Photography Terms and Definitions

TermsDefinitions

 

 

 

A simple technique professional photographers use to ensure they properly

Auto Exposure Bracketing

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.

 

 

 

Auto focus refers to a camera’s ability to adjust its configuration in order to

 

focus properly on a subject regardless of whether it is near or far from the

Auto Focus (AF)

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”, “auto-focus”.

 

 

 

An end-user created object that is used to logically group data objects

Album

according to some user-defined criteria. An album may or may not be a

 

physical folder in a file system.

 

 

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.

 

 

Aspect Ratio

The aspect ratio of a camera is the ratio of the length of the length and width

of the display or images.

 

 

 

 

With auto white balance, the camera attempts to determine the color

Auto White Balance (AWB)

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.

 

 

Compression

The process of encoding information using fewer bits cf. image compression,

sound file compression.

 

 

 

 

A standardized ASCII file created in a digital camera and stored on removable

Digital Print Order Format

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.

 

 

 

A camera incorporating an image sensor which outputs a digital signal

Digital Still Camera (DSC)

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.

 

 

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range in photography describes the ratio between the maximum and

minimum measurable light intensities (white and black, respectively).

 

 

 

 

A compressed file format for digital cameras in which the images are

Exif/JPEG

compressed using the baseline JPEG standard, described in ISO 12234-2,

and metadata and thumbnail images are stored using TIFF tags within an

 

 

application segment at the beginning of the JPEG file.

 

 

 

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

 

 

levels.

 

 

 

A numerical value calculated from the exposure provided at the focal plane of

 

an electronic camera to produce specified camera output signal characteristics

ISO Speed

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.

 

 

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group. An image compression method defined in

ISO/IEC 10918-1.

 

 

 

Protocol

Defined mechanisms for exchanging data between devices.

 

 

 

A device-specific four byte unsigned integer (UINT32) that represents a

StorageID

unique storage area that may contain data objects. The most significant

sixteen bits of a StorageID represents the PhysicalStorageID, while the least

 

 

significant sixteen bits of a StorageID represents the LogicalStorageID.

 

 

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