Dictionary of photography terms

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There is a lot of jargon in photography. With a history stretching back almost 200 years, the dictionary of photographic terms has grown enormously. From the letters found on lenses, through the names of obscure lighting accessories, in the glossary below you will find a full A to Z of what these terms mean. In addition to the gear and techniques, we also pull out some of the most influential photographers and inventors from the history of photography.

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Adjustment layer
This is a layer containing an image adjustment or effect instead of image content. Like a red Cellophane overlay on a print, an adjustment layer will alter the appearance of layers below it, but not actually alter their content, making adjustment layers a cornerstone of reversible, ‘non-destructive’ editing. The adjustment can be altered, hidden or removed at any point. When you add an adjustment layer, a mask is also automatically created, so that the effect can be applied to a lesser extent (or not at all) in particular areas of the image.

AF
Stands for autofocus, a function first introduced on cameras in the late 1970s,
in which the lens is adjusted automatically to bring the designated part of the image into sharp focus. Many modern lenses for digital SLRs and mirrorless cameras have AF, which is achieved via one or more sensors and a motor either integrated in the lens itself or the camera body. Read more: What is autofocus and how does it work?

Aspherical lens
A lens element that has a surface that isn’t perfectly spherical. All camera lenses are made up of a number of individual lenses or elements. Many of these elements are spherical, as if cut from a sphere. Aspherical elements are less rounded and are used in wide-angle and wide-apertured lenses to help provide distortion-free images. Read more: What are lens aberrations? Lens defects explained

Auto-bracketing
A feature on some cameras that enables you to automatically shoot a sequence of shots of the same scene at slightly different shutter speeds (or aperture settings) from the ‘correct exposure’. This feature can be used if there’s some doubt that the meter reading is accurate for a particular subject. It can also be used to shoot a sequence that’s combined into one high dynamic range image. See HDR. Other autobracketing features available on some cameras include automatic flash, ISO or white balance bracketing. Read more: What is bracketing and when would you use it?

Barrel distortion
Barrel distortion is a lens fault or aberration that causes straight, parallel lines in an image to bow outward, and is seen when shooting with wide-angle lenses. The wider the lens, the greater the distortion. The appearance is similar to the effect you’d see if an image was wrapped around a barrel. It can be corrected using post-capture software. Read more: What are lens aberrations? Lens defects explained

Bellows
A concertinaed tube made of flexible, light-proof material that separates a lens from the camera body. Bellows were first used on very early cameras in the mid-19th century, and are still used on large-format equipment today. They allow the plane of focus to be adjusted via a swing and tilt mechanism. Bellows are also used instead of extension rings on SLR cameras for making more finely adjustable macro images. Read more: What is macro photography?

Calotype
One of the earliest photographic processes, announced by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) in 1841, in which a negative image was recorded on a sheet of translucent paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals. The earliest surviving example is an image of a window at Lacock Abbey, made in 1835. Using the process, multiple positive images could subsequently be produced by contact-printing the negative.

Cameron, Julia Margaret
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was a British photographer who made portraits of some of the major figures of the Victorian period as well as her relatives and friends. She was one of the first people to see photography as an artistic medium open to interpretation, rather than simply a mechanical process for recording reality. Her portraits often make a creative use of soft focus.

Chimping
This is a short form of ‘checking image preview’. It refers to the act of looking too frequently at your camera’s LCD, rather than concentrating on the subject.

Chromatic aberration
A lens fault common in telephoto lenses in which different colors of white light are focused at slightly different distances, creating ugly colored haloes around the edges of a photographic subject. Software can remove or reduce the effect. Read more: What are lens aberrations? Lens defects explained

Color temperature
All light sources have a characteristic color temperature: artificial (tungsten-filament) lights are warmer (more orange) than daylight, which is warm near dawn, turns cooler (more blue) during the day, then warms again at nightfall. Our eyes adjust for color temperature much of the time without our realizing it, so that color look pretty consistent. Digital cameras can make electronic adjustments using a white balance system to neutralize colors. When they get it wrong (or you use the wrong white balance setting on your camera), a color cast results. Read more: What is white balance?

