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The chemical component in a traditional camera is film. Essentially, when you expose film to a real image, it makes a chemical record of the pattern of light.
It does this with a collection of tiny light-sensitive grains, spread out in a chemical suspension on a strip of plastic. When exposed to light, the grains undergo a chemical reaction.
Once the roll is finished, the film is developed -- it is exposed to other chemicals, which react with the light-sensitive grains. In black and white film, the developer chemicals darken the grains that were exposed to light. This produces a negative, where lighter areas appear darker and darker areas appear lighter, which is then converted into a positive image in printing.
Color film has three different layers of light-sensitive materials, which respond, in turn, to red, green and blue. When the film is developed, these layers are exposed to chemicals that dye the layers of film. When you overlay the color information from all three layers, you get a full-color negative. For an in-depth description of this entire process, check out how Photographic Film Works.
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