Light and the eye 9th March

Starter: Label the handout and stick in your books

Label the diagram on you worksheet with the following labels:
Lens, cornea, pupil, optical nerve, iris, retina, muscle
1 Suggest some advantages of modern film compared to the plates that
were used 100 years ago.
2 a Why do you think a photographer taking an ‘action’ shot needs a very
short exposure time?
• b Why might the film need to be exposed for longer on a dull day?
3 a Describe what happens during the following stages of producing a
black and white photograph:
• a exposing the film
• b developing the film
• c making a print
• d developing the print.
4 Why does a print need to be made in a darkroom?
5 Why is the image that is formed on the film called a ‘negative’?
6 ‘Transparencies’ are pieces of developed film that can be projected onto
a screen.
• a Why wouldn’t you want to use a developed piece of negative film as a
transparency?
• b Suggest how you could make a transparency from a negative.
What would be the orientation of an
image projected on the retina?
 What would be the orientation of an
image projected on the retina?

Our brain turns it the right way up again!

 How do we see colour

Light is either

Filtered or Reflected
Light, colour and reflection

What we see from reflected light

depends on 2 factors

The smoothness of the surface

The colour of the object

 Diffuse Reflection
A rough surface scatters
light in all directions.
This results in loss of detail
from the image we see
 Specular Reflection
A completely smooth surface
allows light to obey the law Ref
lec ted
of reflection. ray
s
This gives us a completely
clear crisp image with very
little loss of detail.

Ra ys
d ent
i
Inc
Obey
the law of
reflection
 The colour of light that
is reflected into our eyes
eyes determines a
surface’s
colour. All other light is
absorbed by
the surface.

It’s how we see colour

To see shades,
different amounts
of different
colours are
reflected
Filters
Questions

1. Explain what colour a white object would look like in

green light.
2. A white light is shone though an red filter at a blue
surface. What colour would it appear and why?
3. In a dark room a pure blue and a pure green light are
shined onto red ball. What colour would it appear and
why?
4. In a dark room a pure blue, a pure red and pure green
light are shone onto an orange surface, what colour would
it appear and why?
 Perception of colour

Play video Run simulation