The Most Important Photography Terms You Need to Know

The photography world is filled with jargon. Whether it’s to explain how an image looks or a camera setting, there’s a lot of new definitions to pick up on. That’s why I created this (growing) list of essential photography terms! So you can have a quick understanding of unfamiliar language.

Note

These definitions are not exact. I am using this page to explain things as best as I can in simplified terms to make them easily understandable at an entry level.

Definitions

Aperture: The amount of light allowed through the camera lens. Aperture values are denoted by f-stops – you’ll see these written as F/1.8 or F/16 for example. Lower aperture values, like F/1.8, will have more light coming through the lens plus a shallow depth of field. Conversely, higher aperture values, like F/16, will have less light coming through the lens and a deeper depth of field. 1 of 3 components in the exposure triangle.

Aperture Priority Mode: This camera mode allows the user to choose an Aperture value and automatically adjusts the ISO and Shutter Speed to achieve a balanced exposure. It’s ideal for getting images with specific Depth of Field in situations where light is changing.

Bokeh: The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photo.

Bracketing: Taking multiple shots of the same composition but with different camera settings. This can be used to have more chances at their ideal shot, more choices when editing, creating HDR images or when making more complex composite images in Photoshop.

Color Correction: Typically a video term, this refers to editing the image to be as natural or realistic as possible. This is an important step before Color Grading.

Color Grading: Also usually a video term, this refers to changing the appearance of the image to serve a stylistic purpose.

Color Grading (Lightroom): This tool allows you to influence the color of different luminance ranges within an image, divided by Shadows, Midtones, Highlights and Global.

Depth of Field: The distance between the nearest and the furthest objects within an image that are acceptably sharp.

Dynamic Range: The amount of range between pure white and pure black in an image. More dynamic range often makes for more appealing images. See: HDR.

Exposure: The amount of light reaching a camera’s sensor or film. Often refers to how bright or dark an image is overall. Exposure is generally influenced by the three parts of the exposure triangle and sources of light.

Exposure Compensation: Often a dial on top of a mirrorless or DSLR camera, this setting lets photographers influence the automatic exposure from their camera. For instance, setting the Exposure Compensation dial to -1 will result in an image that is 1 stop underexposed compared to what the camera thinks is correct. Note: Exposure Compensation does nothing in manual mode unless the camera is set to Auto ISO.

Exposure Triangle: A common analogy to explain the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO when taking a photo.

Focal Length: Measured in millimeters, this is effectively how narrow the lens’ field of view is. A 16mm lens will have a wide field of view whereas a 85mm lens will have a tighter field of view. Technically speaking, focal length is the distance between the image sensor and lens when the image is in focus, but that doesn’t tell us much.

Focus: The sharpest, most clear area of an image or the state of being acceptably sharp.

Grain: Usually used to refer to the amount of or style of optical texture an image has. This term originates from film photography where grain varies between different film stocks and speeds. Grain is more present with lower exposure.

Halation: A fog or blurred area around sources of bright light in a photograph.

HDR: High Dynamic Range. HDR images have more dynamic range than a single exposure, often giving them more visual appeal. HDR photos are made by taking multiple exposures via bracketing, then combining them in a software like Lightroom.

Histogram: A graph that displays all the tones represented in a photo. The X axis represents the darkness and brightness, with the left being pure black and the right being pure white. The Y axis represents the amount of a tone in a photo. (Most often seen as Luminance Histograms or RGB Histograms)

Hue: This can be thought of as the base color without respect to Luminance or Saturation.

ISO: How sensitive your camera sensor is to light. Lower values, like ISO 100, are less sensitive to light while higher values, like ISO 6400, are more sensitive to light. Higher ISO values have increasing amounts of noise. Measured in stops. 1 of 3 components in the exposure triangle.

Luminance: the intensity of light emitted from a surface per unit area in a given direction. More generally, in your photo editing software it will refer to the brightness of a specific color range and can be adjusted to bring those color groupings closer to black or closer to white.

Motion Blur: Visual streaking in an image caused by a moving subject, camera or both.

Noise: A specific type of visual distortion caused by a low signal-to-noise ratio. In other words, insufficient light makes for inconsistent exposure causing visible pixelation.

Saturation: the intensity of a color

Shutter Priority Mode: This camera mode allows the user to choose a shutter speed and automatically adjust the ISO and aperture to achieve a balanced exposure. It’s like shooting auto, except you get to choose the shutter speed. Ideal for capturing subjects in fast-paced action like sports.

Shutter Speed: How long the camera sensor is exposed to light. A longer shutter speed will provide more light, a brighter image and motion blur. A faster shutter speed will provide less light, a darker image and reduce motion blur. Measured in stops.1 of 3 components in the exposure triangle.

Stop: A photography measurement that represents doubling or halving the amount of light being let in when taking a photo. For example, moving from ISO 100 to ISO 200 is up one stop.

Temperature: A numerical measurement of how warm or cool the light is. Measured in Kelvin (K), lower values represent warmer light while higher values represent cooler light. For example, a candle is typically around 1850 K, daylight is around 5000 K and an overcast sky is around 7000 K. This is frequently used alongside Tint to achieve an acceptable White Balance.

Tint: Similar to Temperature, this is how light is influenced by green and magenta and is a component of White Balance. It is generally more necessary to adjust in photos that have artificial light sources.

Vibrance: Has a similar effect as raising saturation, but does so selectively, prioritizing cool colors over warm colors such as skin tones.

White Balance: The process of making an image look natural by adjusting the characteristics of light. Typically done by adjusting the Temperature and Tint sliders in Lightroom.