When you starting out in photography there are lots of technical terms that you need to know to progress to the next level but their often woven into long complex descriptions. This essential photography glossary gives you all the technical jargon you need to make it seem like you know what you're talking about.
Aperture- size of the opening within the lens. The wider the aperture the more light the lens allows through the sensor. Wide apertures have low f/numbers. As the aperture gets narrower the f/number increases, the shutter speed decreases and the depth of field
increases.
Blinkies- Flashing areas of a picture preview that shows you which areas are either over or
underexposed.
Bokeh- Bokeh is the orbs created when lights are out of focus in an image.
Bounce Lighting- light that is bounced off a reflective surface onto the subject in order to achieve a softer lighting effect.
Bracketing- The process of taking multiple pictures at different exposures. This has become a popular way of creating HDR images.
Bulb Setting- This setting allows you to set your shutter speed for a time greater than 30 seconds. With bulb exposures its best to use a remote shutter release to control the opening and closing of the shutter.
Candid- a photo taken informally without the subjects knowledge creating a lovely natural image.
Catchlight- A highlight in a subjects eyes. They help to add life and interest to a subject.
Clipping- this is when either the highlights disappear off the right side of the histogram and are blown out or, conversely, the shadows extend beyond the left side of the histogram - either results in a loss of detail.
Colour Cast- the unnaturally strong presence of a particular colour in your image.
Composition- The arrangement of subjects within your shot.
DSLR- A digital camera with a mirror that allows light to pass through the lens and then through the viewfinder.
Dynamic Range- The difference between the darkest and brightest parts of your image.
Definition- the clarity of detail in an image.
Depth of Field- The portion of the image that is considered in focus.
Dutch Angle- A compositional technique involving rotating the camera to create an image that seems fun and candid.
Exposure- the amount of light which reaches your camera sensor or film. It is a crucial part of how bright or dark your pictures appear.
Exposure Compensation- A camera setting that increases or decreases the exposure to produce a brighter or darker image.
Exposure Triangle- the term used for the three fundamental elements of exposure: aperture, shutter speed and ISO.Â
F number- the ratio of the focal length of a camera lens to the diameter of the aperture being used for a particular shot.
Focal Length- The focal length describes the distance in millimeters between the lens and the image it forms on the film.
Golden Hour- the golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky.
HDR- stands for high dynamic range. Combines multiple photos of different exposures to create a single photo with great detail in the highlights and shadows- something that couldn’t be achieved as highly within a single exposure.
Highlights- the brightest parts of an image.
Histogram- A graphic representation of the range of tones from dark to light in a photo.
ISO- the sensitivity of your camera to light.
JPEG- it’s a compression method that is used within a file format.
Long Exposure- A long exposure is an image that has been exposed for a long time or uses a long shutter speed. This technique is useful for shooting still objects in low light (used often by landscape photographers), or rendering moving objects into an artistic blur.
Manual Mode- A mode that disables your camera autoexposure system , requiring you to specify your camera’s exposure.
Metering- the process of measuring the correct exposure for a photo by measuring the brightness of a scene.
ND Filter- a neutral-density filter, is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths, or colors, of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. These are imperative to long exposures as they help to reduce the amount of light that enters the camera.
Negative Space- Everything in an image not consumed by the subject.
Polarising Filter- a photographic or optical filter that polarizes the light passing through it, used chiefly for reducing reflections and improving contrast.
Prime Lens- a lens of fixed focal length.
RAW- a file format that captures every piece of information recorded by your digital camera sensor. They consume a lot more space than Jpegs but can produce higher quality images and you have greater flexibility and control when it comes to editing.
Rule of odds- The rule of odds states that images are more visually appealing when there is an odd number of subjects.
Rule of thirds- A compositional guideline to position subjects and key elements of an image.
Saturation- How rich the colours are in a photo.
Shallow depth of field- images that have very small zones of focus.
Shutter Priority- a system used in some automatic cameras in which the shutter speed is selected by the user and the appropriate aperture is then set by the camera.
Shutter Speed- is a measurement of how long its shutter remains open as the picture is taken.
Spot Metering- an exposure meter that measures light reflected from only a small area of a subject or scene.
Stop- A measurement of light. One stop doubles or halves the amount of light.
Telephoto Lens- a lens with a longer focal length than standard, giving a narrow field of view and a magnified image.
Underexposure- An image that is underexposed is an image that is too dark.
Vignette- a darkening at the corners of an image.
White Balance- Your eyes automatically adjust to different light sources, but a camera can’t do that—that’s why sometimes you take an image and it looks very blue or very yellow. Using the right white balance setting will make what’s white in real life actually appear white in the photo.
Conclusion
That should clear a lot of things up for the beginner photographers amongst you and saves you having to look up each individual words on Google. If there is any other lingo you're unsure of- or need a diluted definition of feel free to contact me.