Imaging Terminology Archives - Page 2 of 7

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 in …

Kelvin

What Does the Term Kelvin Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography the term ‘kelvin’ refers to the unit of measurement of color temperature. Every source of light emits light at a specific color temperature which can be measured in degrees kelvin or ‘K’. The color temperature of a light source varies from red to blue: Red or ‘warm’ colours are created at low color temperature values, for example a candle which is roughly 1500K. Blue or ‘cold’ colours are created at high color temperature values, for example a camera flash unit is roughly 5000K. Adjusting the white …

Keystoning

What Does Keystoning Mean When Talking About Photography? The term ‘keystoning’ refers to a type of distortion caused when an image projector is not placed perpendicular to the centerline of the screen onto which an image is being projected. Keystoning is caused by the Keystone effect, the image appears to lean away from the viewer as if it is being projected onto a tilted surface. Many modern image projectors feature keystone correction which compensates for the position of the projector to produce a flat image. The Keystone effect can also be witnessed in photographs; parallel objects shot from above or below …

Kilobyte

What Is a Kilobyte and How Is It Used in Photography? The term ‘kilobyte’ or KB refers to 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 …

Latent Image

What Does Latent Image Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography the term ‘latent image’ refers to the invisible image created on a photographic film when the film is exposed to light. The image only becomes visible to the naked eye once the photographic film has been removed from the camera and chemically developed. The latent image is formed by silver atoms clustered on the surface of, or within the silver halide crystals which are in turn coated on the surface of the photographic film. The term latent image has no direct meaning when talking about digital photography.

Light Painting

What Is Light Painting and How Is It Used in Photography? A ‘light painting’ is an image that is created by capturing a long exposure of a dark scene that contains a moving light source. By moving the light source within the scene whilst the photographic medium is being exposed the photographer is able to produce an effect which resembles the brush strokes made by an artist’s paint brush, only composed entirely of light. A classic example of a light painting is writing your name using a sparkler at a firework display. Light Paintings can be created by capturing any …

Low Key

What Does Low Key Mean When Talking About Taking Photos? Have you ever heard a photographer describe a photograph as being ‘low key’ and wondered exactly what they meant? When talking about photographs a low key picture is a picture which contains a lot of shadows and darker tones, and therefore very little in the way of highlights and visible detail. Low key images often appear dark and brooding with an almost palpable sense of menace, but can also be extremely powerful. Low key images also often leave a lot of detail hidden in the shadows, allowing the viewers imagination to …

Low Pass Filter

What Is a Low Pass Filter and How Is It Used in Photography? A low pass filter, also known as an ‘anti-aliasing’ filter or a ‘blur filter’ is a filter used by camera manufacturers to combat the effects of moiré in photographs. Moiré is caused when a a scene contains closely spaced repeating patterns, camera manufacturers combat this phenomenon by limiting the amount of light that is allowed into the camera, thus reducing the detail recorded in the resulting photograph. A low pass filter allows low frequencies of light to enter the camera, whilst limiting the amount of high frequency light …

Magnetic Storage

What Is Magnetic Storage When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography, magnetic storage refers to a form of storage in which information is recorded on a magnetised plate within a storage device. The data is stored by applying different levels of magnetism to different areas of a magnetic plate using a write head. This information can then be read at a later time by a read head which can measure the levels of magnetism applied to the plate. Magnetic storage is non-volatile and can be found in the hard drives which you use to store your digital images. Magnetic …

Medium Format

What Is Medium Format When Talking About Photography? In photography the term ‘medium format’ refers to a type of film or digital image sensor that is larger than 35mm ‘full-frame’, but smaller than 4″x5″ ‘large format’. the majority of medium format film is produced in what is known as ‘120 roll’ measuring 6cm x 6cm. Medium format cameras are favoured by some photographers due to their extremely high image quality, often seeing use in military intelligence applications. Traditionally medium format cameras are much larger than their 35mm counterparts but 2016 saw the release of the relatively small Hasselblad X1D, the …