Ambient light – The light around the subject, often refers to the natural light source

Absorption - Process that takes place when the light is partially or totally absorbed a the surface

Accessory Shoe – A special device usually on top of the camera, created to attach other equipment (flash, distance meter e.t.c.)

Aperture – An opening in the lens, through which the light is coming to reach a sensor when the picture is taken. Usually the aperture can be changes either manually or automatically

Aerial Photography – Pictures made from above the ground

Angle of View (Field of View, FOV) – It is a part of the scenery that can by viewed by a lens. Usually is between 52° and 53 °

Artificial Light - Light that comes from not a natural but human-made source

Aspect Ratio – proportion between the pictures length and its width

Autoexposure – Kind of camera settings when aperture and shutter speed are set automatically

Autofocus – Lens’s ability to focus automatically without manually regulating focusing sensors

Automatic Camera – camera that performs shots with automatically regulated aperture & shutter speed via built-in autoexposure feature

Automatic Flash – Flash that automatically sets flash duration time checking the distance between the camera and the object

Application – Any kind of computer program.

Buffer – Kind of internal memory, which is used to store data before it is written on memory card

B&W – Stands for Black and White

Background – The area and all the objects that are behind the subject of viewing

Back-Lightning – Lightning that comes from the back of the object

Bleed – An image that is spread to the all edges of the sheet of paper with no visible borders

Blur – An image which was made with the camera, lens, or object moving. It is shot at a slower shutter speed to make the picture look like frozen motion

Box Camera – A simple camera with light-tight box to hold the film. The shutter speed and aperture are pre-set and unchangeable (usually 1/25 sec at f/11)

Burning – Darkening a part of a picture on purpose

Charge Coupled Device (CCD) – One type of the image sensors. The sensor is struck by the light coming through a lens when the picture is taken

CD-R (CD-Recordable) – Disc that can be written on only one time

CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) – Disc that can be written on multiple times by simply erasing old data

CompactFlash – Digital memory card. Can be two types, from which Type I is thinner.

Contrast – The ratio between shadows and lightest areas in the photo. The contrast is higher when this difference is bigger

Cropping – Removal of the picture parts in order to make the composition of the image better

Composition – The position of the elements in the image

CMYK – The common set of colors for printing images (C- Cyan (blue), M- Magenta (red), Y – Yellow, B – Black )

Digital camera – Camera that captures image not on film, but on sensor.

Dodging – Lightening an image or a part of an image with the help of editing program

Downloading – Moving PC data from a remove device of from the Internet to your own PC hard drive

DPI (Dots per inch) – A measurement of camera or a printer resolution. The higher DPI rate the greater the resolution is.

Digital Zoom – Zoom effect in some digital cameras that is not an optical one.

Diaphragm – A whole in the centre of a lens that controls the amount of light coming in when the image is taken.

Definition – The sharpness of a picture controlled by an optical system.

Darkroom – A room with absolutely no light. This room is used to deal with light sensitive materials.

DSLR – Digital Single Lens Reflex

External flash – A flash unit, which is connected to a camera via cable.

EF – Stands for Electronic Flash

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) – A common photo format, which is used by most cameras.

File – Any kind of PC document

Fill flash – A flash technique, which uses flash units to brighten the darkest areas of the scenery

FireWire – A cable connection that transfers data to your PC at a high speed

Filter – Glass or plastic disks used to change the appearance of the scenery by changing color density, eliminating e.t.c.

Fisheye – A kind of lenses that are capable of viewing more than 100° ( sometimes 180­° )

Focus – Focal point of a lens (the distance at which sharp image can be viewed through a lens)

Formatting – Preparing memory card for the recording of the images on it

Grayscale – Black & White photo made using different variations of black and white tones.

GIF – File format which uses only 256 colors and can be animated

Glossy Paper – Photo paper with shiny surface

Highlights – The parts of the image which are the brightest

Image browser – A computer program that helps you view your photos. Can rename images and often has a capability of changing file formats

Image editor – A computer program that helps you edit your shots in order to improve the appearance or change something

Inkjet Printer – A printer that uses ink to print photos

ISO – The term refers either to the ratio of the film’s sensitivity to light or a film speed

JPEG – Commonly known as a file format. But uniquely is a method of compressing image that uses more than 1000 colors

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) – A monitor or a screen for viewing pictures in digital cameras

LENS – Is actually an objective that includes a number of lenses that get light rays and form the image of the object on the focal plane

Megapixel – is equal to 1 million pixels

Megabyte – is equal to 1,048,576 bytes

Monochrome – A picture of a single color with a different shades of that color

NiMH (Nickel Metal-Hydride) – A kind of rechargeable batteries. They can be recharged many times

Negative – An image in which brightness comes in reversed variant: when highlighted zones are dark and the darkest areas are the lightest ones.

Optical Zoom - A natural zoom effect in contrast to a camera’s digital zoom

Objective (Lens) – Now is often called a lens.

Panning – A photo technique when a camera is following a moving object

Panorama – A wide view of the natural scenery

Photography – Process of making images by the chemical actions of light on sensitized surfaces

Pixel – Small dots that make digital image

RAW – Image files format, in which the images come directly from the camera sensor

Red Eye Effect – Effect, which is observed when a human in the photo has red irises instead of black ones

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) – Three major colors of light

Sensitivity = ISO

Sharpness – The clearings of the details in the image

Scanner – A device that captures an impression of the object and makes a digital image of this object

SLR – Single Lens Reflex

Shutter speed – It’s the measurement of the time the shutter of the camera remains open when the picture is taken. The faster is the shutter speed, the shorter is the exposure time

Texture – The visual and tactile quality of the surface of the object

Tripod – A three-legged equipment item that is used to set a camera and reduce its movement.

Upload – The process of transferring data from a remote computer to an Internet server

USB (Universal Serial Bus) – A method of transferring data to and from different digital devices

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – The universal pattern of the web address of a web Page