23.02.10
A-Z of Photography
E6 process
The E-6 process (often abbreviated to E-6) is a process for developing Ektachrome, Fujichrome, and other colour reversal (slide/transparency) film.
Ecktachrome
Is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still and motion picture films available in most formats, including 35mm and sheet sizes up to 11 x 14in.
Editorial
The term used to describe photographic work produced to appear in magazines and newspapers.
Effective pixels
The number of effective pixels that an image sensor has is the count of elementary pixel sensors that contribute to the final image, as opposed to the number of total pixels, which includes unused or light-shielded pixels around the edges. The terminology and definition of effective pixels and total pixels derives from Japanese camera-industry standards and is now incorporated in American national standards.
Eggleston, William
William Eggleston (born July 27, 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American photographer. He is widely credited with securing recognition for colour photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries
Elements (Adobe Photoshop)
This is the consumer version of the Adobe Photoshop product targeted at hobbyist users and sold at a fraction of the cost of the professional product. It contains most of the features of the professional version, but with fewer and simpler options.
Elinchrom
Elinchrom is a Swiss-based company that produces a wide range of monolight flash units, from models suitable for entry-level hobbyists to those aimed at professional studio photographers, with a range of lighting modifiers, plus battery packs, and remote controllers for the lights. Elinchrom also offers a range of continuous lighting.
Enlarger
Photographic enlargers consist of a light source — normally an incandescent light bulb, a holder for the negative or transparency and a specialised lens for projection. Light passes through a film holder, which holds a photographic negative or transparency. The image is then projected onto light-sensitive paper to begin the process of making a photographic print.
Epson (Seiko Epson)
Seiko Epson Corporation, or Epson, is a Japanese technology company and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer printers, information and imaging- related equipments.
Erwitt, Elliott
Elliott Erwitt (born 26 July 1928 in Paris, France) is a reportage photographer and long-time member of the Magnum agency, best known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations in everyday life.
EV (exposure value)
Exposure value is the term used to denote all of the combinations of camera shutter speed and relative aperture that give the same exposure. It is also used to indicate an interval on the photographic exposure scale, commonly referred to as a ‘stop’.
Exif (exchangeable image file format)
This is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras. The specification uses the existing JPEG, TIFF Rev. 6.0, and RIFF WAV file formats, with the addition of specific metadata tags. It is not supported in JPEG 2000, PNG, or GIF.
Exposure
This is the term used to describe the total amount of light that falls onto the photographic film or an image sensor). The exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be worked out via the exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.
Exposure bracketing
Is the term used to describe the process of taking several shots of the same subject using different camera settings, both greater and lesser than the perceived perfect exposure. It is useful and recommended in situations when a small variation in exposures has a comparatively large effect on the resulting image. Autobracketing can be achieved by using a setting on the camera to take several bracketed shots (in contrast to altering the settings by hand between each shot). Both forms of bracketing should be made in gradual increments.
Exposure compensation
Is a technique for adjusting the exposure indicated by an independent or in camera exposure meter, in consideration of factors that may cause the indicated exposure to result in a less-than-perfect image. Factors considered may include unusual lighting distribution, variations within a camera system, filters, non-standard processing, or intended under or overexposure.
External hard drive
An external hard disk drive connects to a computer by a USB cable or other means to increase the computer’s internal hard drive capacity for data storage and/or back-up.
F stop
In optics, the f-number (sometimes called the focal ratio, f-ratio, or relative aperture) of an optical system expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the focal length of the lens. In simpler terms, the f-number is the focal length divided by the ‘effective’ aperture diameter. It is a dimensionless number that is a quantitative measure of lens speed.
File types
A file type is denoted by those letters that follow the last dot in a file name. These letters denote the type of file, and are also commonly known as a file extension.
Fill flash
Fill flash is a photographic technique used to brighten deep shadow areas, typically outdoors on sunny days, though the technique is useful any time the background is significantly brighter than the subject of the photograph. To use fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground. Most point-and-shoot cameras include a fill flash mode that forces the flash to fire, even in bright light. Depending on the distance to the subject, using the full power of the flash may greatly overexpose the subject, especially at close range. Certain cameras allow the level of flash to be manually adjusted eg 1/3, 1/2, or 1/8 power, so that both the foreground and background are correctly exposed.
