Glossary

This is a growing glossary of common camera and photography terms. Feel free to add items that aren't listed by using the "edit" tab at the top of the screen.

• 2-way head
• 3-way head
• 35mm - A film format with frames measuring 24mm x 36mm on a roll of film wound into an easy-to-load cassette.
• aperture - An opening in a lens that limits the amount of light passing through it.
• aperture priority - A metering method which recommends a shutter speed based on a desired aperture.
• autofocus - The ability of any camera/lens to focus itself electronically.
• auto exposure - An in-camera exposure system that attempts to set the aperture and shutter speed (and ISO in many digital cameras) to get the best exposure for the current lighting situation.
• auxiliary lens - a lens that attaches to the front of another lens to change the original lens's field of view of focusing characteristics usually to make an existing lens longer, wider or able to focus more closely.
• ball head
• barn doors
• Bay I - Bayonet type I. A type of filter mount commonly used on TLRs.
• Bay II - Bayonet type II. A type of filter mount used on some TLRs.
• bounce flash
• bracket (exposure/white balance)
• center-weighted - an in-camera light-meter system that favors the center of the frame although it does take into account the rest of the frame to a lesser extent.
• click stops - See also detents.
• cable release - An attachment that screws into a shutter release that allows you to trip the shutter mechanically while being isolated from the camera.
• coated - See lens coating.
• color balance/temperature
• contrast
• Compur
• Copal
• coupled rangefinder - A rangefinder that provides a focusing aid which is "coupled" to the focus adjustment on a lens.
• depth of field - The range of distances (from near to far) within which a scene will be considered to be "in focus."
• detents - Positions on a moving dial (eg, shutter speed or aperture dial) at which movement is locked.
• diopter - An optical adjustment that allows someone to adjust the viewfinder's magnification to their vision.
• double exposure - intentional or unintentional action of exposing the same film frame twice.
• DSLR - Digital Single Lens Reflex camera
• element - An individual glass structure in a lens that is not permanantly, directly fixed to any other element.
• E-TTL -
• EVF - Electronic View Finder: commonly found on prosumer digicams.
• exposure - The combination of shutter speed, aperture, film sensitivity, and light used to create a single photograph.
• exposure compenation
• extension tubes
• f-stop - The measure of the aperture setting on a lens.
• field camera - A large format camera, slightly stripped down to make it more portable.
• field of view - The diagonal measure of the part of a scene that is visible with a given lens.
• filter
• filter rings
• film advance - Mechanism for moving the film from one spool to another, usually one frame at a time.
• film plane - The plane onto which light entering a lens is focused.
• fisheye - Fisheye lenses have a very wide field of view, usually around 180 degrees.
• flash
• flash meter
• flash sync - The manner by which a flash is fired while the shutter is open.
• flash trigger
• fluid head
• focal plane - The flat plane onto which a lens focuses its image.
• focal plane shutter
• focus
• focus screen
• frame counter - A mechanism for recording the number of exposures made or for calculating the number of exposures remaining on a roll of film or memory card.
• front curtain sync - In an SLR, firing of the flash at the moment when the front curtain is open.
• Fungus - a fungus that can grow between lens elements resulting in feathery or hazing damage to a lens,
• GOST - A measurement of film speed used in the former Soviet Union.
• hot lights
• hot shoe
• large format - A film format larger than medium format, in which negatives are loaded one at a time rather than in rolls.
• leaf shutter - A type of shutter mechanism that uses small metal blades in a leaf pattern.
• Leica nipple
• lens - One or more glass elements used to focus an image onto the focal plane.
• lens barrel - The tube that contains the lens elements.
• lens coating - A coating applied to lenses that corrects color abnormalities in the glass, reduces flare (to some extent) and can protect exposed glass surfaces. All modern, mainstream lenses are coated.
• lens speed - refers to the largest aperture available on a lens. Anything f2 or under is fast; f5.6 is slow.
• light leaks - Any light, other than that focused through the lens, that gets inside of the camera body.
• light meter - A device that measures light to determine the proper exposure settings for a scene.
