AF. Auto Focus. Automatically focuses the lens.
Ambient light- Light that is not created from a flash (light that was already there before you started taking pictures)
Aperture. Measured in f/stops. The “pupil” of the camera lens. Determines how much light reaches the sensor. A big aperture can be F/1.4 or F/2.8 while a small one can be F/8 or even F/22.
Aperture Priority AE. A setting on most advanced cameras. This allows the user to set the aperture and the camera adjust everything else to properly expose the image.
Automatic Exposure. The camera choses every setting to properly expose the image.
Automatic Focus. Auto Focus. Automatically focuses the lens.
B & W . Black and White.
Back Lit. The subject is lit from the back. The lighting source is usually an off camera flash.
Barrel Distortion. A type of distortion caused by lenses, looks bulged out
Bracketing. A setting used to take a succession of usually 3 or 5 pictures really quickly at different exposure settings. Makes sure you get a correctly exposed shot.
Buffer. Built in camera memory that holds the image information as the camera is writing it to the memory card. Cheaper cameras have a smaller buffer size than the more professional ones.
Bulb. A shutter speed setting that allows the shutter to stay open as long as the shutter release button is pressed.
Burst Mode. Camera setting where you hold the shutter release button and the camera continually takes pictures, the Nikon D3 can take 11 Frames per second.
CF. Compact Flash card. A type of memory card, bigger than an SD card.
Chromatic Aberration. Causes a purple fringe to appear between a really dark and really light things in an image. Caused by the lens
Continuous Autofocus. The auto focus continually focuses on the subject. Good for moving subjects.
Depth of Field.(DOF) The range of an image that is in focus. Effected by aperture and focal length. The bigger your aperture, the shallower your DOF. Generally, the larger your focal length, the shallower your DOF.
Diaphragm. The aperture blades.
Digital Zoom. An awful misconception. A type of zoom where the image is cropped or the pixels are stretched to make the image appear more zoomed in… Professional cameras done even have digital zoom. Optical zoom is what you want.
DOF. Abbreviation of Depth of Field.
DPI. Dots per Inch. Used to describe how many dots or pixels a screen or sensor has. Can also be used to describe a print and how many dots per inch a printer prints.
DSLR. Digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR). A digital camera that can change lenses.
DX- Refers to the size of the image sensor in Nikon’s cameras. DX means the same as “crop frame” or APS-C. Nikons most popular cameras are all DX. Nikon’s “professional” cameras are full frame, or FX, also called 35mm; Nikons full frame cameras are the D3 and D700, all other current cameras are DX.
Exposure. The amount of light that an image sensor or film captures.
Exposure Bracketing. See bracketing
F-Stop . See aperture
Fill Flash- A flash used to fill in the shadows of the subject (usually a person). Not meant to illuminate the subject, just fill in the shadows. Mostly used on sunny (shadowy) days.
Fish eye- A very wide angle lens that has a large amount of distortion.
Fixed Aperture. A lens that keeps the same aperture regardless of focal length.
Fixed Focal Length. Basically a non zoom lens.
Focal Length. A lens' angle of view or how much it is “zoomed.” The larger the number, the more you are zoomed in.
FPS- Frames per second.
Frame. A still picture.
Grey Scale. Basically, black and white.
Guide Number. Power output of a flash.
Histogram. A graph that is used to analyze the amount of a specific kind of light in an image. The histogram shows a scale from 0-255. 0 is black and 255 is white.
Hot Shoe. A way to connect a flash to something (usually on top of a camera)
Hue. Color
Image Resolution. Similar to DPI but usually refers to a digital picture
Image Sensor. The film of the digital age. Record the light that comes through your lens. The image sensor is the most important part of a digital camera.
IR. Infra Red. Light that is invisible to the human eye.
ISO. The sensitivity of your image sensor. The higher the number, the less light is required to make an image. Also, the higher the ISO, the more “noise” or grain a picture has. The more expensive cameras have higher ISO settings.
JPG. The most commonly used file type for still images.
Landscape- Horizontal
LCD. (Liquid Crystal Display). A type of screen.
LED. (Light Emitting Diode). A type of lightbulb. They are small and come in many different colors. Used in electronics.
Macro. A lens that can focus on things that are very close. Used for close ups.
Megapixel. The amount of pixels on an image sensor used to capture light. The more megapixels, the bigger the image.
Metering. Used to calculate the exposure of an image. Measures the amount of light and decides on the exposure settings.
NEF. (Nikon Electronic Format). File type Nikon cameras use. See RAW
Noise. The term used to describe what happens when an image is underexposed or a high ISO is used. The image appears grainy (especially in dark areas)
Noise Reduction. Programs on a camera or computer that reduce the amount of noise in an image. Usually decreases the amount of detail.
Optical Viewfinder. A view finder that does not use a screen. You can see through it even when the camera is off.
Optical Zoom. A type of zoom that is achieved by using lenses. Not to be confused with the awful digital zoom.
Overexposure. An image that is too white. The shutter was open too long or the aperture was too big. Panorama. A picture created by stitching many single pictures together.
Pixel. Individual cell that captures or produces light. Image sensors and LCD screens are made of thousands of pixels.
Point and Shoot. A word used to describe a cheaper and more simple camera. Not an SLR camera.
RAW. A type of file that does not contain an image. It just contains raw information. It is up to software and the user to interpret that information in order to create an image. There is no loss of quality in this file type.
Resize. Changing the size of an image.
Resolution. The quality of an image. The amount of pixels or dots per inch.
Saturation . The vividness of colors. An un-saturated image is completely black andwhite with NO color.
Scene Modes. A mode found in most new digital cameras that allows the user to select a scene that they are shooting so that the camera settings are more appropriate. Such as a fast shutter in “sports” mode.
SD. A type of memory card.
Self Timer. A timer on a camera that takes a picture after a predetermined set of time.
Sepia. A brownish less saturated style used in photo editing.
Shutter. The device that opens and closes to allow and block light from hitting the image sensor or film in a camera. The shutter determines how long light is allowed to hit the image sensor or film .
Shutter Priority AE. A camera setting where the user sets the shutter speed and the camera will chose the aperture and the ISO that will properly expose the image.
SLR. (Single Lens Reflex). A camera with a viewfinder that sees through the lens (TTL) using an angled mirror that flips up when the shutter fires and allows the light to strike the image sensor or film. Basically, what you see is what you get.
Speed Light. A flash
Strobe. A flash
Telephoto . A type of lens with a larger focal length. More “zoomed in”.
Thumbnail. A small representation of a picture. Used to quickly find or look through a group of pictures.
Time-Lapse. Capturing a series of images at specific intervals.
TTL. (Through the Lens). A type of metering or auto focus that is measured or figured through the lens.
Under exposure . A picture that is too dark or black.
Viewfinder. The thing you look through to preview the image. They can be digital or optical.
Vignetting. Term used to describe an image with darkening in the corners.
White Balance . The adjustment of red, blue, pink, and green in an image. Our eyes do this automatically but a camera must be set. Since different lightbulbs are different colors and direct sunlight is a different color than a cloudy sky, the camera must be told what color to make white.
Wide angle. A focal length of a lens that has a wide angle of view (allows you to see more).
Zoom Lens . A lens that can change focal lengths (zoom in). The most common one is an 18-55mm.