Crop factor
Sensors of several different sizes are
used in digital SLRs, and this size affects the angle of view offered by a particular lens. The smaller the sensor, the narrower the angle of view. The ‘crop factor’ is to convert the actual focal length of a lens to the effective focal length . The crop factor for Micro Four Thirds models is 2x; the crop factor for most popular digital SLRs (DX and APS-C) is 1.5x or 1.6x. Full-frame digital SLRs need no focal length conversion, so they have a crop factor of 1x. Read more: What is sensor size, and why does it matter?

Cross-processing
Sometimes called ‘X-Pro’, in film photography this refers to processing color negative film in reversal film (E6) chemicals, or color reversal film in negative film (C41) chemicals. The resulting color shifts gave images a distinctive look. The technique was once especially popular in fashion photography. A similar appearance can be created in Photoshop by boosting contrast and tweaking color channels. Read more: What is cross processing, and how does it work?

Curves
This powerful Photoshop feature enables you to adjust the exposure and contrast of an image. By altering the shape of the curve, different areas of tone can be lightened or darkened by varying amounts. By altering the curves for each of the different color channels, the color balance of the image can also be altered to create special effects, or simply to correct for unwanted color casts. Elements’ version of Curves, called Adjust Color Curves, is more limited than Photoshop’s Curves.

Depth of field preview
A device, usually a button, found on some digital SLRs that enables you to see the viewfinder image at the actual aperture you’ll be using for the exposure. This gives a visual indication as to how much depth of field there is, and which parts of the resulting picture will be sharp or blurred. This is necessary because the viewfinder normally only shows the image as it would appear if the widest aperture available were used.

Dialog
A window that pops open when you select certain commands, usually to give you the opportunity to configure settings or enter further preferences. In Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, menu commands that will open a dialog for further instructions before applying their effect are usually indicated by an ellipsis (…) after the name, such as File>Save As… Those without this, such as File>Save, will work immediately, with no dialog.

DNG (Digital Negative)
DNG is a raw file format invented by Adobe and used by some camera manufacturers. An advantage of DNG is that, unlike other raw formats, it isn’t specific to just one camera manufacturer or model, and it isn’t just a read-only format – you can save your files in DNG format too. A free DNG converter application available from Adobe enables you to convert any raw file into a DNG.

Eastman, George
George Eastman (1854-1932) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He patented the first paper negative roll film in 1884 before establishing Eastman Kodak in 1892, which went on to become one of the world’s largest photographic companies. The popular Kodak ‘Brownie’ series was launched in 1900, with the famous slogan, ‘You push the button, we do the rest’. See The name behind Kodak: George Eastman

EV (exposure value)
The scale used to denote the exposure required without the need to specify
either shutter speed or aperture. A particular EV setting has its own set pairs of possible shutter speed and aperture. Exposure values are often quoted in combination with an ISO speed to denote a specific light level. Read more: What is the camera shutter, and are shutter speeds important? | What is EV (exposure value) in photography?

Evaluative metering
A metering system used on many cameras, in which light readings are
taken from a number of different areas, or zones, across the image. These
readings are then compared to data programmed into the camera, so it can work out an appropriate exposure setting. Information from the multipoint autofocus system is also used, to ascertain the likely position of the subject. This ‘intelligent’ metering system can avoid many of the failings of simpler systems. However, it’s impossible to second-guess, so it can be difficult to predict the occasions where it will get the exposure wrong. It’s also known as matrix metering.

EXIF (exchangeable image file)
Camera settings recorded by many digital cameras as part of the image file. This data automatically notes a wide range of information about the picture, including the date and time it was recorded, aperture, shutter speed, model of camera, whether flash was used, number of pixels used, metering mode, exposure mode, exposure compensation used and zoom setting. The information can then subsequently be read by suitable software. To access this information in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, go to File>File Info. Read more: What is EXIF data, and is it useful for your photography?

Extension tube
An accessory used in macro and close-up photography that fits between the D-SLR body and the lens. The extra extension between the lens and sensor enables the lens to focus closer and to provide a higher image magnification than would otherwise be possible. Extension tubes are usually sold in sets of three, and are used singly or in combination to provide a total of seven different magnifications. Read more: What is macro photography?

