P Archives - Page 3 of 3

Portrait

What Is a Portrait When Talking About Photography? In photography a portrait is an image of a person, or the likeness of a person. Portraiture is one of the oldest forms of photography, dating back as far as the early 19th century. The art of capturing a portrait involves placing the subject in a pose, either within as scene or against a plain backdrop, and then exposing the image in such a way that the image is a clear representation and likeness of the subject. Taking pictures of a person is easy, capturing a good portrait that includes fine details …

Posterization

What Does Posterization Mean When Talking About Photography and Image Editing? In photography and image editing unwanted posterization, also referred to as banding, occurs when the bit-depth of an image is lowered enough to have a negative impact on an image. posterization can be caused by any process which ‘stretches’ an images histogram for example applying excessive compression. Posterization gets it’s name from its visual effect on an image; Distinct bands of individual colour will appear which make it look like the image has been converted into an old fashioned graphic poster. Another tell-tale sign of posterization can be spotted …

PPI

What Does PPI Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography the acronym ‘PPI’ stands for ‘pixles per inch’ and refers to resolution of a printed image. Printers measure printing resolution in ‘DPI’ or ‘dots pre inch’ and it is important to understand the difference between PPI and DPI if you wish to print high quality images. If you print an image with PPI which is less than the DPI of the printer then you may notice a loss of sharpness in the final print. This occurs because the printer will have to render each pixel with more than …

Preview Button

What Is a Preview Button and How Is It Used in Photography? When talking about cameras and taking photographs a ‘preview button’ is a button found on most cameras which allows the shooter to preview the depth of field that will be captured at the current aperture setting. When you look through a camera viewfinder you see a view of the scene with both the foreground and background in focus. This allows a shooter to compose an image accurately but does not show you how your aperture settings will affect the depth of field. Depressing the preview button, usually found …

Programmed AE

What Is Programmed AE Mode and How Is It Used in Photography? When talking about photography the term ‘programmed AE’ refers to an automatic image metering mode which a camera can be set to when taking photographs. In programmed AE mode the camera evaluates the scene and automatically sets the shutter speed and aperture to values which will capture a correct exposure. Unlike fully automatic mode however programmed AE mode allows the shooter to choose between, or ‘program shift’ between various combinations of exposure settings for the current scene, thus allowing for more artistic control over the final image. A …

PSD

What Is A PSD File? PSD stands for Photoshop Document and is the native file type created by the Adobe image editing application, Photoshop. Photoshop is a powerful editing tool that allows for a totally non-destructive editing workflow (if used correctly!). Much of the workflow centres around the use of ‘layers’ to selectively apply adjustments and add or remove content from the image. A PSD file saves all of this layer content, as well as other content such as saved selections of specific areas in your image. A PSD file can be as simple as a single image, or as …