Photographic Terminology

By Shaun Watkiss

Flash

Mode Switch

Focus mode switch

Lens release

Flash buttonMain control dial

Power switch

Lens

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera’s shutter is open when taking a photograph.

Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed Slow Shutter Speed

Iso

ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number the less sensitive you camera is to light and finer the grain. Higher ISO are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds.

ISO

High ISO Low ISO

Aperture & Depth of Field

Aperture either adds a dimension to a photograph by blurring the background/foreground, or brings everything into focus.

Aperture & Depth of Field

Narrow Depth of Field Wide Depth of Field

Manual Exposure

When the camera is in the manual exposure mode, you can change either aperture or shutter speed, or both. Once the camera is in the manual exposure mode, the current aperture and shutter speed are shown on the monitor.

Automatic Exposure

Automatic exposure mode is a standard feature on digital cameras that will automaticall determine the correct exposure for pictures without any user input other than to select the AE option before taking a picture.

Colour Balance

Colour balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colours. An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colours correctly.

White Balance

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.