F-stop
The aperture setting on a lens. The number is the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture. As a result, larger f-stop numbers represent narrower aperture sizes. F-stop numbers are used so that exposure settings for a particular scene can be expressed without having to know the focal length of the lens used. The term, F-stop, comes from the Waterhouse stop (a series of circular holes in strips of metal that ‘stopped’ some of the light passing through the lens). The system was invented by John Waterhouse (1806-1879) in 1858, but the hole sizes don’t correspond with modern f-stop numbers.

f/X.X
The f-stop number is the size of the lens’s maximum aperture, measured as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. On some zoom lenses there may be two apertures quoted: f/4-5.6, for example. This means that the maximum aperture of the lens gets narrower as the lens is zoomed in. The maximum aperture on the lens barrel may also be expressed as a ratio, such as 1:4-5.6.

FA
A Pentax lens that’s compatible with full-frame SLRs, and that features an old-fashioned aperture ring.

Fast ISO setting
An ISO setting that makes the sensor more sensitive to light than usual, and thus requires less exposure than usual. Fast settings are useful in low-light situations where long shutter speeds are not suitable. A drawback is that grain-like noise within the image becomes more pronounced as the ISO speed is increased. Read more: What is noise in digital images, and when does it become a problem?

Fill-in flash
Flash used as a secondary light source. A fill-flash feature is an option on many cameras with a built-in flash unit. With it you can soften shadows on foreground subjects, helping to avoid problems with backlighting. Fill-in flash can also be used to enhance the colors and contrast of foreground subjects in dull lighting conditions. Read more: What is flash, and is it still useful for photography?

Film
In photography, film is a transparent plastic perforated strip or sheet that acts as a base for microscopic, light-sensitive silver halide crystals coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion. Black-and-white film has a single layer of silver salts, while color film has a minimum of three layers of dye (blue, green and red), which sensitive the salts to different colors, as the scene being photographed dictates.

Flash
A burst of artificial light used to provide all or some of the illumination for an image. Most cameras have built-in flash units, while some allow a separate flash unit to be attached via the hotshoe, or used off-camera. In studio work, large standalone flash units or strobes use mains power, and are triggered by a flash sync cable or radio signal. Flash durations are usually between 1/200 sec to 1/4,0000 sec and have a color temperature of around 5,500-6,000K. Read more: What is flash, and is it still useful for photography?

Focal length
Optical term describing the distance between the optical centre of a lens and its focal point. In practice, the focal length is a measure of the magnification and angle of view of a given lens or zoom setting. It’s usually measured in millimetres. However, its usefulness as a way of comparing different lenses is diminished by the fact that the exact focal length required to give a particular angle of view will depend on the size of the imaging chip used by the camera in question. Read more: What is focal length?

Focal plane shutter
A shutter mechanism that sits just in front of the image sensor, in the lens’s focal plane. It consists of two light-tight curtains that, when using fast shutter speeds, travel across the focal plane with a thin slit between them. Light passes through this slit to expose the image sensor or film. Using shutter speeds lower than the flash sync speed, one curtain crosses the focal plane to expose the whole sensor or frame of film, followed separately by the second curtain. This type of shutter is commonly used on DSLR cameras. Read more: What is the camera shutter, and are shutter speeds important?

Fox Talbot, William Henry
An inventor and pioneer of photography, Fox Talbot (1800-1877) introduced the calotype or talbotype process in 1841. His book, The Pencil of Nature (published
in instalments from 1844-1846) was the first commercially published book
to be illustrated with photographs. One of his most famous photographs, made in 1844, showed Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London, still under construction.

Guide Number (GN)
A number on a flash unit that measures its capacity to light a subject at a particular distance and ISO setting. Usually, based on a setting of ISO100, the guide number is determined by multiplying the flash-to-subject distance by the f-stop setting needed to correctly expose the subject at that distance. A flash with a lower guide number produces a much weaker flash than one with a higher guide number. Read more: What is flash, and is it still useful for photography?

Ground glass screen
A sheet of glass, ground to a matte finish, which is used to look at images on large-format cameras. The image from the lens is projected upside-down on the screen. The image is examined and focused more easily by blocking out all other light with a dark cloth.

Group f/64
A group of like-minded San Francisco-based photographers, formed in 1932, which was dedicated to making clear, sharply focused images of landscapes and other natural forms. The group included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. The group’s name is a reference to its members’ preference for using a very narrow aperture for increased depth of field.

