The cameras on the market today require focusing on a specific point before taking a shot. Then, they capture the all the lighting for that focused area and count it as one source of light. Lytro defines the light field as “all of the light traveling in every direction in every dimension”. The Lytro camera can gather up all this light information, take the shot, and enable the user and even viewers of the photo to actually adjust the focus of the picture afterwards. There is nothing like this to date.
Light field technology is not only for adjusting the focus of a photo. It dramatically helps in other areas of photography, too. When the camera is able to gather the entire light field of a photo, this information helps take a great picture in low light areas without the need for a flash. For many years now, camera manufacturers have been slowly improving low light sensitivity of photos by using larger sensors to decrease noise. With the light field technology in play, lighting is no longer an issue.
