Disqus you could probably engage with him.

>>4477608
>Eggers
>Visual legacy
I like his work but we are in a pretty poor shape in terms of cinema if his visual style is considered legacy

>>4477601 (OP)
When I was in college, the head of our photo dept who was only in his late 30s could look at a printed photo and reliably critique your camera settings, lighting scheme, and printer in a single glance. It was pretty amazing until I realized just how many images he'd been looking at for how many years. Did it in the Marines before he was a professor and QC'd hundreds of thousands of images for them as well.

Occasionally a student would have some print shop run prints (still on a nice commercial printer, but not a fine art giclee printer) to make a deadline and he'd just take one look at it, tilt his head, see the colors at the borders, and you knew you were fucked, getting a 0 on that one. No one ever got anything past that guy. And he got that skill level in just over a decade. So, it's possibru OP