Golden hour
Although not necessarily an hour long, this is the period of time after sunrise or before sunset in which landscape photographers particularly enjoy working because of the favorable effect of the light on their images. The main reason for the term is the warm color of the sunlight, which, together with its reduced contrast, gives outdoor scenes an especially attractive appearance. The low angle of sunlight also creates longer shadows and reveals more texture in a landscape.

HDR (high dynamic range)
A digital imaging technique where a series of identical pictures of a scene are taken at different exposures and then combined into one image. This brings out detail in shadow and highlight areas that usually can’t be captured in a single exposure, and is particularly useful for high-contrast subjects, such as brightly-lit landscapes, interiors and night scenes. Read more: What is HDR?

Healing Brush tool
An image-retouching tool that lays down copied pixels like the Clone Stamp tool, but in addition it analyses nearby color and tone and attempts to blend the cloned pixels in with the surrounding area. Sometimes it produces better results than the Clone Stamp, but not always, because its blending effect will tend to blur detail.
For seamless cloning, it’s often a good option to use both tools.

High speed sync (HSS)
Flash feature that allows the use of shutter speeds with flash, faster than the usual sync speed. The flash pulses at high frequency to ensure an even exposure, even though the shutter blinds are never fully open during the exposure. The facility is useful for freezing close-up action in daylight, and for allowing the widest apertures even in bright light. Read more: What is flash, and is it still useful for photography?

Histogram
A graph that provides an instant guide to the contrast and exposure of a picture. It maps the distribution of tones, from the darkest on the left to the brightest
on the right. The scale runs from 0 (solid black) to 255 (pure white), and the height of the graph at any point represents the relative number of pixels in the image with that brightness level. The overall shape of the histogram gives you an at-a-glance indication of the tonal range of the image and the presence of any clipping. You can use tools such as Levels to adjust the shape of the histogram and thereby improve the contrast and exposure of the image. Read more: What is a histogram and when would you use it?

Ice Light
Developed by Westcott and wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis, the Ice Light is a handheld LED daylight source which runs off rechargeable batteries. It offers a wrap-around light source that reduces the need for extra equipment (including off-camera flash) and can also be tripod mounted for extra flexibility. Particularly handy for outdoor portraits (though it does like a bit like a Star Wars light sabre). See our guide to light sticks and wands.

Inverse square law
This law particularly relates to the use of studio lights or flash, and says that if an object is twice a particular distance from a point source of light, it will receive a quarter of the illumination. For example, if your subject is two metres away, and you increase it to four metres, the resulting fall-off means you’ll need four times the amount of light to keep the same exposure settings. Alternatively, you’ll have to increase the exposure by two stops.

ISO
Stands for International Organisation for Standardisation. In photography, it refers to a system for measuring and specifying the sensitivity of digital imaging systems and photographic films. The higher the ISO number, the greater the sensitivity to light. Cameras have an ISO range, enabling you to choose an ISO setting that suits the situation in which you’re shooting. Read more: What is ISO?

Joiner
A term coined by the artist David Hockney (born 1937) to describe his photo-collage work in the 1980s. Hockney’s joiners combined overlapping prints, made at slightly different times and from multiple viewpoints, to make landscapes and portraits. His most elaborate joiners used hundreds of individual prints to make one collage. Other photographers creating joiners (also called ‘panographs’) have followed Hockney’s method of assembling prints, or have combined digital images on screen using photo-stitching software.

Layer
The digital counterpart of the cut-out pieces of paper in a collage or decoupage work. Layers containing cut-out objects can be stacked on top of an original
image or background layer in order to create a composite image. Adjustments and effects can also be applied in the form of adjustment layers, enabling you to alter the exposure, color, and so on, without actually altering the original. Layers can be opaque, translucent, or merged with layers in the stack below in a number of ways.

Light meter
A device used to measure the amount of light and determine the correct exposure. Most cameras have built-in light meters that measure the reflected light from a subject, as do hand-held reflected light meters. Incident light meters measure
the light falling on the subject, and readings are taken from the subject’s position with the light meter pointing back towards the camera. Read more: What is a light meter and how is it used?

Lossless compression
A process whereby the size of a digital image file is made smaller without losing information. Lossless formats include TIFF and PNG.

Lossy compression
A process in which information is lost from a digital image file to make the file size smaller. This reduces the image quality, although the result may not be noticeable. JPEG is the most common file format to use lossy compression.

