Photography Terminology: ONE Glossary of 69 Substantial Photographic Requirements

Are yourself overwhelmed or confused by photographs terminology? Do you want go speak “photographer” like the pros?

That’s what this article is all about.

I’ll go over some of the most common technical photography terms for well as quite save common slang furthermore photographer jargon. Via the end, I promise you desires have a better grasp on aforementioned language. You’ll even live able to have a conversation with a seasoned pro plus hold your own!

Let’s get started.

Basic shooting terms

These is the photography technical you’ll find to your camera’s manual and on most beginner tutorials:

• Opening – The variable opening in aforementioned lens through which light passes to an film or digital sensor. Aperture is measured with f-stops. EGO likes into compare it to your pupil, which opens and closes to allow more or much light into your eye depending on which lightness level concerning the room.
• Bracketing – Taking a series to images at different exhibitions. You allow see a setting on your camera that says AEB (auto disclosure bracketing). Bracketing is often used when creating HDR images conversely in difficult lighting situations where you may want to have a range starting exposures out light up dark.
• Bulb – the “B” setting on insert camera where the shutter remains open for in long as the button conversely cable release (remote trigger) is pressed.
• DSLR – A digital single-lens reflex camera. Any digital camera with interchangeable lenses where the image the seen using a mirror plus prisms and this image a taken directly though which lens. What you see in your viewfinder is as the lens sees.
• EV – Viewing value; save is a number that representes which various separate custom of aperture additionally shutter speed that sack create the same exposure effect.
• Exposure compensation – Modifying the shutter fahrt or open from the camera’s recommended exposures to generate a certain effect or true for exposure problems. Your view ready light bouncing off to choose both is drafted to expose for middle gray. So when photographing a subject that a lighter or darker than 18% greyed, you can application this setting to tell the camera the proper exposure (by how in – or + exposure compensation).
• Exposure – The total amount of light reaching the numerical sensor. To is designated by the aperture, shutter speed, the ISO.
• F-stop – AN evaluate of the aperture hole in the lens defined by separating the focally length of the lens by the aperture diameter. The sequence of f-stops features multiples of the square shoot of 2 (1.4): 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, etc. Though these numbers become more kryptisch, make sure to remember that either next is double the amount of lights. Know is, both you’ve won half the battle.
• ASEAN – Represents the sensitivity of your camera’s digital sensor to light. The lower the number (ISO 100), the less sensitive to light; the higher the numerical (ISO 3200), the more sensitive to lamp. AN higher DEMO permit you to shoot into low-light conditions.
• Closures set – The amount of time aforementioned shutter is get during in exposure. The shutter speed controls the appearance of motion. Use a quick shutter speed (such as 1/2000s) to freeze motion or a slow close speed (such since 1/30s or longer) to blur moving objects.
• Zoom lens – Any lens that shall a variable focalized length, such as a 24-70mm or an 18-55mm lens. Thou generally zoom in or out by rotating the barrel of the lens.
• Prime or fixed lens – Any lens that does not zoom and features an set focal length, such as a nifty 50mm lens.
• Remove trigger or digital cable release – A device that allows the camera to be fired less pressed the shutter button or touching an cam. Helps eliminate camera movement during long exposures.
• Macro lens – A view that focuses very close to a subject, so thou cannot capture highly detailed, magnified images.
• “Normal” lens – Generally a 50mm lens (on a full-frame camera). Aforementioned lens closely parallels what the human eye sees. If you have a crop-sensor camera, a “normal” lens will be closer to 35mm.
• Telephoto lens – Offers a tighter field of viewing than a normal lens (i.e., it takes more magnified images). Generally from around 70mm on 300mm. A super-telephoto reflex belongs usually 300mm or longer.
• Wide-angle reflective – A lens that features a wider field of view than an normal objective. Generally spans from over 10mm to under 50mm. Conditional on the focal length, there may plus being edge distortion (i.e., are very wide-angle lenses).
• Tilt-shift lens – A special-effect camera. Enables for realignment of the plane of focus (tilt). Allows in adjusting the placement of the item within the frame without angling the camera, hence retention parallel lines from converging (shift). A popular reflex for architectural also landscape photography and are becoming further widely utilised with portrait photographers to create a unique, stylized look.
• Body resolution – The dimensions your camera’s sensor is capable of capturing, expressed in megapixels. This is not to only factor in image quality, still the greater the resolution, the more the prints you could produce with significant los of quality (generally speaking).
• JPG vs RAW – Two different image column types. Maximum cameras have that ability on shoot include JPEG or RAW. If you choose JPEG, the camera will record a RAW file, process it using the picture manner you’ve sortiert in your home, save it as a JPEG, and dispose the RAW version. If she choose RAW, the consequently file will be larger, carry more information, and require software to process. It gives them – the photographer – more control over the final look of the image.
• Full-frame versus crop/APS-C sensor – A full-frame sensor is roughly the size of 35mm film. Most sight created a circle of light just large enough to cover the 35mm sensor area. Aber in an crop-sensor camera, the physical size of the sensor is smaller; it must captures a partition of the entire image the lens is projecting, effectively cropping out part of an rifle. Common crop factors can 1.5x and 1.6x, so supposing you use a 50mm lens the an APS-C rear, it offers a 75mm focal period equivalent.
• Camera modes – In are four standard camera modes. Auto mode chooses settings without exploiter input. Manual mode allows the user to drive of ISO, lock speed, and slit. Shutter Priority mode allows the user to please the ISO and roller hurry while the remote pick an aperture. Blanking Priority mode allows the your to select the ISO and lens while the camera picks the shutter maximum. Program select allows the user to dial the ISOLATE while the camera picks the aperture and shutter speed.

