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A
- Adobe RGB
- A colour space with a wider range of greens and cyans than sRGB. Useful for professional printing; use sRGB for the web.
- AE lock
- Auto-exposure lock. Freezes the current exposure so you can recompose without the camera re-metering.
- AF-C
- Continuous autofocus. The camera keeps adjusting focus while the shutter button (or AF-ON) is held — for moving subjects. Called AI Servo or Servo on Canon.
- AF-S
- Single autofocus. Focuses once and locks — for still subjects. Called One Shot on Canon.
- Angle of view
- How much of a scene a lens captures, determined by focal length and sensor size.
- Aperture
- The adjustable opening in a lens that controls how much light passes through, written as an f-number such as f/2.8.
- Aperture priority
- A shooting mode (A or Av) where you choose the aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed.
- APS-C
- A sensor format of roughly 23.5 × 15.6 mm (22.3 × 14.9 mm on Canon), with a crop factor of about 1.5× (1.6× Canon).
- Aspect ratio
- The proportion of an image's width to height, such as 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 or 1:1.
B
- Back-button focus
- Assigning autofocus to a rear button instead of the half-pressed shutter button.
- Backlight
- Light coming from behind the subject, creating rim light and silhouettes.
- Bokeh
- The aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photo, especially highlights.
- Bracketing
- Taking several shots with different settings (usually exposure or focus) to choose from or combine later.
- Bulb mode
- A shutter setting (B) where the shutter stays open as long as the button is held — for exposures longer than 30 seconds.
- Burst mode
- Continuous shooting of many frames per second while the shutter button is held.
C
- Chromatic aberration
- Coloured fringes (often purple or green) along high-contrast edges, caused by a lens not focusing all colours at the same point.
- Clipping
- Loss of detail in areas that are pure white (highlights) or pure black (shadows).
- Colour temperature
- The warmth or coolness of light, measured in Kelvin (K). Lower numbers are warmer.
- Composition
- How the elements in a photo are arranged within the frame.
- Compression (file)
- Reducing file size. JPEG uses lossy compression; RAW files may be uncompressed, lossless or lossy compressed.
- Compression (lens)
- The apparent flattening of distance between foreground and background when shooting from far away with a telephoto lens.
- Continuous lighting
- Lights that stay on, such as LED panels — you see the effect before you shoot.
- Contrast
- The difference between the light and dark areas of an image.
- Crop factor
- The ratio between a sensor's size and full frame. Multiply focal length by it to find the full-frame equivalent view.
D
- Depth of field
- The zone of acceptable sharpness in front of and behind the point of focus.
- Diffraction
- Softening of an image at very small apertures (usually beyond f/11–f/16) as light bends around the aperture blades.
- Diopter
- An adjustment on the viewfinder that matches it to your eyesight.
- DSLR
- Digital single-lens reflex camera, which uses a mirror to show the scene in an optical viewfinder.
- Dynamic range
- The range from darkest to brightest tones a camera can record with detail, measured in stops.
E
- Electronic shutter
- A shutter that works by reading the sensor electronically, with no moving parts. Silent and fast, but can cause rolling-shutter distortion.
- EVF
- Electronic viewfinder: a small high-resolution screen inside the viewfinder of a mirrorless camera.
- EXIF
- Metadata saved with each photo: camera, lens, settings, date and sometimes location.
- Exposure
- The total amount of light captured and how bright the resulting image is.
- Exposure compensation
- A control (+/−) that tells the camera to make the image brighter or darker than its meter suggests.
- Exposure triangle
- The relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO in controlling exposure.
F
- f-number
- The ratio of focal length to aperture diameter. Smaller f-numbers mean larger apertures and more light.
- Fast lens
- A lens with a wide maximum aperture (e.g. f/1.4–f/2.8).
- Field of view
- See angle of view.
- Fill light
- Light used to brighten shadows, from a reflector, flash or second light.
- Film simulation
- Fujifilm's colour profiles modelled on its classic film stocks.
- Filter thread
- The screw thread on the front of a lens for attaching filters, measured in millimetres.
- Fisheye lens
- An ultra-wide lens with strong curved distortion and up to a 180° view.
- Flash sync speed
- The fastest shutter speed usable with flash without a dark band appearing, often around 1/200–1/250 s.
- Focal length
- The distance in millimetres that describes a lens's magnification and angle of view.
- Focus peaking
- A display aid that highlights in-focus edges in colour.
- Focus stacking
- Combining several photos focused at different distances for front-to-back sharpness.
- Frame rate
- Frames per second in video (e.g. 24, 30, 60 fps) or burst shooting.
- Full frame
- A sensor measuring 36 × 24 mm, the same size as a 35mm film frame.
G
- Global shutter
- A sensor that captures every pixel at the same instant, eliminating rolling-shutter distortion.
- Golden hour
- The hour after sunrise and before sunset when light is soft, warm and directional.