Maddox, Dr Richard Leach
Maddox (1816-1902) was an English photographer and doctor who invented the first successful gelatin dry plate for photography in 1871. Until then, photographers used wet plates, which had to be coated, exposed and developed in hazardous chemicals while still wet. Leach’s invention made photography much less dangerous and complicated, and laid the basis for early film emulsions.

Maxwell, James Clerk
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a theoretical physicist who collaborated with photographer Thomas Sutton (1819-1875) to create the first color photographic image in 1861. They photographed a tartan ribbon through red, green and blue filters. Then, at a lecture at The Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, the three negatives were projected together on a screen, using the same colored filters, and combined to make one color image.

Optical filter
A glass or plastic accessory placed in a holder or attached to the front of the camera lens. They are used to alter the image being recorded by allowing light
of particular wavelengths to pass through while blocking others. Most of the traditional optical filters are only used in film photography, because their effects can be replicated by in-camera digital filters or by using post- processing techniques on a computer. The types of optical filters still used widely in digital camera capture include the polarizer, UV filter, ND filter, ND grad and infrared filter.

Painting with light
Creating images with a mobile light source. One way of painting with light is
to shoot a scene in the dark, whether indoors or outdoors, with the camera on the B (bulb) setting. While the shutter is open, objects in the scene can be ‘painted’ with light from a hand-held flash or other light source. The other technique also involves shooting in the dark with the shutter open, but in this case the light source is moved while being pointed towards the camera, often to create a ‘light trail’ shape in the final image.

Pellicle mirror
A lightweight, thin, translucent mirror used in Sony’s Single Lens Translucent (SLT) cameras. In this design, part of the light coming through the lens is diverted to an autofocus unit, and part goes to the digital sensor. This allows the photographer to see a continuous image through the viewfinder during exposure. It also avoids vibration and noise from the movement of a mirror.

Photobook
A book largely consisting of photographs. It’s a means by which photographers have displayed their work since the earliest days of the medium. Landmark photo books of the past have included Robert Frank’s The Americans and Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment. More recently, the ability to create a personalized photobook has come within everyone’s reach via online companies such as Mixbook, Snapfish and Photobox.

Photogram
A photographic image created by placing an object on a sheet of light-sensitive paper and exposing it to light. When the paper is developed, parts of the object that light rays cannot pass through are recorded as pure white, while translucent parts
might be recorded as shades of grey. The technique goes back to photography’s earliest days. The artist and photographer Man Ray (1890-1976) later produced many such images, which he called ‘Rayographs’ or ‘Rayograms’.

Pictorialism
An artistic approach to photography, dominant during the late 19th and early 20th century. Instead of being straightforward documents of reality, photographs were given a more painterly, soft-focus appearance. Processes such as bromoil, gum bichromate and platinum printing, which involved manipulating a photograph’s tones and texture using brushes, pigments and inks, were popular among Pictorialists.

Pinhole camera
A camera that uses a small hole instead of a lens to project an inverted image on to photographic film or a digital sensor. Exposures are usually manually operated and can range from several seconds to hours in duration. DSLRs can be converted to pinhole cameras by replacing the lens with a piece of plastic drilled with a hole of around 0.3mm in diameter. Alternative pinhole cameras have been made with anything from wheelie-bins to shoe boxes. Read more: What is a pinhole camera?

Plugin
A piece of software that adds functionality to an existing computer program. Plugins are available for many digital image-manipulation programs, including Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom, providing an increased range
of effects and transformations. One such plugin is Adobe Camera Raw.

Polarizer
A filter that only transmits light vibrating in one plane. It can be used to deepen the color of part of a picture, such as the sky. It can also be used to eliminate or reduce reflections on non-metallic surfaces, such as water or glass. It must be rotated in front of the lens until you achieve the desired effect.

Push/pull processing
In film photography, push processing means increasing the film’s speed by shooting with shorter exposures than recommended and increasing the development time proportionately. This allows photographers to work in lower light conditions, but increases the grain size. Pull processing means using longer exposures than recommended and reducing development times, to give a negative with reduced contrast and grain.

