Photography Jargon Explained
Aspect Ratio, Dynamic Range, Focal Length! What does it all mean? As a beginner in photography, you will hear lots of Photography terms and meanings that sound like they’ve come straight from a sci-fi novel. Well, fear not my learner friends, here we bring you the A-Z of camera terms explained.
Our free downloadable guide is here to help the beginner photographer learn easier by explaining all the photography terms and meanings. From Aperture to Zoom Lens here you’ll get all the camera terms explained and what’s more, it’s totally free!
Get access to ALL our online courses – 1000’s of videos, worksheets, critiques of student’s work, personalised support and much more with our monthly membership.
A-Z of Photography terms and meanings
Camera terms explained in the letter A
A / Av – aperture priority mode on cameras that have manual modes. You choose the aperture, the camera chooses the rest to give a correct exposure.
Aperture – the opening in a lens that lets light into the camera. Represented by an f number. Small apertures like f16 let in less light and wide apertures like f2.8 let in more light. Click here for our Apertures Explained video.
Aspect Ratio – the size of the image’s height in relation to it’s width, i.e. 16:9 means 16 equal parts along one edge to 9 equal parts along the other edge. Sometimes referred to as the crop of the image.
AF – auto focusing - focusing modes in which the camera will automatically focus for you.
Want 10% off your first course? Click here
Photography terms explained the letter B
Blue Hour – the short period of time before sunrise or after sunset when the sun is just below the horizon. This time of day creates a soft, blue, even light.
Bokeh Effect – The term for the circles or hexagons in out of focus areas of an image. Shown more prominently in shots that have a shallow depth of field. Click here to see how to create the Bokeh effect with ease.
Bracketing – the technique of taking multiple shots of the same thing at different exposures e.g. one too bright, one normal and one too dark. Bracketing can be done manually or by using the automatic exposure bracketing feature on some cameras.
Bulb – setting which allows you to open the shutter for as long as the shutter release button is pressed. This allows for exposure times longer than 30 seconds. A cable release or remote trigger can be used to lock the shutter open.
Burst rate – number of shots the camera can take consecutively in continuous shooting mode. Speed of this depends on the camera, file size of the images and the speed of your memory card.
Photography jargon explained in the letter C
Candid – a shot taken of someone who wasn’t expecting it or who wasn’t posing. Common in street or documentary photography.
Chromatic Aberration – the effect caused by the refraction of different wavelengths of light. Seen in an image via coloured lines (usually green or purple) on edges of objects such as rocks or buildings.
Composition – the word composition means combining or 'putting together’ parts to form a whole. In photography, composition is how you arrange the elements of your scene within your frame. You have rules of composition such as the rule of thirds. Click here to see a video on how to use composition to improve portraiture.
Contrast – the difference between the dark and light areas of an image. Higher contrast images have darker shadows and brighter highlights whereas low contrast images will have less definition between the lights and darks.
Crop factor – this is the size of a camera sensor proportionate to a 35mm sensor, sometimes called a full-frame sensor. The 35mm full frame sensor is based on the old 35mm film size. Crop sensors are a cropped version of this. Common crop sensors are APS-C and micro 4/3. The crop factor of your sensor is to do with the effect of the focal length equivalent on a full frame camera. E.g. an APS-C sensor has a crop factor of x1.6. This means if you multiply the focal length on a APS-C camera by 1.6 you will get the equivalent focal length on a full frame camera. For a more info on this click here for our ‘Sensor Sizes Explained’ video.
Download the full A-Z of Photography terms and meanings, for free, using the form above.
Save time, money and receive structured, accurate and professional training
Like this? - Check out similar tutorials below
I hope you like our camera terms explained document which can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. If you do, please leave us a comment and support us by sharing it with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page for more.
We also have an excellent learning community on social media so please join us there as well.
Thanks for watching and remember – Learn more at The School of Photography.
