Photography Terminology

Technology and Media Productions

Pixel

• A picture element • (pix=picture and el-element)• In color image systems, a color is typically

represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

File size• Image file size is

positively correlated to the number of pixels in an image and the color depth, or bits per pixel

Types of Files• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a compression method. Nearly every

digital camera can save images in the JPEG/JFIF format, which supports 8-bit grayscale images and 24-bit color images (8 bits each for red, green, and blue).

• The TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format is a flexible format that normally saves 8 bits or 16 bits per color (red, green, blue) for 24-bit and 48-bit totals, respectively, usually using either the TIFF or TIF filename extension.

• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is limited to an 8-bit palette, or 256 colors.• The BMP file format (Windows bitmap) handles graphics files within the

Microsoft Windows OS. Typically, BMP files are uncompressed, hence they are large; the advantage is their simplicity and wide acceptance in Windows programs.

• The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file format was created as the free, open-source successor to GIF. The PNG file format supports 8 bit paletted images (with optional transparency for all palette colors) and 24 bit truecolor (16 million colors) or 48 bit truecolor with and without alpha channel - while GIF supports only 256 colors and a single transparent color.

Exposure

• The quantity of light allowed to act on a photographic material; a product of the intensity (controlled by the lens opening) and the duration (controlled by the shutter speed or enlarging time) of light striking the film or paper.[Brightness/Darkness of the final photo]

Shutter Speed• shutter speed or exposure

time is the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open. The total exposure is proportional to this exposure time, or duration of light reaching the film or image sensor.

Aperture• an aperture is a hole

or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane

ISO (film speed)• Film speed is the measure

of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system. A closely related ISO system is used to measure the sensitivity of digital imaging systems.

White Balance

• Color Temperature of the image. Setting depend on the lighting available.

Angle of View

• The area of a scene that a lens covers or sees. Angle of view is determined by the focal length of the lens. A wide-angle lens (short-focal-length) includes more of the scene-a wider angle of view-than a normal (normal-focal-length) or telephoto (long-focal-length) lens. [What the lens sees, kind of like what you see when you look at something]