When light bounces off an object, the light then travels into the eye of an observer who can then reconstruct the image. Do the photons encode the image and how do they do so?
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1$\begingroup$ When photons either bounce or are radiated by a media, they possess a given wavelength and a polarization state which your eye translates into a given color and polarization of that particular point, as well as the amount of photons detected per time (intensity). Your brain then uses all that information to piece it together and form an image you can understand. $\endgroup$– CharlieCommented May 22, 2019 at 17:24
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2$\begingroup$ @Charlie I didn't know polarization was relevant in human sight, is it? $\endgroup$– LithCommented May 22, 2019 at 17:38
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1$\begingroup$ I thought the same, but it turns out that some humans are actually sensitive to polarization of light, which honeslty is quite impressive: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528539 $\endgroup$– CharlieCommented May 22, 2019 at 18:00
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1 Answer
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Images are carried by the classical electromagnetic wave, as described in optics articles. Classical electromagnetic waves emerge as a superposition of zillions of photons, as indicated in this link.
Photons are elementary point particles and are described by a quantum mechanical wave function which carries the frequency information as well as phases to other photons. Individually photons can either scatter elastically , inelastically, or be absorbed and maybe new photons re-emitted. In order for the classical light beam to carry an image, the photons in the ensembles have to individually scatter elastically with the mirroring surface so as to retain the phases information , and thus the image, collectively in the built up classical electromagnetic wave.
An individual photon is a very small part of the image it helps along.
