Photography terms starting with H

Half-frame Format Cameras, Formats & Systems mm A 35 mm format using an 18 by 24 millimetre vertical frame, doubling the number of exposures on a roll.

Halftone Printing, Display & Output lpi The reproduction of continuous tone by a grid of dots that vary in size, creating the impression of shades from a single ink.

Handheld Light Meter Exposure & Metering EV, f-stops A separate instrument for measuring incident, reflected or flash light independently of the camera.

Hard Light Lighting & Flash Light from a source that is small relative to the subject, producing sharply defined shadows with abrupt edges.

Hard Proof Printing, Display & Output A physical test print made to verify colour and tone before committing to a final print run.

HDR Display Printing, Display & Output cd/m² A screen capable of much higher peak brightness and contrast than conventional displays, showing a wider range of tones.

HDR Merge Post-Processing & Retouching stops Combining bracketed exposures into one file holding a greater dynamic range than any single frame could.

Headroom Composition & Visual Design The space between the top of a subject's head and the upper edge of the frame.

Headshot Genres, Movements & Theory A tightly framed portrait of the head and shoulders, made for professional identification and representation.

Healing Brush Post-Processing & Retouching px (brush size) A retouching tool that copies texture from a source area while blending its tone and colour into the destination.

HEIF Files, Metadata & Workflow MB A modern container format using video-derived compression to store images at roughly half the size of JPEG for equivalent quality.

High Angle Composition & Visual Design degrees A viewpoint above the subject, looking downward.

High ISO Noise Reduction Sensors & Digital Capture levels In-camera processing that smooths noise in high-sensitivity images before writing the JPEG.

High-key Lighting Lighting & Flash A lighting approach in which most tones sit in the upper half of the range, with few dark shadows and a bright background.

High-speed Photography Motion, Video & Creative Techniques µs Capturing events too fast for the eye, using very brief flash durations or specialised high-frame-rate cameras.

High-speed Sync Lighting & Flash stops lost A flash mode that fires a rapid train of pulses during the whole travel of the shutter slit, allowing flash above the normal sync speed.

Highlight Alert Exposure & Metering A playback warning, often called blinkies, that flashes any area of the image where the brightest tones have clipped.

Highlight Recovery Post-Processing & Retouching stops The reconstruction of detail in bright areas where one or two colour channels have clipped but at least one has not.

Highlight-weighted Metering Exposure & Metering A metering pattern that biases exposure toward protecting the brightest area of the frame from clipping.

Histogram Exposure & Metering A graph of how many pixels in an image fall at each brightness level, from black on the left to white on the right.

Holy Grail Transition Motion, Video & Creative Techniques stops A time-lapse that runs across a large change in light, such as day into night, requiring exposure to change during the sequence.

Honeycomb Grid Lighting & Flash degrees (10°, 20°, 30°, 40°) A cellular insert placed over a light that narrows its beam by absorbing rays travelling at wide angles.

Horizon Line Composition & Visual Design The line where sky meets land or sea, which in a photograph always sits at the camera's own eye level.

Hot Pixel Sensors & Digital Capture count A photosite with abnormally high dark current that records as a bright coloured dot in long exposures.

Terms starting with H