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Photography Terminology

Are you new to photography?  Baffled by terms some manufacturers use when describing their products?  Below are some of the most common terms and their meanings used in photography today.

Compact digital camera
 A digital camera that does not take interchangeable lenses (though some take converter lenses). Compact digital cameras range from simple point-and-shoot to ones with advanced settings and manual and semi-automatic control.
DSLR Standing for single-lens reflex, these are higher-end digital cameras revered by serious photographers. The digital versions of SLRs work in this manner: the shutter retracts so an image can be recorded. One of the prime benefits of using a digital SLR camera is that lenses are interchangeable.
Pixel (PICture ELement) The smallest element of a digitised image. One small dot of light among the many dots that make up an image on a computer screen.
Megapixel A unit equal to one million pixels. The higher the resolution, the more pixels in an image and therefore the greater the image quality. An image file that is 1 megapixel (MP) can make a photo realistic print of 5 x 7 inches; a 2 MP file can make an 8 x 10-inch print; a 3 MP file can make an 11 x 14-inch print.
Resolution The number of pixels in an image. A higher number correlates to a higher quality image.
DPI Dots Per Inch. Number of dots a printer or device (like a monitor) can display per linear inch. For example, most laser printers have a resolution of 300 dpi, most monitors 72 dpi, most PostScript image setters 1200 to 2450 dpi. Photo quality inkjet printers now range from 1200 to 2400 dpi.
Megabyte An amount of computer memory consisting of about one million bytes. The actual value is 1,048,576 bytes.
JPEG A standardized format used by many digital cameras for storing images. This format is also commonly used for images on the web and images attached to e-mail messages. JPEG, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the group that established this file standard, is one of the most widely used formats today. JPEG is a standardized image compression mechanism designed for compressing full-colour or grey scale images of natural, real-world scenes. JPEG uses lossy compression, which can damage image quality.
LCD Liquid Crystal Display. A full-colour display screen on cameras used to preview and review pictures and view information, such as menu options and camera settings.
Memory card A storage device used to store data, such as picture and movie files. Available in a range of sizes, such as 8 MB, 32 MB, and 256 MB.
Aperture A small, circular opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor as a picture is taken. The aperture diameter is expressed in f-stops; the lower the number, the larger the aperture. For instance, the aperture opening when set to f/2.8 is larger than at f/8. The aperture and shutter speed together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. A larger aperture passes more light through to the sensor. Many cameras have an aperture priority mode that allows you to adjust the aperture to your own liking.
Shutter speed The camera's shutter speed is a measurement of how long its shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time. When the shutter speed is set to 1/125 or simply 125, this means that the shutter will be open for exactly 1/125th of one second. The shutter speed and aperture together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. Some digital cameras have a shutter priority mode that allows you to set the shutter speed to your liking.
Depth-of-field (DOF) Refers to how much of a photo is in focus when the camera is focused on the main subject. Depth-of-field is controlled by a camera's aperture, in conjunction with the focal length of the lens. Deep (more) depth-of-field means that all or most of the picture is in focus from front to back. Shallow (less) depth-of-field means that a subject is in focus but objects in front and behind it appear out of focus.
CD-R CD-Recordable: a compact disc that holds either 650 or 700 MB of digital information, including digital photos. Creating one is commonly referred to as burning a CD. A CD-R disc can only be written to once, and is an ideal storage medium for original digital photos.
CD-RW CD-Rewritable: similar in virtually all respects to a CD-R, except that a CD-RW disc can be written and erased many times. This makes them best suited to many backup tasks, but not for long term storage of original digital photos.
Red-eye The red glow from a subject's eyes caused by light from a flash reflecting off the blood vessels behind the retina in the eye. The effect is most common when light levels are low, outdoor at night, or indoor in a dimly-lit room.
RGB Red, Green, and Blue: the three colours to which the human visual system, digital cameras and many other devices are sensitive.
Saturation How rich the colours are in a photo.
RAW The RAW image format is the data as it comes directly off the CCD, with no in-camera processing is performed.
USB Universal Serial Bus: a protocol for transferring data to and from digital devices. Many digital cameras and memory card readers connect to the USB port on a computer. USB card readers are typically faster than cameras or readers that connect to the serial port, but slower than those that connect via FireWire.
White balance A function on the camera to compensate for different colours of light being emitted by different light sources.
ISO speed A rating of a film's sensitivity to light. Though digital cameras don't use film, they have adopted the same rating system for describing the sensitivity of the camera's imaging sensor. Digital cameras often include a control for adjusting the ISO speed; some will adjust it automatically depending on the lighting conditions, adjusting it upwards as the available light dims. Generally, as ISO speed climbs, image quality drops.
Underexposure Improper exposure causing an image to look too dark. There is a loss of detail in dark areas.
Overexposure Improper exposure causing an image to look too light. There is a loss of detail in bright areas.
Shutter lag The delay that takes place between pressing the shutter-release button and the time a photo is actually taken. Shutter lag times vary from digital camera to digital camera.
Noise Randomly-spaced speckles (pixels) that can appear in digital images shot at high ISO numbers. Noise results in a reduction of photo detail and clarity, though it can be reduced with special noise reduction software. Noise is most visible when photos are shot at ISO 200 and above with a consumer digital camera. Some digital cameras have a Super CCD where photos taken at higher ISO numbers (eg. ISO 1600) have little, if any, visible noise .