A camera obscura is an ancient optical device that led to the development of [[photography]] and the photographic camera. The term “camera obscura” also refers to a room or box that has a small hole or lens on one side, letting light from an external scene pass through to strike a surface inside, where the scene is reproduced, inverted, but with color and perspective preserved.
This device works on the principle that when light rays reflected from a bright subject pass through a small hole in a thin partition, they do not scatter but instead reform as an inverted image on a surface opposite the hole. The result is a live projection of the scene outside onto the surface inside the camera obscura, which can be traced or studied. This phenomenon was pivotal in understanding how light works and in the development of cameras and photographic techniques.