Free Photography Tutorials and Pro Tips & Techniques
Kelvin – is a colour temperature measurement informing the colour of light. E.g. Daylight is 5500OK (Kelvins) and this gives a pure white light whereas a sunset will be around 3200K which will give a warmer, orange light. Used mainly in the white balance settings of your camera. Key Light…
Jpeg – The standard format for images. It’s a compressed, or flattened, image that can be viewed by most devices and printed. Because they are compressed, they contain less information and are smaller. Jpeg stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.
Image stabilisation – Technology held in a camera lens or body that reduces camera shake caused by hand-holding the camera. Image Quality – Setting on most cameras that changes the amount of pixels you capture and whether the camera shoots in Jpeg or RAW. Infinity (focusing) – The furthest…
HDR (High Dynamic Range) – a technique using exposure bracketing and post-processing to create an image with a higher dynamic range. An image with a higher dynamic range will have more detail in the lights, darks and colours. Learn about HDR in Lightroom. Histogram – visual representation of the colour…
Generative AI – Generative AI can be used to generate realistic images, enhance photos, or create visual effects through techniques such as image synthesis, style transfer, and content generation. You can experiment with this in editing software such as Photoshop to enrich your photo editing. Gamut – Gamut refers to…
Flash – a burst of light. This can come from a pop-up flash built-in to the camera, a flash gun, or flash lights in a studio. Check out our 5 Pro Portrait Lighting Setups tutorial here. Flash Sync speeds – the shutter speed at which the camera must be set…
Exposure – amount of light you expose your sensor or film to. Determined by the aperture and shutter speed. Exposure Compensation – feature on most cameras that allows you to increase or decrease the exposure in manual modes. Electronic Viewfinder – A digital display used in some digital cameras to…
Depth of Field – the distance around your focus point (in front and behind) that is sharp. A long DOF will show everything sharp from the foreground to the background. A shallow DOF will show only a small part of the picture sharp with the foreground and background being blurry.…
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…
Blue hour – Blue hour is the short period of time before sunrise or after sunset when the sun is just below the horizon. Indirect sunlight is evenly diffused and takes on a blue shade. The duration on the blue hour varies depending on the location, but generally lasts less…