Filter
A filter is an optical filter that can be inserted into the optical path of the lens. Filters allow added control for the photographer of the images being produced. Sometimes they are used to make only subtle changes to images; other times the image would simply not be possible without them. The negative aspects of using filters, although often negligible, include the possibility of loss of image definition if using dirty or scratched filters, and increased exposure required by the reduction in light transmitted.
Firewire
The IEEE 1394 interface or Firewire is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used by personal computers, as well as in digital photography and video.
Firmware
Is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and data structures that internally control electronic devices to enable the device’s basic operation as well as implementing higher-level functions. No strict or well-defined boundaries separate firmware from software; both are quite loose descriptive terms. However, firmware is typically involved with very basic low-level operations in a device, without which the device would be completely non-functional. Firmware is also a relative term, as most embedded devices contain firmware at more than one level.
Fisheye lens
A fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called ‘whole-sky lenses’, fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance and are often used by photographers shooting broad landscapes to suggest the curve of the Earth.
The focal lengths of fisheye lenses depend on the film format. For the popular 35mm film format, typical focal lengths of fisheye lenses are between 8mm and 10mm for circular images, and 15–16mm for full-frame images. For digital cameras using smaller electronic imagers such as 1/4in and 1/3in format CCD or CMOS sensors, the focal length of ‘miniature’ fisheye lenses can be as short as 1-2mm.
Flare Lens
flare is created when non-image forming light enters the lens and then hits the camera’s digital sensor. This often appears as a polygonal shape, with sides which depend on the shape of the lens diaphragm. Lens flare can lower the overall contrast of a photograph significantly, which is often an undesired effect. However, some types of flare may actually enhance the aesthetic of an image.
Flash gun
A flash gun is a device used to produce a flash of artificial light (typically 1/1000 to 1/200 of a second) at a colour temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. Other uses include capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. Most flash units are now electronic, having evolved from single-use flash bulbs and flammable powders.
Flash sync speed (flash synchronisation)
Flash synchronisation is defined as the firing of the photographic flash coinciding with the shutter admitting light to photographic film or to an electronic image sensor. It is often shortened to flash sync or flash synch. In general, faster flash sync speeds, usually rated in fractions of a second, are better if the photographer needs to flash-fill subjects that are backlit and wants to avoid motion blur, or wants to decrease depth of field when using a large aperture.
Focal length
The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly it converges (focuses) or diverges (defocuses) light. For an optical system in air, it is the distance over which initially collimated rays are brought to a focus. A system with a shorter focal length has greater optical power than one with a long focal length; that is, it bends the rays more strongly, bringing them to a focus in a shorter distance.
Focus
Due to the optical properties of photographic lenses, only objects within a limited range of distances from the camera will be reproduced clearly. The process of adjusting this range is known as focusing There are various ways of focusing a camera accurately. The simplest cameras have fixed focus and use a small aperture and wide-angle lens to ensure that everything within a certain range of distance from the lens, usually around 3 metres (10ft) to infinity, is in reasonable focus. Fixed focus cameras are usually inexpensive types, such as single-use cameras. The camera can also have a limited focusing range or scale focus that is indicated on the camera body. The user will guess or calculate the distance to the subject and adjust the focus accordingly. Rangefinder cameras allow the distance to objects to be measured by means of a coupled parallax unit on top of the camera. Single-lens reflex cameras allow the photographer to determine the focus and composition visually using an objective lens and a moving mirror to project the image onto a ground glass screen. Twin-lens reflex cameras use an objective lens and a focusing lens unit (usually identical to the objective lens) in a parallel body for composition and focusing. Bridge or SLR-like share with compacts the use of a fixed lens and a small sensor. Like compacts, most use live preview to frame the image. Autofocus is achieved using the same contrast-detect mechanism to focus, but many also feature a manual focus mode for greater control. Digital single-lens reflex cameras are based on film single-lens reflex cameras and take their name from their unique viewing system, in which a mirror reflects light from the lens through a separate optical viewfinder. In order to capture an image, the mirror is flipped out of the way, allowing light to fall on the imager. Since no light reaches the imager during framing, autofocus is accomplished using specialised sensors in the mirror box.
