Imaging Terminology Archives - Page 6 of 7

Sensitivity

What Does Sensitivity Mean When Talking About Cameras and Photography In photography sensitivity refers to a film or digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. In photography sensitivity is often referred to as ISO, or ‘International Standards Organization’ an organization who ensure that manufacturers adhere to global standards. In this case all camera and film manufacturers use the same standard to describe the light sensitivity of their products. a Low ISO denotes low sensitivity, for example ISO 100, whereas a high ISO denotes a high sensitivity, for example ISO 6400. Like shutter speed and exposure time, ISO is measured in ‘Stops’, …

Shadow

What Does Shadow Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography the term ‘shadow’ is used to describe the darkest parts of an image. Shadow is often rendered in black tonal values but when exposed correctly is still able to contain large amounts of detail; Capturing the balance between shadow detail and highlight detail is one of the cornerstones of taking a well exposed image. Manipulation of the lighting and exposure of shadow within an image can be used to add or remove darkness from a scene, dramatically altering the overall feel and depth of a photograph. Techniques such …

Sharpness

What Does Sharpness Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography ‘sharpness’ refers to an image’s overall clarity in terms of both focus and contrast. When the subject of an image is sharp the image appears clear and lifelike, with detail, contrast and texture rendered in high detail. Images which lack sharpness or are ‘soft’ can appear blurry and lacking in detail, although experienced photographers are able to manipulate sharpness to allow a feeling of warmth or movement within an image. Image sharpness is extremely reliant on achieving accurate focus on a desired subject, especially challenging when shooting scenes …

Stop

What to We Mean by a Stop When Talking About Photography When talking about photography a ‘Stop’ is a unit of measurement used to describe each step of opening or closing a lens’ aperture. On lens’ with an aperture ring a stop can be thought of as one physical click of the aperture ring. One stop is equal to one EV and they relate to the following values: 1.8, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 64. A lower number refers to a wider aperture, great for shooting in low light conditions but prone to a loss of …

Studio

What Is a Photography Studio and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? A photography studio is a workspace specifically designed and built for the purpose of taking photographs. In it’s basic form a studio will feature a well lit space with a blank backdrop to allow the capturing of images in an environment free from obtrusive external light sources. The required lighting for an image can then be ‘built’ by the photographer using lighting equipment and subject placement. Professional photography studios are jam packed with the most expensive photography, lighting and editing equipment, providing photographer with all the equipment and …

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) …

Test Shots

What Is a Test Shot and How Is It Used in Photography? In photography a ‘Test Shot’ or series of test shots refer to photographs that are taken at the beginning of a photoshoot to determine the correct exposure, depth of field, and lighting levels required to capture a specific pre-determined set of final images. Often if a model is to feature in the final image or images then a stand-in will be used for test-shots (usually an assistant) so that a scene can be set without having to pay a model. Once test shots have been captured the photographer …

Texture

What Does Texture Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography texture refers to the visual quality of the surface of an object, revealed through variances in shape, tone and color depth. Texture brings life and vibrance to images that would otherwise appear flat and uninspiring. Capturing high levels of detail is extremely important when attempting to capture lifelike textures making exposure choices critical. Underexpose and texture will be lost in shadow and blurring, overexpose and it will be lost in blown highlights and lack of dynamic range. The texture of an object, as seen through the lens of …

Thumbnail Index

What Is a Thumbnail Index and how Is It used in Photography? A thumbnail index is an index of images comprised of thumbnails; reduced size versions of images designed to give you an ‘at a glance’ idea of an images contents. Thumbnail indexes usually replace text indexes in cameras and image editing software because of the practicality of searching visually when working with photographs. Thumbnail indexes will often contain a small amount of metadata which can be used alongside the thumbnails to quickly identify images in libraries that can sometimes contain hundreds of thousands of individual images. Thumbnail indexes can …

Tonal Range

What Do We Mean by ‘Tonal Range’ When Talking AboutPhotographs and Photography? In photography, the term ‘Tonal Range’ also sometimes referred to as ‘Dynamic Range’ is used to describe he quality of color and tone within an image, ranging from the darkest to brightest area and everything in between. In digital photography the tonal range of an image is dependant on the dynamic range of the sensor capturing the image. It should be noted however that it is not difficult to capture a full tonal range of black to white, the challenge comes in representing the tones in between which …