Essential photography terms every beginner should know
Understanding the most essential photography terms is a step beginner photographers need to take if they are to master the basics.
Although there are hundreds of photography terms, we are keeping it simple and including the essential 30 that all beginners should add to their vocabulary.
So, let’s look at some of the most essential photography terms, and their meanings.
Aperture
Aperture refers to the adjustable opening of a lens’s diaphragm – or f/stop that controls how much light passes through the camera lens and falls on the sensor. Lower f/stop numbers will let in more light, while higher f/stop numbers let in less light.
Aperture numbers appear to be contradictory, and can be a bit confusing when you are first starting out. The easiest way to remember which f/stop to use is: a lower number f/stop means a wider aperture (more light), and higher number f/stop means a narrower aperture (less light).
Depth of field is also controlled by aperture. The lower the f/stop number, the bigger the opening in the lens, the less depth of field, and the blurrier the background.
The higher the f/stop number, the smaller the opening in the lens, the greater the depth of field, and the sharper the background.
Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio is the proportional difference between the width and height of an image. The aspect ratio of your image is determined by the dimensions of your camera’s sensor. You can change the aspect ratio in your camera if you know how you would like to print your image, or you can crop your image to the correct ratio when you edit it. The most common aspect ratios are 3:2, 4:3, 1:1 and 16:9
Bokeh
Bokeh is easily identified by the out of focus spheres, circles and orbs of light appearing in the background or foreground of an image. Bokeh is created by using larger apertures and a lens with a longer focal length: both will give you the shallow depth of field you need for creating a bokeh effect.
Bracketing
Bracketing is taking a series of photos in a row with variations in exposures using different shutter speeds or f/stops.
Burst Mode
Burst mode allows you to take a series of photographs in quick succession. The camera will continue taking photos as long as you hold the shutter button down.
Camera Modes
Nearly all digital cameras have a range of camera modes. Some modes allow the camera complete control, while other modes let the photographer control some or all of the exposure.
The most common camera modes are Automatic, Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night, Macro and No Flash. Switching between modes is as easy as turning the dial on top of the camera.
Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic aberration, also referred to as color fringing, occurs when a lens fails to refract all the wavelengths of color in the same point. It can affect all lenses, but higher quality lenses are less prone to it.
Composition
Composition is how you arrange all the of elements (subjects, graphics, light, tones) in your photograph.
Crop Sensor
Crop sensor is the basic term used to describe any sensor that is smaller than a full frame sensor. The two most common crop sensors are APS-C sensors and Micro 4/3 sensors.
Larger camera sensors allow you to capture more light, which increases the quality and detail in your image. This is why some photographers will choose a “full frame” sensor rather than a “crop sensor”.
Depth of Field
Depth of field describes the portion of a photo that is in focus. It is the distance between the nearest and the farthest object in your photo which are both in focus.
DSLR Camera
DSLRs are the standard camera of choice for professional and amateur photographers alike. DSLR stands for “digital single lens reflex” camera. The camera operates with a fixed, digital sensor, and is one of the most popular types of cameras. They produce high quality professional images, and work with multiple interchangeable lenses.
Exposure
Exposure is determined by the amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor. Exposure is determined by three elements, commonly known as the exposure triangle: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. Simply put, it is how bright or dark you images appear.
Exposure Compensation
Exposure Compensation allows photographers to override automatic exposure adjustments the camera makes. It allows you to control an image’s brightness by manually increasing or decreasing exposure.
Filters
Filters are usually made of glass, resin, or plastic and attach to your camera lens. Filters are used for different purposes in photography. They can enhance colors, reduce glare and reflections, or protect the lens.
Focal Length
Focal length is the system used to describe how wide or tight a lens is. The focal length of a lens is measured in millimeters, and is the distance from the lens’s optical center to the image plane in the camera when the lens is focused at infinity.
A shorter focal length produces a wider angle of view, and allows you to capture more of a scene. Longer focal lengths, produce a narrower angle of view, and will be more “zoomed in” on an image.
Focus
In photography focus refers to how sharp a part of the image is. An image that is sharp is said to be in focus, while an image that is blurry is considered to be out of focus.
Image Stabilization
Image stabilization is a feature on cameras and lenses. It helps to correct motion blur created by slight shakes or vibrations in the camera, that occur from handholding a camera.
Histogram
A histogram is a graph showing an image’s light levels. The black tonal values are on the left, the white tonal values on the right, and all the mid-tones in are between.
ISO
ISO is one of the three elements that effect exposure; the other two being aperture and shutter speed. The three elements are known as the Exposure Triangle.
Simply put, ISO is a measurement of how sensitive your camera is to the available light. The higher the ISO number on your camera, the more sensitive it is to light, while the lower the number the less sensitive it is to light.
In the most basic terms, the ISO settings will brighten or darken an image.
JPEG
JPEG is a digital file format commonly used by photographers, because so many photos can be stored on one card. JPEG files compress the images. The camera will allow you to set the level of compression. The more compression used, the lower the quality of the image. For higher quality images, choose less compression.
Long Exposure
Long exposure photography involves using a long duration shutter speed. It is used as a technique to achieve certain effects, commonly motion blur and to obscure moving elements.
Manual Mode
Manual mode gives the photographer complete control over all the camera settings. When you set your camera to Manual, you can adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO, which ultimately determines the exposure of the image.
Megapixels
Megapixel describes the resolution of your camera sensor. Each megapixel contains one million pixels. Pixels are small squares that are put together to create an image. The higher the megapixel number, the more detail and the greater the resolution will be in your image.
Metering
Metering is the in-camera process that gauges and reads the light source in your image. Once you focus on your subject, it determines the settings needed (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) to get a correct exposure.
Mirrorless Camera
A mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) is a type of camera system that has interchangeable lenses. It uses a digital imaging sensor rather than a movable mirror, and pentaprism and provides a digital preview of what the lens is seeing through the electronic viewfinder.
Noise
Noise is simply random pixels scattered all over the photo. Digital photography noise is equivalent to “grain” in film photography. Images taken at high ISOs will have a lot of noise in them.
Overexposure
Overexposure occurs when too much light hits the camera’s sensor. An overexposed photo is too bright, has little detail in the highlights of the image, and appears very washed out.
RAW
RAW files contain unprocessed data captured from the image sensor of your camera without compressing it. The files need to be processed and converted before they can be printed or transmitted. Most photographers use Adobe Lightroom or similar software for this.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a guideline for composition. The rule says you should divide an image evenly into thirds, horizontally and vertically, and that you should place your subject at the intersection of the dividing lines.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open, measured in seconds or fractions of a second. Shutter speed is one of three elements that make up the Exposure Triangle.
White Balance
Under certain lighting conditions, whites and other colors appear inaccurate. By setting auto white balance, the camera will read the color temperature of a scene and make adjustments, so that the colors in your images stay true to reality.
Most cameras have a collection of pre-programmed white balance settings for different lighting situations. The setting choices are incandescent, fluorescent, flash, cloudy, open shade, sunny and Kelvin color temperature.
Conclusion
Save this list of essential photography terms as a reference that you can come back to later. You never know when you might need a refresher!
Are there any other essential photography terms you can think of?
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