Photography Terms and Definitions
Terms | Definitions | |
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Auto Exposure Bracketing  | A simple technique professional photographers use to ensure they properly  | |
expose their pictures, especially in challenging lighting situations. When  | ||
(AEB) | AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more shots with a  | |
  | different exposure for each frame.  | |
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  | Auto focus refers to a camera lens’ ability to adjust its configuration in order  | |
Auto Focus (AF)  | to focus properly on a subject regardless of whether it is near or far from the  | |
camera. Auto focus lenses generally provide vastly superior image quality than  | ||
  | do their fixed focus cousins since they do not have to rely on their depth of  | |
  | field. Also known as: “AF”,   | |
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Album | An   | |
according to some   | ||
  | physical folder in a file system.  | |
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Analog to Digital Converter  | A circuit that converts an analog signal, having a continuously varying  | |
(A/D or ADC)  | amplitude, to a digitally quantized representation using binary output signals.  | |
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Aspect Ratio  | The aspect ratio of a camera is the ratio of the length of the length and width  | |
of the display or images.  | ||
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Auto White Balance (AWB)  | With auto white balance, the camera attempts to determine the color  | |
temperature of the light and automatically adjust for that color temperature.  | ||
  | Many people just leave the camera set to auto white balance all the time.  | |
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Charge Coupled Device (CCD)  | A type of silicon integrated circuit used to convert light into an electronic  | |
signal.  | ||
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Compression | The process of encoding information using fewer bits cf. image compression,  | |
sound file compression.  | ||
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Digital Print Order Format  | A standardized ASCII file created in a digital camera and stored on removable  | |
media along with the image files that indicate how many copies of which  | ||
(DPOF) | images should be printed. It also allows index prints, cropping, and text  | |
  | overlays to be specified.  | |
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Digital Still Camera (DSC) | A camera incorporating an image sensor which outputs a digital signal  | |
representing a still picture, or records a digital signal representing a still  | ||
  | picture on a removable medium, such as a memory card or magnetic disk.  | |
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Dynamic Range | Dynamic range in photography describes the ratio between the maximum and  | |
minimum measurable light intensities (white and black, respectively).  | ||
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  | A compressed file format for digital cameras in which the images are  | |
Exif/JPEG | compressed using the baseline JPEG standard, described in ISO   | |
and metadata and thumbnail images are stored using TIFF tags within an  | ||
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  | application segment at the beginning of the JPEG file.  | |
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  | A numerical value that is inversely proportional to the exposure provided to  | |
Exposure Index | an image sensor to obtain an image. Images obtained from a camera using a  | |
range of exposure index values will normally provide a range of image quality  | ||
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  | levels.  | |
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  | A numerical value calculated from the exposure provided at the focal plane of  | |
ISO Speed  | an electronic camera to produce specified camera output signal characteristics  | |
using the methods described in the referenced standard. The ISO speed  | ||
  | should correlate with the highest exposure index value that provides peak  | |
  | image quality for normal scenes.  | |
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JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group. An image compression method defined in  | |
ISO/IEC   | ||
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Protocol  | Defined mechanisms for exchanging data between devices.  | |
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