P Archives - Page 2 of 3

PIM

What Does PIM Stand for When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography, and more specifically printing photos the acronym PIM stands for ‘Print Image Matching’. Print Image Matching was developed by Epsom in the early 2000’s to overcome differences between the appearance of images as seen on a digital display, such as a camera LCD, and their appearance once printed. The PIM protocol allows manufactures to provide camera specific information to enable PIM compatible printers to render a print of the highest possible quality for specific cameras and exposure settings. PIM information is stored in an image’s EXIF metadata file …

Pin-Cushioning

What Is Pin-Cushioning and How Does It Effect Photography and Photographs? When talking about photography and taking photographs the term ‘pin-cushioning’ refers to a kind of distortion which makes images appear ‘pinched’ in the middle. The term gets its name from the effect pushing a pin into a pin-cushion has on its appearance. Pin-cushioning is a problem associated mainly with cheap telephoto zoom lenses such as those found on point and shoot cameras. The effects of pin-cushioning can be corrected in post-processing or by using higher quality equipment. The opposite of pin-cushioning is ‘barrel distortion’ which causes an image to …

Pixel

What Is a Pixel and What Does It Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about digital images, or methods of displaying digital images a ‘pixel’ is the smallest component within a digital image. Pixel stands for ‘picture element’, they are the individual components that collectively recreate the image captured with your digital camera on a computer monitor. Image resolution is measured by the total number of pixels within an image; A VGA image for example has a resolution of 640×480 pixels (total of 307200 pixels), the higher the number of pixels the higher the resolution of an image, or …

Pixel Density

What Is Pixel Density and How Does It Relate to Photography? Pixel density is a measure of the number of pixels contained in measured area. Often measured in PPI ‘Pixels per Inch’ or DPI ‘Dots per Inch’ pixel density in photography is a measurement of an image or sensor’s resolution and is dependant on the size of the pixels being measured. Pixel density is especially useful when printing an image. If we were to rely on the true image resolution, for example 640 x 480 pixels, but printed two images of different sizes, the true resolution of 640 x 480 …

Pixel peeper

What Does Pixel Peeper Mean When Talking About Photography? No, a pixel peeper isn’t a fancy device used to examine the quality of individual pixels! It is in fact a type of photographer, specifically one who spends the majority of their time examining their images at pixel level, searching for the tiniest instances of noise and softness or image defects whilst completely overlooking the image as a whole. Pixel peeping has its place, but an image perfectly exposed and rendered down to the level of each individual pixel will still look crumby if it is incorrectly composed, or contains a …

Pixelization

What Does Pixelization Mean When Talking About Photographs and Photography? When talking about photography, specifically digital photography and image processing ‘pixelization’ is the deterioration of a low-resolution image caused by a lack of enough pixels to render an image smoothly. When an image becomes pixilized the human eye is able to determine individual pixels within an image, making the image look fake or overly digitized. Printing an image at a low DPI will result in the image becoming Pixelated, as will aggressively up-sampling an image. Pixelization does however have a useful function; It is often employed to censor images so …

PocketWizard

What Is A PocketWizard PocketWizard is a brand of radio slaves that was instrumental in emergence of the “strobist” movement of off-camera flash photography. Their products became so ubiquitous that, like companies such as Hoover and Coca Cola, their brand name is often used to describe the product genre and not necessarily just the brand and their own products. Radio slaves allow a flash to be fired remotely by attaching a radio transmitter to the camera’s hot shoe, and a matching receiver to the remotely positioned flash or studio strobe. The range of a PocketWizard can be several hundred metres, …

Point And Shoot

What Is a Point and Shoot Camera and How Is Is Used to Take Photographs? When talking about cameras and taking photographs the term ‘point and shoot’ refers to a camera which employs high levels of automation to make the process of capturing a photograph as simple as possible for the photographer. The ideal point and shoot camera only requires the shooter to compose the shot and then capture the scene by firing the camera’s shutter. The camera determines exposure, auto focus, and flash settings automatically based on the light entering the camera’s lens. Point and shoot cameras often allow …

Polarized Light

What Is Polarized Light and How Does It Effect Photography? When the vibrations effecting a wave of light are restricted to a single plane the light in question is referred to as being ‘polarized’. Light can become polarized when reflecting off a non-metallic surface or passing through certain mediums such as water. When taking photographs polarized light can often produce unwanted glare from reflective surfaces, prevent the observation of underwater objects within a scene, or cause skies to appear to overly bright. The issues associated with unwanted polarized light can be controlled by using a ‘polarizing filter’ which absorbs polarized light …

Polarizing Filter

What Is a Polarizing Filter and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? When talking about photography a polarizing filter is a kind of filter which is used to absorb polarized light as it enters a lens. Light reflected of certain surfaces and a portion of the light coming from the sky is ‘polarized light’, a polarizing filter can absorb this light and dramatically reduce the appearance of reflections, or darken the sky within a photograph. Polarizing filters are usually attached to the filter threads on the end of a lens and have a rotating layer which is adjusted to control …