Photography Terminology Explained

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…

Aperture – Aperture is the opening through which light passes through the lens to enter the camera. Its size can be modified to control how much light reaches the sensor or negative film. The diameter of the aperture, also known as the F-stop, affects the exposure and depth of field.…

Aspect Ratio, Dynamic Range, Focal Length! What does it all mean? As a beginner in photography, you will hear lots of Photography terminology that sounds like they’ve come straight from a sci-fi novel. Well, fear not my learner friends, here we bring you the A-Z of photography terminology. Our free…