Computational photography is an imaging technology under the presupposition that images are created through digital processing instead of optically obtaining the images of photographic subjects.
Conventionally, cameras have been used as a device to directly record the images of photographic subjects formed through a lens. Despite the emergence of digital cameras, which record the images formed through lenses as electronic signals, there has been no change in the fundamental function of reproducing the image captured by a lens when pictures are taken.
With computational photography, meanwhile, optically obtained images are positioned as an intermediate product. First, a variety of information, such as the direction and angle of light upon shooting and the distance from the photographic subject, is recorded. Then, images are produced through digital processing. This enables the functions that conventional cameras cannot perform, including focus adjustments and elimination of camera shake after shooting the images.