Format Photographic
formats are the technical definitions of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture denoted by the size of the original image captured. Such as 35mm, medium and large format. The size of format achievable is dictated by the format of camera used. As well as camera formats there are also digital file formats. The Joint Photography Experts Group standard (JPEG) is the most common file format for storing image data. Other file types include Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) and various RAW image formats. Many cameras, especially professional or DSLR cameras, support a RAW image format. A RAW image is the unprocessed set of pixel data directly from the camera’s sensor. They are often saved in formats proprietary to each manufacturer, such as NEF for Nikon, CRW or CR2 for Canon, and MRW for Minolta. Adobe Systems has released the DNG format, a royalty free RAW image format that has been adopted by at least 10 other camera manufacturers. Editing RAW format images allows more flexibility in settings such as white balance, exposure compensation, colour temperature, and so on. In essence, RAW format allows the photographer to make major adjustments without losing image quality that would otherwise require retaking the picture.
Four Thirds
The Four Thirds system is a standard created by Olympus and Kodak for digital DSLR design and development. The system provides a standard that allows for the interchange of digital cameras and lenses from multiple manufacturers. This is claimed to be an open standard; it is however only accessible to companies and under a non-disclosure agreement. Unlike older SLR systems, Four Thirds has been designed from the ground up to be entirely digital. Many lenses are extensively computerized, to the point that Olympus offers firmware updates for many of them. The lens design has been tailored to the requirements of digital sensors, most notably through telecentric designs. The size of the sensor is slightly smaller than that for most DSLRs and this implies that lenses, especially telephoto lenses, can be smaller. For example, a Four Thirds lens with a 300mm focal length would cover about the same angle of view as a 600mm focal length lens for the 35 mm film standard, and is correspondingly more compact.
Foveon
Foveon, Inc. is the company that made the Foveon X3 sensor, which captured images in digital single-lens reflex cameras. In 2008, all shares of Foveon stock were acquired by the Sigma Corporation.
Fox Talbot, William
William Fox Talbot (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) was the inventor of the negative/positive photographic process, and the precursor to most of the photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was also a noted photographer who made many important contributions to the development of photography as an artistic medium. His work in the 1850s on photo-mechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. Talbot is also remembered as the holder of a patent which is considered to have affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain.
FRPS
These letters are used to denote a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
Fujica
Fujica was the name given by Fujifilm to its line of still-photography and motion picture cameras until 1985.
Fujifilm
Fujifilm Holdings Corporation or Fujifilm is the world’s largest photographic and imaging company and operates 223 subsidiary companies for research, manufacture and distribution of products, with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and the US.
Full-frame DSLR
A full-frame digital SLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) fitted with an image sensor that is the same size as a 35mm (36 x 24mm) film frame.
Gandolfi
The maker of one of the greatest handmade large-format cameras ever made. Based in London, it has been making and repairing cameras since 1885.
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic co-ordinates (often expressed as latitude and longitude) from other geographic data, such as street addresses or postcodes. With geographic co-ordinates the features can be mapped and entered into Geographic Information Systems, or the co-ordinates can be embedded into digital photographs via geotagging.
Geotagging
Is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to photographs and video, and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude co-ordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names. Less commonly, this process has been called geocoding (eg a geocoded photograph), a term that more often refers to the process of taking non-co-ordinate based geographical identifiers, such as a street address, and finding associated geographic co-ordinates (or vice versa for reverse geocoding), or to the use of a camera that inserts the coordinates when making the picture, for example using its built-in GPS receiver.
Getty Images
Is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 70 million still images and illustrations and more than 30,000 hours of stock film footage. It targets three main markets: creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate (in-house design, marketing and communication departments).
Gigabyte (GB, gig)
A measure of file size and storage capacity. Most consider a kilobyte to be 1,024 bytes, a megabyte to be 1,024 kilobytes, and a gigabyte to be 1,024 megabytes. However, some key standards groups assume a kilobyte to be 1,000 bytes, a megabyte to be 1,000 kilobytes, and a gigabyte to be 1,000 megabytes. Many data storage manufacturers use this latter measurement to define their device sizes, which leads to computers showing less storage capacity on a drive than the specification suggests.
Glamour
Is a genre of photography in which the subjects, usually female, are portrayed in a romantic or sexually alluring way. The subjects can be fully clothed or seminude, but glamour photography stops short of being seen as softcore pornography.
Graflex
Graflex built the first Graflex camera in 1898 in New York. The Graflex is a reflex camera made for film formats from 2.5 x 2.75in (6 x 7cm) up to 6.5 x 8.5in. Most sports photography in the early 20th century was shot on a Graflex. The famous Graflex Speed Graphic folding cameras, produced from 1912 to 1973, became the iconic news reporter’s camera.
