Image forming apparatus to adjust the amount of light exposed by an exposure unit

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• a correction unit that corrects an amount of light for at least one portion of scanning positions along a main scanning direction;
• an exposure unit configured to form electrostatic latent images by irradiating light on the image bearing member based on the amount of light corrected by the correction unit, the light including at least a first light amount and a second light amount;
• a forming unit configured to form a plurality of toner patches, including at least a first toner patch formed with the first light amount and a second toner patch formed with the second light amount, on the image bearing member on the basis of the electrostatic latent images formed by the exposure unit;
• a plurality of detection units configured to detect the densities of the plurality of toner patches;
• and
• a control unit configured to change at least one setting of the correction unit based on the detection results by the plurality of detection units, the at least one setting being for correcting the amount of light for each scanning position along the main scanning direction,
• wherein the control unit controls the correction unit to change a part of the at least one setting before a latent image corresponding to the second toner patch is formed, the part of the at least one setting being less than all of the at least one setting and the part of the at least one setting corresponding to at least a position for the second toner patch.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• a correction unit that corrects an amount of light for at least one portion of scanning positions along a main scanning direction;
• an exposure unit configured to form electrostatic latent images by irradiating light on the image bearing member based on the amount of light corrected by the correction unit, the light including a first light amount and a second light amount;
• a forming unit configured to form a plurality of toner patches, including at least a first toner patch formed with the first light amount and a second toner patch formed with the second light amount, on the image bearing member on the basis of the electrostatic latent images formed by the exposure unit;
• a detection unit configured to detect the densities of the first toner patch and the second toner patch;
• and
• a control unit configured to change at least one setting of the correction unit based on the detection results by the detection unit, the at least one setting being for correcting the amount of light for each scanning position along the main scanning direction,
• wherein, after forming the first and second toner patches by controlling the correction unit to change a part of the at least one setting after a latent image corresponding to the first toner patch is formed and before a latent image corresponding to the second toner patch is formed, the part of the at least one setting being less than all of the at least one setting and the part of the at least one setting corresponding to at least a position for the second toner patch, the control unit controls the correction unit to change at least an additional setting or settings along the main scanning direction based on detection results by the detection unit.