Lee Orchard Photography. Easy 1-2-3 Glossary of Photographic & Computer Terms

Glossary of Photographic & Computer Terminology

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- A -

Anti-Aliasing
The smoothing of angled pixel edges in an image.

AF Lock

This allows the photographer to lock the focus that is currently selected, then recompose the shot, without the camera refocusing. AF Lock button should be pressed then the initial desired focus point is selected.

A small opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching the cameras film or sensor. The smaller the aperture gets, the larger the f-number, the greater the depth of field in the final picture.

EG f11 is smaller than f2.8 and gives a greater depth of field. If you set the camera to a landscape setting, you will see the f-stop number increase. The size of the aperture is controlled by the iris

American Standard Association. Association that determines the numerical rating of speed for US made photosensitive products.

- B -

BMP
Bitmap. (.bmp) Windows image file format.

Bracketing
Bracketing is when a range of photos are taken with an exposure adjustment. Most modern cameras have a function that allows you to set the lower, middle and top exposure adjustment. When the shutter is released, all 3 photos are taken at the same time. Bracketing can of course be done manually by changing the exposure for each shot.

Buffer
Memory area in a device, EG Camera or Printer that temporarily holds data, before either storing it, (Camera) or printing it (Printer) at a rate the device can deal with.

- C -

CCD
Charge-Coupled Device

CMOS
Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor.

Compact Flash
Design based around a PCMCIA card, the Compact Flash, or CF, is a type of Memory Card or Removal Mass Storage Device. There are 2 types of Compact Flash, Type I & Type II. Type I is 3.3mm thick & type II is 5mm thick. Compact Flash card were created by SanDisk Corporation in 1994. It can be used with a PC card adapter in a PC/Laptops PCMCIA slot, so no extra card reader is required.

- D -

Depth of field (DOF)
The Depth of field, is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in the photo that is in focus. The depth of field the lens used, distance from the lens to the subject, focal length & aperture.

DSC
Digital Stills Camera

DSLR
Digital Single Lens Reflex. Digital version of the standard SLR camera.

- E -

EV
Exposure Value.

EXIF
Exchangeable Image File. This file format is used by most digital cameras....

- F -

f-Stop
An aperture setting on a lens callibrated to an f-number.

Flare
Flare is caused by sunlight reflecting of the glass elements in a lens. Lens Hoods will help cut down on flare.

Film
Photographic emulsion material, that stores the image by exposing the film to light entering the camera via the lens.

- G -

Minature crystals of light sensitive silver in a film. These crystals react to the light when the shutter is opened. The faster the film, the more grains it contains. Digital images, do not have grain, but do have some noise at high ISO ratings. Grain/Noise starts to be noticable in ISO ratings of 400 and above, and in enlarged images.

- H -

Hi 8

Video recording format, also referred to as High Band 8mm Format.

- I -

IS
Image Stablizer,used by Canon to control camera shake using slow shutter speeds and long telephoto lenses. Camera movement is counter acted by 2 gyros which measure the speed and direction of the shake. This information is used by special lens elements to counteract the shake.

ISO
A numbering system devised by the International Standard Organisation for rating the speed of film. The lower the number, the slower the film and the less Grain it contains. For very sunny days, a film rating of 50 or 100 ISO may be used.

- J -

JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group. (.jpg) A digital standard file format for images, which reduces the file size by compression of data. This compression causes some loss of data, unlike other Lossless formats. EG TIFF. Quality setting can be set on most cameras, and a "high quality" setting will loose less than a "low quality" setting.

High Quality = Better quality photo, larger file size

- K -

Kelvin
Kelvin is a unit of temperature. It is used to measure the colour temperature of light. 2500k is equivalent to a incandesent bulb, 6500k is sunlight.

- L -

- M -

Mass Storage Device
A Mass Storage refers to devices for storing large amounts of data. These devices can be, Portable Hard Disks, Flash Drives & Memory Cards.

MegaPixel mp
This is the term used by camera manufacturers to describe the amount of pixels the camera can use in an image. 6mp = 6 million pixels

MonoPod
Similar to a tripod, in that is supports a camera, but it only has one leg. This makes it easier to use if you are moving around with it a lot and then want to quickly take a photo.

- N -

Negative
Used by film cameras. The image is stored in reversed tones. IE, light area are dark, and dark areas are light. A Negative is processed film.

Ni-Cad
Nickel-Cadmium, (Ni-Cad) rechargeable battery. These should be completely discharged before it is recharged.

Ni-MH
Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable battery. These do not need to be completely discharged before recharging.

- O -

OTG
On-The-Go

- P -

PCMCIA
Personal Compter Memory Card International Association. PCMCIA set the orignal standards for the interface that accepted PCMCIA Cards (now called PC Cards). These cards can plug into the PCMCIA slot in a PC or more commonly Laptop, to provide extra hardware devices. EG Modems, Memory Cards and more.

PDA
Personal Digital Assistant

Pixel
Smallest unit that is used in an image. Image width & height lengths, are described in numbers of pixels. EG 19x16.
Right click on this graphic,select properties and see the size.
Digital cameras photo quality is measures in megapixels mp (Millions of Pixels). Low end cameras have 1.2mp, and Professional SLR's can go up to 12mp.

- Q -

- R -

RAM

Random Access Memory. Used by computers, this memory enables computers to temporarily store data and release it for instant use by the user. The computer reads the data from the RAM instead of accessing the computers hard disk, and so making it available quicker.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue. A colour model that defines colours by the amount of Red, Green, & Blue in the final colour. EG 255,0,0 = Red. This standard is used by Printers, Computer Monitors and other devices. There are other standards as well, CMYK

- S -

Shutter

SLR

Single Lens Reflex. A Type of camera were you see through the lens instead of a separate viewfinder that is not in line with what the lens is looking at.

Solid State

A Solid State device is any memory component with no moving parts. EG: Flash Cards

- T -

TriPod
A free standing support for a Camera or Camcorder. Tripods can be used to reduce camerashake, especially when the camera is used with Telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens
A telephoto lens has a longer focal length and a narrower field of view than a normal lens. Telephoto lenses, can be of fixed focal length, or zoom.

- U -

USB
Universal Serial Bus. Now a standard way to connect accessories to a PC.

USM
Ultra Sonic Motor, used in Canon Lenses. This focusing method is ultra quiet making it popular with Wildlife photographers.

- V -

Vignetting
Shading of image corners produced by inappropriate equipment. EG Unsuitable lens hood for the type of lens.

VR Lenses
Vibration Reduction. Nikons name for Image Stablizer. A Gyroscopic system allowing for stabilized crisp images handheld at slow shutter speeds.

- W -

- X -

xD Picture Card
xD Picture Card, used by certain digital cameras to store photographs. This is a Solid State device that can be reused many many times. These Memory Cards are currently available in sizes of 16 - 512Mb.

- Y -

- Z -

Zoom Lens
A Lens that allows you to get a closer image of the subject you are taking without physically moving closer. A Lens that changes the focal length of the lens. This in affect gives you many lenses in one. Zoom lenses can be useful for cutting down on the amount of equipment you need to carry.

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