Grain
The sand-like, granular appearance of an image. Grain becomes more noticeable with fast films and the increased size of enlargement.
Grey Card
A grey card is a middle grey reference, typically used together with a reflective light meter, as a way to produce consistent image exposure.
Grayscale
A grayscale (or greyscale) digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample, that is, it carries only intensity information. Images of this sort, also known as black and white, are composed exclusively of shades of grey, varying from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest. Grayscale images are distinct from one-bit black-and-white images, which in the context of computer imaging are images with only the two colours, black and white (also called bilevel or binary images). Grayscale images have many shades of grey in between and are also called monochromatic, denoting the absence of any chromatic variation.
Guide number
The number which indicates the effective power of a flash unit. For a given film speed, the guide number divided by the distance between the flash and the subject gives the appropriate f/stop to use.
Gustave Le Gray,Jean-Baptiste
Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (August 30 1820 – July 30 1884) was one of the most important photographers of the 19th century because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making and landscapes, particularly of the sea.
Halation
The blurred effect at the edges of a highlight area of a photograph caused by reflection of light that passed through the film. The light is reflected from either the surface of the film or the camera back.
Halftone
image A special screen where an image is reproduced, made up of dots of various sizes to simulate shades of grey in a photograph. Typically used for newspaper or magazine reproduction of images.
Halogens
Collective term for the elements chlorine, bromine and iodine, which are combined with silver to produce the light-sensitive crystals used as the basis for photographic emulsions.
Hammer head
A type of larger portable battery-fed flash gun (normally a Metz).
Hasselblad
A Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg. It is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since the Second World War. Perhaps the most famous use of the Hasselblad camera was during the Apollo Program missions, when man first landed on the Moon. Almost all of the still photographs taken during these missions used specially modified Hasselblad cameras. The Hasselblad square medium format (2.25 x 2.5in) has become synonymous with their cameras and the photographers who use them.
Headshot
A photograph, often in black and white, of a person’s head and shoulders. Promotional headshots of performers and models are usually printed in 8 x 10in size.
HDMI
HDMI or high-definition multimedia interface is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data.
HDR
In image processing, computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to represent more accurately the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. HDR photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard photographs, often using exposure bracketing, and then merging them into an HDR image.
Hide
Hide, or ‘blind’, is an enclosure that provides a concealed camera position overlooking an animal’s territory, hiding a photographer from the animal’s view.
High contrast
A high-contrast image (as opposed to a flat image), is where the negative, slide or print contains a wide density range.
High eye point
Applied to a viewfinder that allows a user to see the entire frame in the viewfinder from a close distance from the eyepiece, for eyeglass-wearing photographers.
Highlights
The brightest areas of the photograph.
Histogram
In image processing and photography, a colour histogram is a representation of the distribution of colours in an image.
Holga
The Holga is an inexpensive, medium-format 120 film toy camera, made in China, which is appreciated for its low-fidelity aesthetic. The Holga’s cheap construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks and other distortions. The camera’s quality problems have become a virtue among some photographers, with Holga photos winning awards and competitions.
Hood
A tube, usually made of metal or rubber, that fits onto the front of a lens and prevents unwanted light from falling on the lens surface.
Hoya
The Hoya Corporation is a Japanese company that manufactures optical products including including a wide range of photographic filters. Hoya acquired the camera manufacturer Pentax in 2007.
Hot shoe
Is the electrical fitting on the top of a camera that allows a small portable flash to be attached to a camera and links the gun to the camera shutter mechanism. This direct flash-to-camera contact eliminates the need for a flash sync cord.
Hue
A term used to describe the entire range of colours of the spectrum, hue is the component that determines what colour you are using. In gradients, when you use a colour model in which hue is a component, you can create rainbow effects.
Hyperfocal
distance Technically, hyperfocal distance is the distance between the camera and the hyperfocal point. But, in practice, hyperfocal distance is a lens setting technique that allows you to shoot sharp pictures within a certain distance range without having to refocus. When the lens is focused on infinity, the hyperfocal distance is the distance of the nearest object in a scene that is acceptably sharp.
Hypo
A fixing bath composed of various chemicals including sodium thiosulphate and water. In processing film or prints, this solution removes any light-sensitive, silver-halide crystals that were not acted upon by exposure to light or by the developer, thereby stabilising the final print or negative so that it will no longer react to light.
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