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Discover basic photography terms in this beginner's guide that covers vocabulary for gear, techniques, and processes to help pursue the craft of photography.
- Jpg
When you’re faced with a huge TIFF file that’s great for...
- Glitch Effect
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable, and nasty...
- Shoot Raw Vs. JPEG
RAWs give you more information to work with, but you have to...
- Jpg
Nov 28, 2023 · A complete guide to photography terms for photographers, from basic words to technical phrases to casual lingo -- this glossary covers it all.
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- Camera Lens Terms
- Photography Terms For Cameras
- Metering Photography Terms
- Photography Terms For Camera Settings
- Photography Terms For Techniques
- Rules For Great Images
- Lighting Photography Terms
- Photography Definitions For Extra Equipment
- Photography Slang
- File Formats
It’s an iris mechanism that controls the amount of light that gets through the lens. It also affects the depth of field. The f-number describes the relative size of the aperture. The f-number (or f-stop) is the ratio of the diameter of the hole of the aperture and the focal length. We write it as “f/” followed by a number (for example, f/2.8). As the number decreases, the aperture physically gets wider. More light passes, and the depth of field gets shallower. Generally, lower f-numbers mean...
Lenses have a point where light rays converge, which we call the focal point. The focal length is the distance between the principal plane of a lens and the focal point. This number is expressed in mm and written on the outside of the lens. A 35mm lenshas a distance of 3.5cm between the focal point and the principal plane of the lens. It determines the angle of view and magnification in photography. This is one of the main parameters that marks and groups the lenses. This number is magnified...
There are two different kinds of lenses. A zoom and a prime lens. A zoom lens is a variable-length lens, meaning you can change its focal length. This allows you to change perspectiveeasily. Although these are more versatile, they often have limited sharpness due to needing more mechanisms inside the lens. Also, these are not operating with as fast f/stop values as prime lenses.
SLR
A single-lens reflex (SLR) is a camera with one lens for focusing, viewing, and capturing. SLRs use a mirror and a prism to reflect the light coming into the camera. This allows photographers to see through their viewfinder and see exactly what they will capture. The mirror flips up when the shutter is open to allow light to expose the film. These are analog cameras, and they use film.
DSLRs are Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras. They work with the same mechanical system as SRLs, but instead of using a film, they capture the image digitally and store it on a memory card.
TLR
A twin-lens reflex (TLR) is a vintage camera type. TLR cameras have two separate lenses with the same focal length. With the top one, you can focus and compose the scene. This is part of the viewfinder system. The viewfinder uses a mirror, a matte focusing screen, and a hood. The bottom lens is solely used to take the photograph. These two are connected, so if an image appears sharp in the viewfinder, it will also be sharp on the film.
Matrix Metering
“Matrix metering” (Nikon), the same as “evaluative metering” (Canon), is a light metering mode. It determines the correct exposure with a special algorithm. It looks at the scene you photograph and separates it into different zones. These zones are then analyzed separately for light and dark tones. It counts the focal pointas more important.
Center-Weighted Metering
When you don’t want to look at the whole scene for correct exposure, center-weighted metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame. It measures the light in the middle of the image with an intensity of 75% and less intensity on the sides. It doesn’t look at where you focus, as it assumes you are concentrating on the center of the image.
A type of light meteringused to read reflected light in a concentrated area of any given scene. It looks at where your focus is placed and evaluates the light only in that area, ignoring everything else.
ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization” and also refers to the sensitivity of the photographic film. Although, it is not a true acronym as this is not a direct reference to the organization. The union of the two film standards (American ASA and German DIN) brought this name to a different perspective. The whole operation was under the auspices of the ISO organization. Later, this phrase became more famous for its photographic aspect as they referred to ISO as film sens...
The shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time the film plane or digital sensor is exposed to light. When a camera’s shutter is open, it captures the scene and creates a photograph. Your camera usually displays it as a whole number, like “400.” The numbers here are fractions of a second (1/400 s, in this example). If shooting for longer than a second, it’s displayed as 1″ (or longer). Shutter speed directly influences motion blur. At slow speeds, the shutter will stay open longer, r...
Aperture Priority, or A or Av, is a camera setting mode. You can set the aperture as desired and automatically change the shutter speed (and ISO, if set to auto).
This is a photographic optical illusion. It is generally used to make two or more objects appear closer or farther away. They can make the object or subject a different size than reality.
