Digital Photography Terminology

Here's lesson 14 of "What You MUST Know To Get The RightDigital Camera!"

Digital Senior Portraits Photography Terminology — What Do All Those Strange Words Mean?
This section on digital photography terminology brings us tothe last lesson in our mini-course — the language andterminology of digital photography.
Digital photography includes many terms not used intraditional photography. If you've been wondering what some ofthem mean, here's a short glossary that could help you betterunderstand advertisements and reviews of digital cameras:
Digital Camera Terminology — What Do All Those Words Mean?
Aperture — An adjustable diaphragm of overlapping blades thatadjust the size of the lens opening.

Automatic Mode — A setting that sets the focus, exposure andwhite-balance automatically.
Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode — a series of picturestaken one after another at quickly timed intervals with onepress of the shutter button. It's perfect for action shotsbecause it eliminates lag time for a series of pictures.
CCD — A light sensitive chip that converts light intoelectrical charges.

CMOS — Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors (pronouncedSeemoss). Refers to a standard manufacturing process of makingchips for computer microprocessors and memory. This process isalso used in digital cameras.
Compression — The process of compacting digital data, imagesand text by deleting selected information.

Digital Zoom — Cropping and magnifying the center part of animage.
Dynamic Range — The ratio between the brightest and darkestparts of an image or scene.
JPEG — The predominant format used for image compression indigital cameras that compresses digital picture information toits lowest common value. It produces relatively small filesfrom large amounts of image data by discarding certaininformation (lossy).
Lag Time — The pause between the time the shutter button ispressed and when the camera actually captures the image(exposes the shot). Lag time varies according to camera model.
LCD — (Liquid-Crystal Display) is a small screen on a digitalcamera (like a miniature computer monitor) for viewing images.Once the image leaves the CCD sensor, it can be viewed on theLCD to check for accurate composition and exposure.

Lens — A circular and transparent glass or plastic piece thathas the function of collecting light and focusing it on thesensor to capture the image.

Megabyte — (MB) Measures 1024 Kilobytes, and refers to theamount of information in a file, or how much information canbe contained on a Memory Card, Hard Drive or Disk.
Menu — A listing of camera functions usually displayed on theLCD screen.
Metering — The autoexposure mechanism that "measures" thelight in the scene and determines the optimum exposure for theimage, which allows compensation for difficult lightingsituations.

Noise — The visible effects of electronic interference in thefinal image from a digital camera appearing as random spots,dots, or flecks of dust.
Optical Zoom — The magnification difference between minimumand maximum focal lengths in the lens system.

Pixels — Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures.Pixels also measure digital resolution. One million pixelsadds up to one megapixel.

RAM — Random Access Memory, the volatile memory used totemporarily store information for processing.

RAW —A lossless image format that captures raw data as itcomes directly off the CCD, without in-camera processing,resulting in smaller files than TIFF. (Lossless means pixelsare not discarded.) RAW files require a plugin to open.

RGB — Refers to Red, Green, Blue colors used on computers tocreate all other colors.
Resolution — Camera resolution describes the number of pixelsused to create the image, which determines the amount ofdetail a camera can capture. The more pixels a camera has, themore detail it can register and the larger the picture can beprinted. Monitor and printer resolution are different fromcamera resolution.

Scene Modes — Preset exposure/shutter speed combinations whichinclude white balance and exposure compensation.

Storage Card — The removable storage device which holds imagestaken with the camera, comparable to film, but much smaller.Also called a digital camera memory card.
Thumbnail Index — A page that displays 9 or more miniaturedigital pictures in a grid. It can be compared to "contactsheets" of traditional photography.

TIFF — Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), an industry standardraster file format consisting of the image and headerinformation. It is a "lossless" image format that doesn'tthrow away information in the compression process.
Viewfinder — The optical "window" to look through to composethe scene. It can be optical, electrical, or TT.

San Antonio Senior Digital Portraits

White Balance — White balancing adjusts the camera tocompensate for the type of light (daylight, fluorescent,incandescent, etc.,) or lighting conditions in the scene so itwill look normal to the human eye.

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Thank you so much for joining me on this digital cameraadventure tour. You have just completed 14 valuable basiclessons that will help you select and buy an appropriatedigital camera for yourself or your family. Even though you'velearned a great deal, as you might have guessed, this is justthe beginning. To get the most out of your digital camera,you'll want to learn more about how it works and how to useit.

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