List of Glossary Terms

KeyWords

The first step to getting acquainted with a concept is to understand its language.  Digital Photography is a world all its own, which operates on certain basic jargons that can get too technical for the beginning or average user.  If you've had enough of all these geek talk about Photography, here's a quick guide of the definitions and examples of certain words that are most commonly used in Photography:

• ambient light
  any available lighting--indoor or outdoor--that is not supplemented by any artificial lighting;  usually through a sunroof, an open window, or sunlight outside.

  Fig 1. an aperture photo from http://www.f-stop.ch/

• aperture
  a mechanical part of the camera that controls the amount of light admitted through the camera lens.  Set the aperture at a high setting and your picture will look very bright.  Set it at a low setting and your picture will appear a bit dark.  The aperture also determines the depth of field.
• artificial light
  lighting supplied by an artificial source, usually through lighting equipments (strobe lights, flood lights, etc.)
• aspect ratio
  the ratio of the length of the sides of the images.  A 36" x 24" photo has an aspect ratio of 36:24 or in simpler terms, an aspect ratio of 3:2.
• contrast
  the disparity between the light part and the dark part of the photo.
• depth of field
  the perceived distance between the closest object and the farthest object.  Simply put, the depth of field determines which part of the photo is in sharp focus, and which part is blurred.
• digital zoom
  electronic zooming of the subject by cropping around it.  The use of the digital zoom is sometimes discouraged for it lowers the quality of the picture.

Fig 2.  Comparison between Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom
from http://photo.net/equipment/digital/basics/

• exposure compensation
  a setting that is used to compensate for the shutter speed and the aperture settings.  If put in a high setting, it allows for more light to pass through the lens.  If put in a low setting, it minimizes the light that passes through the lens.  Usually determined by the following scale: [-2...-1...0...+1...+2]
• ISO sensitivity/ISO speed
  This setting determines the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to the available light.  If set at a high setting, it would produce a brighter image.  However, higher ISO speeds also produce a lot of noise in the picture.
• landscape photography
  this is a default setting in most digital cameras, which is best used when shooting landscape photos.  Basically, it flattens the entire photo so that the depth of field is set at a very low setting, where things near or far appear to be very close to each other.

• Fig 3.  A macro shot of a moth by Ghenn Olegario, retrieved from http://digitalphotographer.com.ph

  macro photography
  likewise a default setting in most digital cameras, this setting is best used for extreme close-up photography of small objects.  Most photographers use this setting for insect photography, which tends to produce amazing results.
• noise
  it is the appearance of multi-colored grains in photographs, usually as a result of poor lighting or high ISO speeds
• optical zoom
  zooming that involves the lengthening of the mechanical part of the lens, which brings the subject closer to the lens, and makes it appear larger on the display.
• pixels
  'pixels' is a contraction of "Picture Element," which refers to the most basic unit (depicted as a small square) that makes up the entire picture.
• pixel count
  this is an easy way to categorize digital cameras.  The pixel count determines the highest number of pixels a digital camera's sensor can produce.  Examples of which are 4.0 megapixels (which consists of 4 million pixels), 300 kilopixels (which consists of 300,000 pixels), etc.  The higher the pixel count, the larger the resolution of the picture.
• resolution
  this usually refers to the size of the photograph, which also determines the number of pixels in it.  A photo with a 1024 x 768 resolution has approximately 800,000 pixels in it (achieved by multiplying 1024 to 768).
• shutter speed
  The shutter is the device that controls the exposure time of the photo.  The exposure time determines how a photo will look, if it will be "shaken" or crystal clear.  The higher the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time of the photo, hence, more light comes into the lens and sensed by the sensor.

• telephoto (lens)
  A lens with a long focal length which produces a high depth of field in photos.  This is often used in sports photography, and when combined with a fast shutter speed can produce amazing freeze frame results.
• white balance
  this is a setting in digital cameras which adjusts the colors of the pictures based on the "color temperature" that illuminates the subject.  For instance, a yellow light bulb illuminating a white wall will produce a yellow wall.  But when white balance is correctly used, it will see the wall as a white wall, despite the yellow illumination.
• wide angle (lens)
  A lens used to capture landscapes that spans a great width, its effect on photos is a very low depth of field.  This lens is best used in landscape photography.