'Look at the camera' vs 'look into the camera'
While watching a movie yesterday, a woman told Rowan Atkinson "look into the camera, sir" and I got confused with which preposition to use in this case.

Is it also correct to say "look at the camera" if my intention is to take a photograph of someone -- by the way, can I also simply say "to photograph someone"? Is there another specific situation in which I'd use "into" instead of "at"?

Thank you in advance!

Question

'Look at the camera' vs 'look into the camera'
While watching a movie yesterday, a woman told Rowan Atkinson "look into the camera, sir" and I got confused with which preposition to use in this case.

Is it also correct to say "look at the camera" if my intention is to take a photograph of someone -- by the way, can I also simply say "to photograph someone"? Is there another specific situation in which I'd use "into" instead of "at"?

Thank you in advance!

Answer

1) You can say look at the camera. It's fine to say it like that.
2) to  photograph can be used as a verb, depending on how you use it in a sentence, example "I want to photograph someone" or "I'm going to photograph him".
3) look into is used in many situations, such as look into the mirror or look into my eyes. I can't explain the difference grammatically, perhaps another italki member can help there.  If you want to hear an example, listen to " Everything I do" by Bryan Adams, it's the first line of the song.