Raw
A file format option provided by digital SLRs, mirrorless cameras and some other top-end digital cameras. Image data is stored in a semi-processed state and needs to be fully processed on a computer. Raw files enable exposure compensation, image contrast, color balance and other settings to be altered after the initial exposure, while still retaining maximum image quality. Raw images also offer a greater tonal range than the alternative JPEG recording quality options. Raw isn’t an abbreviation, or even a single file type like JPEG; the format varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and sometimes from camera to camera. Most current Canon models use CR2, and Nikon models use NEF.

Rear-curtain sync
Flash feature found on some D-SLRs and flashguns that synchronizes the flash output when the second shutter curtain is about to close. Usually, the flash fires at the point where the first shutter is fully open. The facility gives more natural-looking images when using flash in conjunction with slow shutter speeds. Read more: What is flash, and is it still useful for photography?

Reciprocity
The reciprocity law states that the density of a photographic image is in direct proportion to the intensity of light (aperture setting) and the duration (shutter speed). For example, if the correct exposure for a subject is 1/125 sec at f/4 and the aperture is increased by one stop to f/2.8, the shutter speed must be correspondingly decreased by one stop to 1/60 sec to maintain the same image quality, and vice versa.

Reciprocity failure
In film photography, when shooting with very long or very short exposures, the reciprocity law (see above) can break down, leading to reciprocity failure. In these cases, extra exposure might be needed to compensate, as specified by the film manufacturer. Reciprocity failure doesn’t occur with digitally captured images.

Red-eye
An effect often caused by a camera’s built-in flash. The flash light reflects from the retina of a subjects’ eyes and gives them a bright red color. It can be reduced or corrected in-camera, or at the post-processing stage.

Reflector
A piece of card or other flat material that reflects and increases the amount of illumination from a light source. Reflectors can be white, silver or gold, and are often used to ‘bounce’ light into shadow areas and make them brighter. An umbrella-shaped reflector on a studio light is used to create softer and more diffuse illumination. Read more: What is a reflector, and when would you use one in photography?

Reportage
The act or technique of news reporting. In photography, the term refers to the art of telling a news story through pictures. Many wedding photographers offer ‘reportage style’ pictures. This simply means that the day’s events are approached as if it were a news event, and recorded in an informal and unobtrusive way. See photojournalism.

Resize
To create a new copy of an image with a different file size or resolution (pixel count).

Resolution
A measure of the density of pixels in a printed or on-screen image, usually expressed in terms of pixels per inch (ppi). A resolution of 300ppi is widely regarded as the optimum for professional-quality printing. Monitors typically display images at between 72 and 96ppi, although this can vary with monitor size and other factors. Changing a photo’s resolution in the Image Size dialog in Photoshop won’t change how big it looks on-screen, only in print.

Rule of thirds
One of the best-known compositional ‘rules’, in which an image is divided, horizontally and vertically, into three parts, using two equally spaced lines. Important elements of the picture are then placed on one or more of these lines, which creates a stronger and more visually appealing composition than simply centering the subject. The term has its origins in painting, and was first written down by the artist John Thomas Smith in 1797. Read more: What is the rule of thirds?

Sabattier effect
A wet darkroom effect in which an image is processed so that it’s partly a normal positive image and partly a negative. It was first described in the 1860s, but became well-known in the work of Man Ray (1890-1976). His assistant, Lee Miller (1907-1977) accidentally turned on a light while developing a print, but Ray liked the effect and consciously used it in his work. He called it ‘solarization’. The Sabattier effect is easily recreated using Photoshop, and looks best applied to a black-and-white image.

Scheimpflug principle
Theodor Scheimpflug (1865-1911) stated: “If the lens plane is tilted down, when the extended lines from the lens plane, the object plane and the film plane intersect at the same point, the entire subject plane is in focus.” This principle comes into play when using tilt-shift lenses or tilt-and-swing movements on view cameras. In practice, it means that if you’re photographing a landscape, the lens can be tilted forwards until the plane of focus runs parallel to the ground. As a result, depth of field is vastly increased, even when shooting with the lens wide open.

Selenium tone
A chemical treatment applied to a silver-based black-and-white print in a wet darkroom that changes some of the metallic silver to silver selenide. Depending on dilution and the type of printing paper, tones may range from red-brown to purple-brown. The appearance of the effect can now be simulated in post-capture software on a computer. Photoshop CS6 and CC includes selenium toning among
its range of toning presets.

