Photography Terms and Definitions

TermsDefinitions

 

 

 

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

 

order to focus properly on a subject regardless of whether it is near or

Auto Focus (AF)

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”, “auto-focus”.

 

 

 

The adjustment of electronic still picture color channel gains or image

White Balance

processing so that radiation with relative spectral power distribution

equal to that of the scene illumination source is rendered as a visual

 

 

neutral.

 

 

 

With auto white balance, the camera attempts to determine the

Auto White Balance

color temperature of the light and automatically adjust for that color

(AWB)

temperature. Many people just leave the camera set to auto white

 

balance all the time.

 

 

 

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

Digital Print Order

removable media along with the image files that indicate how many

Format (DPOF)

copies of which images should be printed. It also allows index prints,

 

cropping, and text overlays to be specified.

 

 

 

A compressed file format for digital cameras in which the images

Exif/JPEG

are 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.

 

 

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group. An image compression method

defined in ISO/IEC 10918-1.

 

 

 

 

A numerical value that is inversely proportional to the exposure provided

Exposure Value

to 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

ISO Speed

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.

 

 

USB

Universal serial bus, a digital interface for connecting up to 64 devices

in a tiered-star topology. See http://www.usb.org.

 

 

 

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