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Capturing an image of the environment with a mobile phone camera

The top image is captured using photography. The bottom image is rendered. Images are produced by capturing or rendering.

Definition of image and imagery, from Thomas Blount's Glossographia Anglicana Nova, 1707.

An image (from Latin: imago) is an artifact that depicts or records visual perception, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject–usually a physical object or a person, thus providing a depiction of it.

Characteristics [edit]

Images may be two-dimensional, such as a photograph, screen display, and as well as a three-dimensional, such as a statue or hologram. They may be captured by optical devices–such as cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces.

The word image is also used in the broader sense of any two-dimensional figure such as a map, a graph, a pie chart, or an abstract painting. In this wider sense, images can also be rendered manually, such as by drawing, painting, carving, rendered automatically by printing or computer graphics technology, or developed by a combination of methods, especially in a pseudo-photograph.

A volatile image is one that exists only for a short period of time. This may be a reflection of an object by a mirror, a projection of a camera obscura, or a scene displayed on a cathode ray tube. A fixed image, also called a hard copy, is one that has been recorded on a material object, such as paper or textile by photography or any other digital process.

A mental image exists in an individual's mind. Like something one remembers or imagines. The subject of an image need not be real; it may be an abstract concept, such as a graph, function, or "imaginary" entity. For example, Sigmund Freud claimed to have dreamed purely in aural-images of dialogs. The development of synthetic acoustic technologies and the creation of sound art have led to a consideration of the possibilities of a sound-image made up of irreducible phonic substance beyond linguistic or musicological analysis.

A still image is a single static image, as distinguished from a kinetic image (see below). This phrase is used in photography, visual media and the computer industry to emphasize that one is not talking about movies, or in very precise or pedantic technical writing such as a standard.

A film still is a photograph taken on the set of a movie or television program during production, used for promotional purposes.

Imagery (literary term) [edit]

Imagery is in literature a "mental picture" which appeals to the senses.^{[1][example needed]} It can both be figurative and literal.^[1]

Moving image [edit]

A moving image is typically a movie (film), or video, including digital video. It could also be an animated display such as a zoetrope.

See also [edit]

• Animation
• Cinematography
• Computer animation
• Computer-generated imagery
• Digital image
• Digital imaging
• Film
• Fine art photography
• Graphics
• Imagery
• Painting
• Photograph
• Photography
• Video

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Look up image in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paintings

• The B-Z Reaction: The Moving or the Still Image?
• FACE: Friends of Active Copyright Education
• Library of Congress - Format Descriptions for Still Images
• Image Processing - Online Open Research Group