week one Flashcards
photography
the art, application and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. The word photography is derived from two greek words. Photos meaning light and graphein meaning drawing — drawing with light.
exposure
the amount of light which reaches your camera sensor or film. It is a crucial part of how bright or dark your pictures appear. There are only two camera settings that affect the actual “luminous exposure” of an image: shutter speed and aperture.
exposure triangle
the relationship between three elements: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These three components work together to create an actual exposure or photograph. It is referred to as the exposure triangle because when you adjust one element, another element MUST change to capture the same exposure.
shutter
device that allows light to pass for a determined period, exposing photographic film or a photosensitive digital sensor to light in order to capture a permanent image of a scene.
shutter speed
a measurement of the time the shutter is open, shown in seconds or fractions of a second: 1 s, 1/2 s, 1/4 s … 1/250 s, 1/ 500 s, etc. The faster the shutter speed, the shorter the time the image sensor is exposed to light; the slower the shutter speed, the longer the time the image sensor is exposed to light.
aperture
the opening of a lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. It is calibrated in f/stops and is generally written as numbers such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16. Lower f/stops give more exposure because they represent the larger apertures, while the higher f/stops give less exposure because they represent smaller apertures.
F-stop
Focal-STOP – the measurement of the “aperture” opening of a camera lens and determines how much of the photograph is in focus in front of and behind the subject. The f-stop is one of the two primary measurements of a camera lens.
Depth of Field (DoF)
the distance between the nearest and furthest elements in a scene that appear to be “acceptably sharp” in an image.
ISO
measures the sensitivity of the image sensor to light. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher numbers mean your sensor becomes more sensitive to light which allows you to use your camera in darker situations. The cost of doing so is more grain.
Mode dial: M
Manual mode on a camera; allows the photographer to determine the exposure of an image by letting them select an aperture value and a shutter speed value. This give you ultimate control over the look of the photo, but you must have a deep understanding of exposure, and how shutter speed and aperture affect it.
Mode dial: Av/A
Aperture Priority mode on a camera; allows the user to set a specific aperture value (f-number) while the camera selects a shutter speed to match it that will result in proper exposure.
Mode dial: Tv/s
Shutter priority mode on a camera, also called time value; allows the user to choose a specific shutter speed while the camera adjusts the aperture to ensure correct exposure.
composition
the intentional arrangement of elements within a scene in a way that suits the core idea or goal of your work best.
camera shake
accidentally shaking a camera during shooting due to unsteady hands, which results in blurry images. This will occur more often if you’re shooting at a slow shutter speed. It can be avoided by using a tripod, a remote shutter release and/or a faster shutter speed.
