Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Digital Photography Terms To Be Aware Of

By Erik Zent


Anyone new in the world of digital photography will likely be lost with the unfamiliar terms used. So here are some of the common terms to back up amateur photographers in their journey to success. They are arranged from A to Z.

Ambient light - simply indicates the day light. This is basically the light that already exists before supplementing any light with a camera flash.

Aperture - refers to how much light enters into the camera lens which strikes the image sensor to capture images.

Aspect Ratio - the aspect ratio of a camera refers to the ratio of the length of the sides of the images.

Angle of View - Pertains to the angle covered by the lens of the camera. The angle of view determines the lens type included in a camera.

Bokeh - derived from the Japanese word "boke" meaning the quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.

Compression - the word is used to refer to the reduction of digital data files by taking out the less essential material in a digital image.

Contrast - describes the difference between the darkest and lightest areas in a photo.

Depth of Field - The range of distance in front of and behind an object focused by an optical instrument.

Digital Zoom - is the zoom-like effect of enlarging the central portion of a scene. As opposed to optical zoom, digital zoom simply crops the photo to some smaller size then enlarges the cropped portion to fill the frame again which leads to significant decrease in image quality.

Dots Per Inch (DPI) - It is the volume of dots of ink per inch whenever a photo is printed. Higher DPI means higher photo quality.

Exposure - a term that refers to the amount of light that may be in the position to fall on a digital camera's sensor when capturing photos.

Focal Length - the space coming from the surface of the lens to the point of interest is known as focal length. It determines the magnification capability of the lens.

High Key Images - means images mainly made up of light tones with just a few "highlight" or mid-tones. High key images usually have suppressed contrast levels with lighter shadow areas.

ISO - is a term often used to clarify the light sensitivity of a digital camera sensor. It determines how sensitive the camera's image sensor is.

Key Light - refers to the main light source on a subject or a scene. It is usually the light containing the biggest overall influence on the photograph.

Light Ratio - indicates the ratio between the main light (key light) and the fill light. When the light ratio is 2:1, this means the main light is twice as bright as the fill light.

Megapixel - it refers to the dimensions of a digital camera's sensor that may be measured in megapixels and in most cases abbreviated as MP. The term means one million (1,000,000) pixels. The size of the sensor must not be the single thing to find when comparing digital camera models.

Optical Zoom - is usually a term that refers to the employment of the lens that allows you to go nearer to your subject or just to include more within your photo. Optical zoom capability provides the best image quality.

Portrait - a pictorial representation of a person, usually showing the facial skin.

Shutter Speed - refers to how long the shutter is ready to accept light to strike the sensor.

Zoom - The act of changing the focal length of a zoom lens to show less or more in the photo. Zooming in brings the object closer.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment