Charles S. Johnson, Jr.

Charles S. Johnson, Jr.

Charles S. Johnson, Jr. received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from MIT. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Yale University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is now Professor Emeritus. He has published approximately 150 papers on magnetic resonance and light scattering as well as books on laser light scattering and quantum mechanics. His interest in photography goes back to the 1950's; however, for many years his career in science left little time for serious photography. Now he is an avid nature photographer, and he blogs about photography here. In addition, he is making use of his scientific background to research and write about the physical and psychological bases of photography. His recent book, Science for the Curious Photographer, 2nd Ed, includes discussions of light and optics, sensors, factors that determine image quality, and the human visual system.
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Articles by Charles S. Johnson, Jr.


What We See

 An essay by Charles S. Johnson, Jr. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  – Albert Einstein I don’t mean that the real


Observing and Managing Color: Dealing with Color Vision Anomalies

The camera versus the human eye Superficially, the human eye appears to be similar to a camera.  Here looks certainly deceive because, other than a


Landscape & Environment

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

Star Trails and Exposure Times for Landscape Astrophotographers

Do stars move in circles around Polaris in your camera? As the lawyers say, it depends. If you have the usual rectilinear lens (anything other


The Ethics of Photo Manipulation

By Charles S. Johnson, Jr.We are bombarded with images from television, computer screens, newspapers, and magazines.  There are advertisements, illustrations for news stories, snapshots from


Full Sized vs. Cropped Sensors

By Charles Sidney Johnson, Jr. Questions like this and misleading answers fill the photographic forums. One “expert” says that lenses are not equivalent to anything