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Shutter Priority

What Is Shutter Priority Mode and How Is It Used in Photography? In photography ‘shutter priority’ refers to a metering mode where the photographer fixes the camera to a specific shutter speed and then allows the camera to choose the correct aperture to produce a good exposure of a scene. Shutter priority mode is usually accessed via the camera’s mode dial and is denoted by an ‘S’ or ‘Tv’. Shutter priority mode is often used in situations where fast-moving subjects need to be frozen in motion, the photographer can choose a shutter speed at which they know the subject will …

Shutter Release Cable

What Is A Shutter Release Cable? A shutter release cable is often called a cable release. Please see the glossary page for cable release to learn more about them and find out when you might want to use one. Your browser does not support iFrame. Additional Reading Understanding Shutter Speed What Is A Cable Release? What Is Long Exposure Photography? What Is Bulb Mode?

Shutter Speed

What Is Shutter speed? Light passes through the camera’s lens, but is only allowed to reach the film or sensor when a mechanical curtain, called the shutter, is opened by pressing the shutter button. The length of time that the shutter is open is called the shutter speed, and it is expressed as a fraction of a second. A fast shutter speed, like 1/2000 of a second, will stop motion in an image. A long shutter speed of several seconds could be used to reveal the motion of a flowing river, or other dynamic subjects. Shutter speed is one of …

Slave Mode

What is Slave Mode and How It Is Used in Lighting and Photography? When talking about photography, specifically lighting, Slave mode is mode that instructs a flash unit to monitor incoming light, and fire when it senses the light produced by another flash unit firing. Slave mode can be used to fire an off camera flash using the cameras built in flash unit, or to trigger a flash unit as part of a group when you don’t have enough flash receivers. The biggest limitation of slave mode is that it requires direct line of sight between the slave unit and …

Slow Sync

What Is Slow Sync and How Is Is Used When Taking Photographs? In photography ‘slow sync’ refers to a specific flash mode that allows slower than norman shutter speeds to be used when using flash to provide supplemental light to an image. Slow sync mode is used in low ambient light conditions where a photographer wants to capture a well lit subject against a well exposed, low lit background. In this situation the flash lights the subject in the foreground of the image, the shutter then remains open to correctly expose the low ambient light levels in the image background. …

SmartMedia

What Does SmartMedia Refer to When Talking About Photography? SmartMedia is a now defunct memory format released by Toshiba in 1995. A SmartMedia card consists of a single flash memory chip embedded in a sheet of plastic, the card features a strip of gold contacts which facilitate the connection between the memory card and the device within which it is being used. SmartMedia was originally intended to be the replacement for the 3.5 inch floppy disc but gained a foothold in the digital camera industry in the early 2000’s. The increase in camera sensor resolutions became problematic though, SmartMedia cards …

Speedlight

What Is A Speedlight? A speedlight is another name for a hot shoe flash. For more information, please view the glossary entry for hot shoe flash. Your browser does not support iFrame. Additional Reading What Is A Hot Shoe Flash? What Is A Reflector? What Is Bounce Flash?

Spray and Pray

What does the phrase “Spray and Pray” mean in photography? Spray and Pray means the same thing as Grip and rip. It means to have your camera set up in a fast burst mode, shooting several photos per second, and then to simply hold down the shutter button, hoping to capture the perfect image within the sequence. Sometimes it is used in a more beginner/intermediate manner when someone is not familiar with the subject they are shooting, and therefore unable to predict exactly when the right moment might occur. However, sometimes there might also be legitimate practical uses for the …

Star Trail

What Are Star Trails? A star trail is a photography technique which shows the movement of the stars through the night sky. As the earth rotates, the position of the stars changes over time and in the photo they appear to draw lines in the sky that depicts their path through the night. Often, photographers will aim at the North Star, and this gives the impression of the stars rotating around one central point in the sky. How Do You Shoot A Star Trail? There are two distinct ways to create star trails. The first method is to take one single extremely …

STF

What Does STF Mean When Talking About Photographic Lenses? An STF, or Smooth Trans Focus lens is Sony’s name for a lens that uses an apodization element. In simple terms an apodization (also referred to as an APO or APD lens) is a type of neutral density filter which becomes thicker towards its edges. The gradual thickening of the element limits the amount of light allowed to transition the lens progressively towards the edges of the image area. This has the effect of smoothing the edges of out of focus objects within an image, creating beautifully soft Bokeh and an …