• lomography - movement that promotes (and exploits) the use of Lomo cameras (predominantly the LC-a) and a "shoot from the hip" attitude.
• macro
• medium format - A film format larger than 35mm but smaller than large format (typically 120 film) wound onto spools.
• metering - measuring the amount of light for an exposure.
• mirror lockup - A feature on some SLRs that allows the reflex mirror to be locked in the up position to eliminate vibration.
• mirror slap - The vibration caused by the mirror in an SLR flipping out of the way before a shot.
• monopod
• multicoated - See lens coating.
• multiple expsoure
• neutral density filter - A filter used to reduce tha amount of light enetering the lens.
• normal lens - in the 35mm format a normal lens is a prime lens usually with a focal length of 50mm but anything from 40mm through 55m has also been descibed as normal.
• off shoe flash
• optical axis - The straight line which passes through the centers of curvature of the lens surfaces.
• panorama
• parallax - An effect in photography where the image seen in the viewfinder is not the same as the image seen through the lens.
• parallax error - the diference between what the photographer sees and what the camera takes. This is most evident in close up work when using a viewfinder that does not look through the taking lens.
• prosumer
• point-and-shoot - Camera designed to eliminate the user's need to make focus and exposure settings.
• polarizer - A filter that only allows light with a specific orientation to pass through it.
• portrait lens - in 35mm terms this is usually a prime lens in the 85mm to 135mm range.
• prime lens - a lens that is set to a single focal length
• prismatic finder - the most common kind of viewfinder style found on SLRs. The viewing image is bounced through a path tracing a figure 4 through the prism turning the viewfinder image right ways up.
• QL - A Canon designation for film cameras using their "quick loading" feature.
• rangefinder - A focusing mechanism in which two overlapping images are lined up on top of each other.
• rangefinder base - A measure of distance between the viewfinder and rangefinder windows on a rangefinder camera.
• ring flash
• rear curtain sync - In an SLR, firing of the flash at the moment before the rear curtain starts to close.
• saturation
• scrim
• self-timer - A mechanism built into the shutter release, used to release the shutter after a set period of time.
• selenium
• sharpness
• shutter curtain - Most focal plane shutters are composed of two curtains; a front and rear curtain.
• shutter lag - See also shutter latency.
• shutter latency - The delay between the moment the shutter release is pressed and the moment the shutter actually opens.
• shutter priority - A metering method which recommends an aperture based on a selected shutter speed.
• shutter release - The mechanism (usually a button) that causes the shutter to open and close.
• shutter speed - The amount of time the shutter remains open.
• slave flash
• snoot
• soft box
• soft focus - a flatterring technique often used in portrait photography that deliberately adds blur to a lens. The blur hides blemishes and smooths wrinkles.
• split-prism
• SLR - "Single Lens Reflex."
• spot meter
• standard lens - see normal lens
• stop down
• strobe
• sunny-16 rule - A light metering guideline that says proper exposure on a sunny day is f/16 at a shutter speed that is the reciprocal of your film speed.
• teleconverter
• telephoto - any lens longer than normal.
• TLR - "Twin Lens Reflex."
• toy camera - An inexpensive camera usually made almost entirely out of plastic (including the lens).
• trigger advance
• tripod - camera support with 3 legs.
• TTL - "Through the Lens."
• umbrella (shoot though and bounce)
• view camera - A large format camera that allows the geometric relationship between the film plane and the lens plane to be adjusted.
• viewfinder - The part of a camera you look through when composing your shot.
• viewfinder blackout - the time when the mirror in an SLR flips up to allow the film plane to be exposed during which the photographer cannot see anything through the viewfinder.
• vignetting - when part of the len's construction impedes on the film plane resulting in dark corners in the image.
• waistlevel finder - a view finder commonly found on TLRs and old SLRsin which the photographer looks down through a chimney to the image which is rendered back to front on a ground-glass screen.
• white balance
• wideangle lens - in the 35mm format a wideangle lens has a focal length of 35mm or less.
• zoom lens - a lens that adjusts to cover a range of focal lengths.