Depth of field (DoF) is the area in your image where the objects or subjects are sharply in focus. A large DoF will keep most of the image in focus, while a small one will show a very small area in focus. DoF is controlled by using the lens’s aperture.
Bokeh is Japanese for blur. It is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image. More bokeh is achieved by using wide apertures, longer focal lengths, or getting closer to the subject. Light appears in circles because of the blade mechanism of the aperture.
On sunny days, at an aperture of f/16, your shutter speed is the inverse of your ISO value. If you are at f/16 and ISO 400, your shutter speed should be 1/400.
Snowy 22
If the sun is shining over a snowy landscape at f/22, a balanced exposure is achieved using an inverse shutter speed inverse to your ISO. ISO 400 will give you a shutter speed of 1/400. This is only for calculation. It’s best if you don’t use either f/16 or f/22 unless you have a specific purpose. Apertures narrower than f/11 degrade image sharpness.
Overcast 8
Use f/11 when the sky is variable, f/8 in cloudy weather but not really dark, and f/5.6 for bad weather, like rain.
Kelvin
Kelvin is a measurement unit for temperature. In photography, it’s used for measuring color temperature. Different light sources have different color temperatures. This determines the white balance, as our subjects will reflect the color of the light they were in. Daylight is around 5500 Kelvin, whereas fluorescent lighting is closer to 4000 Kelvin.
High-key lighting is achieved by using a lot of light or whites in a photographed scene. This way, you can eliminate dark tones and shadows from your image. High-key photos usually give a clean and positive impression and feeling.
Low-key lighting is achieved by using a lot of darker tones, shadows, and blacks in a photographed scene. You usually need a dark background and a light source that only highlights specific areas. This way, you can keep your subject in the shadow and highlight some parts. Low-key photos are dramatic and mysterious.
It’s basically a light source that produces a flash of artificial light. It lights just for a short time (flashes). This is where its name comes from. This can be built into the camera or sit on it via the hot shoe, or you can use it on a stand. Flash is commonly used in studios and low light conditions (for example at different events).
A remote flash trigger connects the camera and the flash unit when the flash unit is off-camera. This works using infrared signals or a wire.
A studio strobe is a flash unit that has lightning-fast recycle times. So strobes can flash fast many times in a row. They also provide brighter and stronger light than a simple flash.
Chimping
Chimping is constantly looking at your images on the LCD screen while missing perfect photographic opportunities.
Stopping Down
Stopping down translates to increasing the number of f-stops. The higher the number, the smaller the aperture. This reduces the amount of light entering the lens. This way, you can avoid many kinds of light diffraction.
Opening Up
Opening up translates to decreasing the number of f-stops. The lower the number, the larger the aperture. By opening up, more light will enter the lens.
JPEG stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group.” It’s a file extension for a lossy graphics file. The JPEG file extension is the same as a JPG.
RAW image files contain unprocessed pixel data, either uncompressed or minimally compressed. They offer extensive editability and flexibility. But you must edit, tweak, and export them to another format (usually JPEG). It can be up to five times bigger than a JPEG image. They are often called digital negatives.
This is an abbreviation for “digital negative.” As a container file, it does not only consist of the image itself. It also holds non-destructive editing information. Because of this, DNGs can be moved more easily, you don’t have search for their sidecar .xmp files. DNG also offers more future compatibility than brand-specific raw files.
Oct 7, 2019 · 12. DSLR Camera. DSLR stands for “digital single lens reflex” camera. It is one of the most popular types of advanced cameras, along with mirrorless cameras (see “mirrorless” below). The two defining aspects of a DSLR compared to other cameras are its digital sensor and its reflex mirror.
Aperture diameter = 50mm (bigger, more light through) F-number therefore = f/2. Imagine you cut a pizza into 10 slices. 1/2 of the pizza is way more than 1/10 th of a pizza, which would be just one slice. Inside your lens, it works the same way, and f/2 lets in way more light than f/10 – as seen in the example above.
Feb 26, 2024 · Full-Frame Sensor –. A full-frame sensor is the photography term used to describe the physical dimensions of a camera sensor that measures 36mm x 24mm. This is the same size as a single frame of 35mm film. It is relevant when discussing the focal length of camera lenses and their field of view.
Focal Length. The designated size of your lens, expressed in millimeters. In technical terms, focal length refers to the distance between the optical center of the lens (its point of focus) and the camera sensor, which determines light saturation. The smaller the focal length of your lens, the wider your angle of view will be.