Sensor size
The dimensions of the CCD or CMOS sensor in a digital camera vary greatly according to the type of camera. This has a major impact on image quality. Larger sensors collect more light and produce images with greater dynamic range and less noise than smaller sensors. Smartphone camera sensors measure around 4.5 x 3.4mm; compact camera sensors are around 6.1 x 4.5mm; D-SLR sensors are around 23.5 x 15.6mm, while a ‘full frame’ 35mm sensor measures around 36 x 24mm. A medium-format sensor (such as in the Fujifilm GFX 100S) measures around 44 x 33mm. Read more: What is sensor size, and why does it matter?

Shutter priority
A semi-automatic exposure mode in which the shutter speed is set by the photographer. The aperture is then set by the camera to suit the metered light readings taken by the camera.

Shutter speed
Also called exposure time, this is the length of time the camera’s shutter is open to allow light coming through the lens to reach the image sensor or film. Read more: What is the camera shutter, and are shutter speeds important?

Social documentary
Photographic genre that concentrates on recording the everyday lives of people
from different nationalities, cultures and social classes. Social documentary projects often have a particular purpose, such as the photographs of Lewis Hine (1874-1940) highlighting child labor in the early part of the 20th century, or Sebastião Salgado’s 1993 project on the conditions endured by workers in different countries around the world.

Soft focus
Slightly blurred and lacking in sharp definition. Images can be ‘soft’ due to a lens flaw, or made deliberately so to give a romantic ‘glow’ to an image. It can be achieved in-camera by attaching a soft-focus or diffuser filter to the lens, or by shooting through a piece of translucent material (for example, a section cut out from a pair of tights). It can also easily be added using post-capture software on a computer.

Steichen, Edward
Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. As Chief Photographer at Condé Nast publications in the 1920s and 1930s, he was the most famous (and reputedly the highest-paid) photographer in the world. He was Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1947-1962 and in 1955 organized the Family of Man exhibition, seen by over nine million people.

Strobe light
Also called a stroboscopic lamp, this light source produces flashes of light (usually around 200 microseconds in length) at regular intervals. In photography, it’s been used to make high-speed images of subjects that move too fast for the eye to see, such as a bullet zipping through the air. Strobe lights have also been used to capture multiple images of a moving subject in one image, for example in the photographs of dancers by Gjon Mili (1904-1984).

Superzoom
A lens with an unusually large focal length range. Current superzoom examples available for D-SLR cameras include the Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III VC and the Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM. Some of the largest superzooms are found on bridge cameras; the Nikon Coolpix P1000 has a 125x optical zoom, for example, which is equivalent to 24-3000mm. Bridge cameras themselves are sometimes called ‘superzooms’ or ‘ultrazooms’.

Toning
Changing the color of a black-and-white print or digital image. In traditional photography, black-and-white prints are usually toned using chemicals to change the metallic silver in the print emulsion to a silver compound. This happens in sepia and selenium toning. Other processes, such as platinum and gold toning, are known as metal-replacement toners. Similar effects can be produced in digital images using post-processing techniques.

View camera
A large-format film camera that uses sheet film. Depending on the camera design, film sizes can range from 5x4 inches to 20x24 inches. All view cameras have a front standard with a lens mount and a rear standard with a film holder and ground glass screen for focusing. Both standards can be moved backwards and forwards and at different angles to alter perspective, focus and depth of field. They are connected by a flexible and extendable bellows. View cameras can be used with digital backs instead of film.

Vignetting
Darkening of the corners of an image. This appearance is often deliberately created to highlight a subject in the centre of the image, and can be applied by digitally burning in corners in Photoshop. It’s also commonly seen in images taken with toy cameras such as the Holga. If vignetting is unintended, it’s usually due to lens fall-off, and can be corrected using post-processing software. Read more: What are lens aberrations? Lens defects explained

White balance
Digital camera system that sets the color temperature for the scene being photographed. This can be set automatically, with the system attempting to set the color so that it looks normal to the human eye. Most DSLRs also offer a wide selection of manual white balance settings – where the WB can be set from a reference source (such as a piece of white card), or to a particular Kelvin value, or to a lighting type (such as sunny daylight or tungsten bulb lighting). Read more: What is white balance?

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Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography.

His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.

He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.

Dictionary of photography terms

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