25 Words Only Photographers Use
THE LIST
Slang that only photographers know.
Photo Jargon. If you're confused about what the photographers in your life are trying to tell you, or you're a photographer embarrassed to ask what something means, here are 25 words only photographers use.
Blown Out
Bright areas due to overexposure.
Blue Hour
Blue hour is the time of day before sunrise and after sunset when the atmosphere has a deep, dark blue color.
Bokeh
Bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph.
Catch Light
A light source that causes a specular highlight in a subject's eye in an image.
Chimping
Looking at your camera's LCD screen as soon as you have taken a photo.
DOF
Depth of Field. The distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image.
Glass
Your camera lens.
Golden Hour
Golden hour, also referred to as ‘magic hour,’ is the period right before sunset and after sunrise.
Gobo
An acronym that stands for “GOes Before Optics.” A gobo is a stencil or template placed inside or in front of a light source to control the shape of the emitted light.
HDR
High Dynamic Range. Used in imaging and films to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than what is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques.
High Key
Unnaturally bright lighting to blow out most or all harsh shadows in an image.
Histogram
A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonal values of your image. In other words, it shows the amount of tones of particular brightness found in your photograph ranging from black (0% brightness) to white (100% brightness).
Hot Shoe
A socket on a camera with direct electrical contacts for an attached flashgun or other accessory.
ISO
Stands for ‘The International Organization for Standardization.’ ISO is the sensitivity to light as pertains to either film or a digital sensor.
Low Key
Low key lighting is a technique that focuses on accentuating shadows by using hard source lighting.
Nifty Fifty
A 50mm prime lens.
Prime
A prime lens is a fixed focal length photographic lens, typically with a maximum aperture from f2.8 to f1.2.
RAW
Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.
Scrim
A heatproof cloth put over film or television lamps to diffuse the light.
SOOC
Straight Out of Camera. What the image looks like right from the camera without editing.
Spray and Pray
Shooting several photos per second with no thought or consideration to composition, exposure, etc.
Tonal Range
Tonal range is the range of tones between the lightest and darkest areas of an image.
Uncle Bob
You know him. You love him. That guy at weddings who knows nothing but seems to KNOW EVERYTHING and brings his camera along.
Underexposed
Underexposure is the result when not enough light hits the film strip or camera sensor.
White Balance
How warm or cool the overall colors in your photograph look.