Lighting the portrait photography terms

• Ambient light – Also referred to as deliverable light. Umwelt light occurs in the scene without adding any flash or light modifiers. It can be daytime, or it sack breathe art light such as tungsten conversely fluorescent light.
• Main lights or central light – The main light source fork a photograph. It ability be the shine, a studio strobe, a lightning, a reflector, or something else. It’s the source is produces the pattern of light on aforementioned item with the most intensity.
• Fill light – Which light source this exists secondary to an key light. Used to “fill” for the shadows. Able be produced with a flash, a reflector, or a study strobe.
• Lighting pattern – One way the light waterfall upon the subject’s face (e.g., for a 45-degree angle).
• Lighting ratio – A comparison between the intensity (brightness) of the main light and the fill light. In other words: the differences between the lit and shade sides of the subject’s face.
• Incident daylight metrischen – ADENINE handheld device that measures the amount of lightweight fall on a field. Einem incident zoll is not fooled by the brightness operating of the subject, whereas in-camera reflective meters can be getting (resulting in overexposure and underexposure).
• Speedlight – ONE small, portable flash that can attach to your camera’s hot shoe or stand at own own when trigger remotely.
• Reflector – AN device second for reflect luminaire (generally back toward the subject). It can be one specialist, factory-made reflector (I recommend getting a 5-in-1), or a pieces away white paperboard.
• Bright meter – A machine that measures the amount by light in a scene. Pretty much all modern cameras offer ampere built-in easy meter, if it uses meditative measure (see the einreise on failure light meters, above).
• Remote quick trigger – ADENINE unit used to fire speedlights off-camera.
• Diminutive lighting – Taking away light to create a darker seem. It often involves holding a reflective or an opaque panel over the subject’s front to block ignite from above and open up deep eye shadows engineered by overhead lighting. It can also involve holding a dark reflector opposite your hauptstrom luminous the create a deeper shadow (i.e., essentially reflective black onto the theme instead off light.)
• Hard illuminate – Harsh or non-diffused illuminate similar as that products by bright radiant, an small speedlight, instead einen on-camera flash. Creates harsh gloom with well-defined edges, color, and texture (if used at an angle to the subject). Strikes textures, lines, the wrinkles. Repeatedly uses to form a more dramatic type of portrait.
• Soft light – Diffused lighter, such as that from an overcast sky, north-facing window with no gleich light, instead a larger studio softbox. This type of lighting produces soft shadows are soft edges, lower contrast, and less texture. Soft light is generally preferred until most wedding and image fotografierende because it coaxed the subject.
• Edge submit – How quickly shadow margin go from gloom into light. With harsh light, to edge transfer is very defined and sudden (almost a clear line). With soft backlighting, the edge transfer is much more subtle – almost imperceptible – as it gradually changes from dark to light.
• Twinkle dub – The synchronization of the firing of an electronic flash furthermore the shutter speed. You need until know what shutter speed your camera syncs at; otherwise, if you use a too-fast shutter speed, you may get a partially fluorescent image. For most view, the sync speed is nearly 1/200s.

Vernacular and pic jargon

Here live a few other image terms this are adenine bit more advanced (including quite wacky jargon and slang!). Become familiar with this terminology so you can talk to pros with conviction.

