Image forming apparatus and image forming method for detecting light intensities

An image forming apparatus that carries out an image forming process in which an image is formed on an image bearing member, comprising:

• a light emitting unit adapted to emit laser beam onto the image bearing member;
• a light intensity detecting unit adapted to detect light intensities of a speckle pattern resulting from the laser beam reflected by a part of a surface of the image bearing member on which an image is not formed;
• a light intensity distribution information acquiring unit adapted to acquire light intensity distribution information on a distribution of the detected light intensities of the speckle pattern;
• a phase information acquiring unit adapted to acquire phase information on phases on the image bearing member based on the light intensity distribution information of the speckle pattern;
• a processing unit adapted to carry out the image forming process in synchronization with a predetermined phase included in the acquired phase information;
• and an image bearing member density detecting unit adapted to detect a density of the image formed on the image bearing member;
• wherein said image bearing member density detecting unit adapted to detect the density of the image formed on the image bearing member in accordance with the phase information by said phase information acquiring unit;
• wherein said processing unit comprises a density characteristic information correcting unit adapted to correct density characteristic information comprising at least one of a density and a tone of an image to be formed on the image bearing member, and a table creating unit adapted to create a table in which the acquired phase information and the density characteristic information are associated with each other.