What are some basics of photography jargon?

Question

What are some basics of photography jargon?

Answer 1

Aperture - A variable opening in the lens that controls the amount of light let into the camera

Aperture priority - An exposure function where the user controls the aperture and therefore the depth of field and the camera alters the metering and shutter speed accordingly

Anti-aliasing - Smoothing the jagged edges (aliasing) of selection or paint tools in digital imaging software.

Artefact - A defect or flaw in a digital image.

Bit - A binary digit. A digital quantity representing either 1 or 0.

Bitmap - An image made up of dots or pixels. All cameras produce these.

Buffer - This is the memory that can store images before they are written to the memory card. This means a burst of photos can be taken in a short space of time.

Burst mode (Continuous Shooting) - A feature that allows many shots to be taken in quick succession.

Camera Shake - Blurring in an image caused by movement during an exposure.

CCD - (Charge-Coupled Device) Converts light into electrical current. This is the image sensor which is the digital equivalent of film.

Cloning - A feature in image editing software that allows one part of the image to be duplicated over another. This allows blemishes or artefacts to be seamlessly removed.

CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. This is an alternative image sensor to the CCD.

CMY, CMYK - (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) Colour printing model. CMYK adds black (Key) and is used for most professional printing applications.

CompactFlash - Type of digital camera removable storage media.

Depth of Field - The area in front and behind the focus point that is sharp. This is controlled by the aperture.

Digital Zoom - A feature that enlarges the central part of the image to create the effect of a telephoto lens. It is in fact just cropping the image.

DPI - (Dots per Inch). Is a measurement of the resolution of a printer or monitor.

Electronic Viewfinder - A tiny LCD screen mounted inside a viewfinder to replace an optical system.

Exposure - The amount of light falling on a CCD or image sensor. It is controlled by a combination of shutter speed and aperture.

EXIF - (Exchangeable Image Format) enables information such as the time and date of the photograph be stored alongside the exposure.

f-Number / f-stop - The f-number describes the diameter of the aperture as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. The smaller the f/number the larger the aperture and thus the shallower the depth of field.

Focal Length - The measurement that determine the magnification and field of view of a lens. Expressed in mm.

Infinity -The farthest possible distance a lens can focus on.

Interpolation - Increasing the number of pixels in an image or filling in missing colour information by sampling neighbouring pixels. This cannot add information or detail to the image.

ISO - (International Standard Organisation) this used to refer to the light sensitivity of film. So you can guess in digital terms it relates to the sensitivity of the sensor. The darker a scene then a higher ISO will be needed.

JPEG - A file format that is very efficient at storing digital photographs. It allows a large amount of information to be compressed to take up less memory. Virtually all cameras use this format.

Macro - Used to describe photographs that are very close-up but refers to a lens that can focus at close distances, usually less than 30cm.

Manual - The function where the user enters all the variables that make up the exposure, the shutter speed and exposure settings must be entered manually.

Memory Card - A form of removable storage, which stores all the information for each photograph. They come in a variety of formats (SD card, Smart Media, CompactFlash, Sony Memory Stick)

Megapixel - A measurement of camera resolution. One million pixels is a megapixel.

Noise - In digital cameras noise often occurs in low light images or where high ISO values have been used. It shows in the form of pixels that have random colours on dark areas of the image.

Pixel - (PICture ELement.) The smallest element of a picture. All digital photos are made of small squares, these are the pixels.

PPI - (Pixels/Points Per Inch.) A measurement of resolution in scanners, images and printers.

Resolution - Measurement of the amount of information in an image in the form of pixels. Often expressed as two figures representing the image width and height, such as 2272 X 1704 pixels or 4 megapixels.

RGB - (Red, Green, Blue.) Digital Cameras use a mix of R, G and B to make up the colours of an image.

Shutter Speed - The time in which the image sensor or CCD is exposed during the exposure.

Shutter Lag - The delay between the pressing of the shutter button and the picture being taken.

Telephoto - A lens that magnifies the subject making it seem closer.

TIFF - File format for high quality digital images

White Balance - Most digital cameras adjust colour balance to compensate