- Grain
- The texture of film; also used loosely for digital noise.
- Grey card
- A card of neutral 18% grey used to set accurate exposure or white balance.
H
- HDR
- High dynamic range. Merging bracketed exposures, or displaying images with a wider brightness range.
- HEIF
- An image format storing 10-bit colour at file sizes similar to JPEG.
- High-key
- A bright image style with mostly light tones and few shadows.
- Highlights
- The brightest parts of an image.
- Histogram
- A graph of the brightness values in an image, from shadows (left) to highlights (right).
- Hot shoe
- The mount on top of a camera for flash units, microphones and accessories.
- Hyperfocal distance
- The focus distance that gives the deepest depth of field for a given aperture and focal length.
I
- IBIS
- In-body image stabilisation: the sensor moves to counteract camera shake.
- Image stabilisation
- Technology that reduces blur from camera shake, in the lens, the body or both.
- ISO
- The amplification of the sensor's signal. Higher ISO brightens the image but increases visible noise.
J
- JPEG
- A widely supported, compressed image format ready to share, with limited editing latitude.
K
- Kelvin
- The unit used to measure colour temperature.
- Kit lens
- The zoom lens sold bundled with a camera.
L
- Leading lines
- Lines in a scene that guide the viewer's eye through the image.
- Lens hood
- A shade on the front of a lens that reduces flare and protects the front element.
- Lens mount
- The interface between camera and lens. Each system has its own, such as Canon RF, Nikon Z or Sony E.
- Long exposure
- A photo taken with a slow shutter speed to show movement, such as silky water or light trails.
- Low-key
- A dark image style with mostly shadow tones.
M
- Macro
- Close-up photography at high magnification; a true macro lens reaches 1:1 (life size).
- Manual mode
- A shooting mode (M) where you set aperture and shutter speed yourself.
- Mechanical shutter
- A physical curtain that opens and closes to control exposure time.
- Megapixel
- One million pixels; a measure of sensor resolution.
- Metering
- How the camera measures light to determine exposure.
- Micro Four Thirds
- A sensor and lens mount standard with a 17.3 × 13 mm sensor and 2× crop factor.
- Mirrorless camera
- An interchangeable-lens camera with no reflex mirror, using an electronic viewfinder or screen.
- Monopod
- A single-leg support, popular for heavy telephoto lenses.
- Motion blur
- Blur caused by a subject moving during the exposure.
N
- ND filter
- Neutral density filter: dark glass that reduces light so you can use slower shutter speeds or wider apertures.
- Noise
- Random speckles of brightness or colour, more visible at high ISO and in shadows.
O
- Overexposure
- An image that is too bright, with lost highlight detail.
P
- Panning
- Following a moving subject with the camera during a slower exposure, blurring the background.
- Pixel
- The smallest element of a digital image.
- Polariser
- A filter that reduces reflections and deepens blue skies.
- Pre-capture
- A burst feature that records frames before the shutter button is fully pressed.
- Prime lens
- A lens with a single, fixed focal length.
- Program mode
- A shooting mode (P) where the camera sets aperture and shutter speed but you can adjust other settings.
R
- RAW
- An unprocessed file containing the full data from the sensor, offering maximum editing flexibility.
- Rolling shutter
- Distortion of fast-moving subjects when the sensor is read line by line with an electronic shutter.
- Rule of thirds
- A composition guideline placing key elements along lines dividing the frame into thirds.
S
- Sensor
- The light-sensitive chip that records the image.
- Shallow depth of field
- Only a thin slice of the scene is sharp, with a blurred background.
- Shutter priority
- A shooting mode (S or Tv) where you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture.
- Shutter speed
- How long the shutter stays open, in seconds or fractions of a second.
- Speedlight
- A small, portable flash that fits in the hot shoe.
- sRGB
- The standard colour space for the web and most displays.
- Stop
- A doubling or halving of light.
- Street photography
- Candid photography of everyday life in public places.
- Subject detection
- Autofocus that recognises eyes, faces, animals, birds or vehicles.
- Sunny 16 rule
- On a sunny day, at f/16, the correct shutter speed is roughly 1/ISO.
T
- Telephoto lens
- A lens with a long focal length that magnifies distant subjects.
- Tilt-shift lens
- A lens that can tilt and shift to control perspective and the plane of focus.
U
- Underexposure
- An image that is too dark, with lost shadow detail.
V
- Vignetting
- Darkening towards the corners of an image, natural in many lenses or added in editing.
W
- Weather sealing
- Gaskets and seals that protect a camera or lens from dust and moisture.
- White balance
- Adjustment that makes white objects appear neutral under different light sources.
- Wide-angle lens
- A lens with a short focal length that captures a wide view.
Z
- Zebras
- A striped overlay showing areas close to overexposure, common in video.
- Zoom lens
- A lens with a variable focal length.