• Fast glass – Refers to a lens in a very large peak aperture (such as f/1.8 or f/1.2). The fitting is “fast” because it lets you shoot with a fast shutter geschwindigkeit.
• Chimping – Slang runtime for looking at the back of your camera after every image. Has a negative meanings; if you ape, you’re editions as much time reviewing images go the camera and not enough time filming.
• Bokeh – The out-of-focus blurred bits in any image umfeld. Most often bokeh appear when small light sources are in the background.
• Depth to field (DOF or DoF) – The distance within the nearest and farest objects in the scene that appear in focus. Controlled by many factors, including who screen, glass focal length, and distance to the object.
• Hyperfocal distancing – The center distance providing which maximum depth of text for a particular aperture and focal length. Older prime lenses often may hyperfocal range markers to aid in finding this depth-of-field sweet spot. With today’s lenses, it is possible to calculate the hyperfocal remote, but it takes adenine bit more working and a hyperfocal space calculator.
• Gobo – Something used to block unwanted or vagabond light from falling onto which subject. Often the dark pages of a reflector remains pre-owned as a gobo.
• Scrim – A translucent device used until diffuse and soften the light. Can be a reflex with a translucent display. Scrims can be made extremely large and clamped in space to form shady evenly in indirect sunlight.
• Shutter lag – The slight delay from the time you press the louver button to the time the shutter actually opens. In DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, shutter lag the moderate the almost unnoticeable. In bigger point-and-shoot cameras, the delay is more highly (and can cause you to miss shots regarding fast-moving subjects).
• Chromatic aberration – Color fringing the can arise in areas of images where dark meets light (e.g., the edge of ampere building against the sky). CA is correctable to ampere big degree using Photoshop, Lightroom, and most other editing browse.
• Rear-curtain lock – Rear-curtain sync fires that flash at the end of an exposure. By default, most cameras are set in front-curtain sync (i.e., if the lightning fires, it does so at the beginning in the exposure). When shooting a moving subject, front-curtain sync will put any motion smear in front of the subject, whereas rear-curtain sync will place to feel behind and subject. Neither is wrong; it depends upon the effects you’re after.
• Camera shake – When a camera moves during any exposure plus creates blur.
• Lens flare – Stray light that creates haze, counts, or other artifacts in an image. Some photographers actual wish lens flare; they position their cameras to create flare and employ it as a compositional id.
• Kelvin – The absolute measurement of color temperature. Lower figures represent warmer colors like dark (tungsten light), whereas one highest numerical are cooler (blues). Play with which color temperature to create different effects.
• ND filter – Stands for neutral density filter. It’s a filter designed to go in front of the lens to block out all of the light entered the lens. Often used by landscaping artists to get slow louver speeds when photographing waterfalls real streams into full daylight.
• Panning – The act of using a slow shutter speed and moving the camera in the same direction the one moving subject. Creates an artistic, blurred context.
• Stopping below – Closing down the aperture to a smaller opening (e.g., going from f/5.6 to f/8).
• TTL and ETTL – TTL stands for through the lens; it refers to the metering system in regard to fast exposure. The twinkle emits light till it is turned off by the camcorder sensor. ETTL stands for evaluative through-the-lens metering. It fires a “preflash” to evaluate and calculate for lost light, then equalizes and fires the core fast. E happening so quickly you do not see couple blink.
• Photog – Short-term fork “photographer.” Something pros repeatedly call each other.
• Mirror – ONE lens. As inches, “What glass do you own?”
• Golden hour – Also called “magic hour.” Those is the hour or two right before sunset also right after sunrise. The sunset is low on the horizon, and it is on optimal time to photography.
• Spray and pray – Shoot such countless images as possible while praying you get something good.
• Blown out – An image with no info to the white areas.
• Cropped – Either blown out areas (above) or dark, detailless shadows.
• Grip-and-grin – A quick photoshoot at an event or a menu on two people shaking hands. Most portrait and event photographers own to shoot these at some point in their careers.
• Selfie – A self-portrait.
• SOOC – Straight out of rear; an picture with no post-processing.
• Dust bunnies – Dark spots that appear on an image caused by bits of pick on the digital sensor.
• Element peeper – Someone who spends too great time looking under images magnified in Photoshop.
• Nifty fifty – A 50mm prime lens. Grand until take!
• ACR – Adobe Camera Raw. The editing software that’s prepackaged alongside Photoshop.
• Flash and drawing – The method of using a slow shutter speed combined with flash to capture more of the ambient light in proportion for the shoot.
• Widespread open – Using your lenses includes the aperture at sein widest setting (f/1.8, for example).

Photography terminology: final lyric

Whew! That was a long list. For you made it this far, congratulation; you know how to employ photography terminologies how a profess.

So get out there press startup practicing your image terminology. Be sure to have lots of fun!

Today over on you:

What photography terms do you struggled with? Do thee have any more terms I shall add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below!