Photography terms starting with P

Panchromatic Emulsion Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes nm A black and white emulsion sensitised to all visible wavelengths, rendering colours as plausible grey tones.

Panning Motion, Video & Creative Techniques seconds Following a moving subject with the camera during a relatively long exposure, so the subject stays sharp and the background streaks.

Panorama Stitching Post-Processing & Retouching count Combining several overlapping frames into a single wider image by aligning and blending them.

Paper Grade Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes grade (0-5) A number describing the contrast of a graded photographic paper, from soft grade 0 to very hard grade 5.

Paper Profile Printing, Display & Output An ICC profile describing how a specific combination of printer, ink and paper reproduces colour.

Paper Weight Printing, Display & Output g/m² The mass of a paper per unit area, used as a rough indication of its substance and rigidity.

Parfocal Lens Focus & Depth of Field A zoom lens that holds focus on the same subject as the focal length is changed.

Partial Metering Exposure & Metering A metering pattern reading roughly the central eight to fifteen per cent of the frame — broader than spot, narrower than centre-weighted.

Pattern Composition & Visual Design A repeating arrangement of shapes, lines, colours or objects across the frame.

Pentamirror Cameras, Formats & Systems A lighter, cheaper alternative to the pentaprism using a hollow arrangement of mirrors to perform the same image correction.

Pentaprism Cameras, Formats & Systems A solid five-sided glass prism above an SLR's focusing screen that corrects the image left-to-right and presents it at eye level.

Perceptual Rendering Intent Colour & Colour Management A conversion strategy that compresses the entire colour range so relationships between colours are preserved, at the cost of shifting every colour slightly.

Perspective Compression Composition & Visual Design The apparent flattening of distance between near and far elements when photographing from far away with a long lens.

Perspective Correction Post-Processing & Retouching degrees Digitally transforming an image to straighten converging verticals or horizontals.

Perspective Distortion Composition & Visual Design The exaggeration of relative size between near and far objects when photographing from very close with a wide lens.

Phase-detect Pixel Sensors & Digital Capture count A photosite masked on one side, or split in two, so it sees the scene through only part of the lens and can contribute to focus measurement.

Phase-detection Autofocus Focus & Depth of Field A focusing method that splits incoming light into two views and measures their separation to determine both the amount and direction of defocus.

Photo Black and Matte Black Printing, Display & Output Two distinct black inks formulated for glossy and matte papers respectively, only one of which can be active at a time on many printers.

Photo Essay Genres, Movements & Theory count A sequence of photographs arranged to develop an argument or narrative that no single image could carry.

Photo-Secession Genres, Movements & Theory A group founded by Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1902 to promote photography as a fine art.

Photobook Printing, Display & Output pages A bound sequence of photographs designed to be read as a whole rather than viewed as individual prints.

Photodiode Sensors & Digital Capture e⁻ (electrons) The semiconductor junction within a photosite that converts arriving photons into electrical charge.

Photogram Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes An image made by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing it to light, without a camera.

Photogrammetry Motion, Video & Creative Techniques count Deriving three-dimensional measurements and models from a set of overlapping photographs.

Terms starting with P