PC Card

What Is a PC Card and How Is It Used in Photography? A PC Card or ‘Printed Circuitboard Card’ is a credit card sized card which can be used to expand the available memory or storage space in a digital device such as a computer. When talking about photography PC Cards could be used in a number of ways. If your computer has PC Card slots then you could use PC Cards to add extra storage space to your device, this could then be used to store your photographs. You could also use a PC card to move photographs between …

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PCMCIA

What Is a PCMCIA Card and How Is It Used in Photography? A PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association)  Card or ‘Printed Circuitboard Card’ is a credit card sized card which can be used to expand the available memory or storage space in a digital device such as a computer. When talking about photography PC Cards could be used in a number of ways. If your computer has PC Card slots then you could use PC Cards to add extra storage space to your device, this could then be used to store your photographs. You could also use a …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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STM

What Does STM Mean On A Canon Lens? Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM When you see a Canon lens with STM in the name, it means that it features Canon’s Stepper Motor technology. Canon introduced this motor design to be a quieter and smoother focus system that allows for near-silent focusing during video recording. When Canon’s lenses were first designed many years ago, DSLRs could not shoot video so there was no need for them to be extremely quiet. These days, not only do Canon’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras shoot video, but they also have the Cinema EOS line of movie …

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T (Time)

What Is T (Time) Mode and How Is It Used in Photography? T (Time) mode, if available on a camera allows a photographer to expose images for long periods of time by pressing the shutter button once to open the shutter, and again to close the shutter. T (Time) is an alternative to Bulb mode in which the shutter button must remain depressed for exposure to continue. T (Time) mode is extremely useful for capturing images in low light conditions, for example in Astrophotography where extremely long exposures are required to capture the light from far away stars. T (Time) …

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TFT

What Is a TFT LCD Screen and What Is It Used for in Photography? when talking about cameras TFT refers to a ‘Thin-Film-Transistor’ liquid-crystal display. TFT display technology allows for the construction of high-resolution LCD display screens with excellent contrast performance. TFT displayed are favoured by camera manufacturers because they allow a cameras LCD display to show high resolution, color accurate reproductions of captured images. This allows photographers to make accurate judgements of their work on the fly, without having to upload images to a device with a higher quality display. TFT displays aren’t just limited to cameras, they are …

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USB

What Does USB Stand for when Talking About Photography? USB stands for ‘Universal Serial Bus’ and is a form of data connection and transfer protocol. The data input/output port on most modern cameras is a type of USB port and USB ports can be found on nearly all modern computers. USB interfaces can be used to upload information, for example images and metadata, from a camera to a computer system. they can also be used to charge the batteries in some compatible devices rather from having to remove the battery and place it into a separate charging cable. There are …

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UXGA

What Does UXGA Mean When Talking About Photography? UXGA means ‘Ultra Extended Graphics Array’ and refers to an image resolution size of 1600 x 1200 pixels which in photography terms equates to 1.92mp. UXGA video interfaces and compatible equipment first appeared around 2010 and the resolution is still widely used today in many office and home computer systems. Running higher resolution compatible equipment is relatively costly making UXGA a popular choice for many home editing setups.  The advantage of higher resolution displays when viewing or editing images is the ability for the display to render higher levels of detail, or …

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