Topic: Acronyms

Puzzled by strange photography acronyms or abbreviations? You’ve come to the right place!

The complete Shutter Muse Photography Glossary lists and explains the most commonly used terms in photography and you can find that glossary right here. This is the best place for beginner photographers to start to familiarize themselves with the photography lingo while they are exploring tutorials, reading books and learning photography software. A lot of the time, we can also give you a link to a more in-depth article on the topic if you’d really like to sink your teeth into it!

This page you are on right now only lists the photography acronyms and abbreviations from within the full glossary because sometimes that’s all people are looking for.

If you’ve seen something missing that you’d like us to explain, please send us a note via the suggestion form and again, you can find the full glossary here.

EF-S

What Is A Canon EF-S Lens? EF-S lenses are designed specifically for Canon APS-C sensor cameras. It is not possible to mount an EF-S lens on an APS-H, or a full frame camera. Since crop sensor cameras do not make use of the full width of full frame lenses, you end up carrying around a lot more lens than is really necessary! EF-S lenses are lighter and smaller, because they don’t need to cover such a large image circle. Most popular EF-S lenses: Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Pancake | Canon EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 | Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS …

EOS

What Is An EOS Camera? EOS stands for Electro-Optical System and it was introduced in 1987 by Canon to unveil their line of autofocus SLR cameras with the new EF Mount lens range. Of course today, this name has stuck, and it now encompasses their DSLR lineup and their mirrorless cameras as well. The first EOS camera was the Canon EOS 650 35mm film camera, and this was followed in 2000 with Canon’s first DSLR, the Canon EOS D30. These days the EOS lineup has expanded to include the EOS-M Mirrorless system, the EOS R mirrorless full-frame cameras with the …

GAS

What Does GAS Mean in Photography? GAS stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome and it describes a “condition” that some people have which causes them to want to purchase new camera gear, even when their current camera setup is perfectly good. It must be noted that this is NOT a legitimate medical condition of course 🙂 It’s just a bit of fun, but it is often talked about. GAS usually occurs when a photographer’s chosen camera manufacturer releases a new upgrade to a camera or lens that the photographer already owns. Up to that point they had been perfectly happy with …

GND

What Does GND Stand for in Photography? GND stands for graduated neutral density and is a type of photographic filter that allows a photographer to better control a large dynamic range within an image. Typically made from resin or glass, these filters are rectangular and feature neutral density that transitions from a specific amount, through to zero. GNDs are most commonly created in 100x150mm sizing, but larger sizes are also available from some manufacturers. The rectangular shape means that you can use them in a 100mm filter holder, but adjust them up and down to place the transition over the …

GUI

What is a GUI On a Camera? GUI stands for Graphical User Interface – pronounced GOO-ey. When relating to cameras, the GUI is the on-screen menu system. Essentially it’s the graphical way of showing the camera settings. Menus, tabs, sub-menus etc. It could also mean the way the camera settings are displayed on the screen during live view shooting. If someone said “Wow, the GUI on Sony cameras is a mess” they mean the user interface (menus) are hard to understand.

HDTV

What Does HDTV Mean in Camera Specifications? HDTV stands for High Definition Television and you might sometimes see this acronym listed amongst the technical jargon in camera specifications. An HDTV is a television with a 16:9 aspect ratio (compared to the older 4:3 aspect ratio) that can display a resolution of at least 720p (1280px x 720px). Most HDTVs either display a resolution of 720p or 1080p (1920px x 1080px), but some newer televisions are now capable of displaying what is commonly known as 4k or Quad HD (4096px x 2160px) – also sometimes written as QFHD (Quad Full HD) …

KB

What Does KB Mean When Talking About Photography? The acronym ‘KB’ refers to one ‘kilobyte’, a unit of measurement used to describe the size of a digital file. One kilobyte is comprised of 1,024 bytes of digital information. When a picture is captured on a digital camera the resulting file must be stored on the cameras memory; Depending of the resolution of the captured image, and the file format used to encode it, an image will take up a certain number of kilobytes on the cameras memory. Dividing the total size of a camera’s memory in kilobytes by the size …

L-Series

What Is A Canon L Series Lens? Canon’s high-end lenses carry a red ring around the lens barrel, and the famous L Series branding. These lenses are designed for professional usage and are built to the highest standards, with extreme sharpness and durability in mind. Most L lenses are weather sealed, meaning they can stand to get reasonably wet before requiring a waterproof cover. L Series lenses cover the full spectrum of focal lengths, from the incredible groundbreaking 11-24mm f/4 L, right through to the 800mm f/5.6 L IS. Compared to Canon’s other lenses, L Series lenses tend to focus …

LR

What Does LR Stand For In Photography? LR is an abbreviation for Adobe Lightroom, a powerful image organization and editing software. You may also see it referred to as LR5, LR6 and so on, depending on which version of the software they are using. Lightroom allows you to import and organize your images, then process them with Adobe’s Camera Raw Engine from Photoshop, and export the files to galleries or custom printed books. It’s available as a standalone piece of software, or as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud photography package for about $10/month including Photoshop CC as well. If you …

MB

What Is an MB and How Is It Used in Photography? The acronym MB stands for ‘megabyte’ and refers to a unit of measurement used to describe the size of a digital file. One MB is comprised of 1,024,000 bytes, or 1,024 kilobytes of digital information. When a picture is captured on a digital camera the resulting file must be stored on the cameras memory; Depending of the resolution of the captured image, and the file format used to encode it, an image will take up a certain number of MB on the cameras memory. Dividing the total size of …