Terms starting with S
85 terms · page 2 of 4
Short Lighting
A portrait approach in which the side of the face turned away from the camera is the lit side.
Sensors & Digital CaptureShot Noise
The unavoidable randomness in the arrival of photons, which produces grain even from a perfect sensor.
Cameras, Formats & SystemsShutter Actuation Count
The running total of exposures a camera's mechanical shutter has made, recorded in the file metadata.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesShutter Angle
A way of expressing shutter speed relative to frame rate, inherited from the rotating disc shutters of film cameras.
Exposure & MeteringShutter Priority
A semi-automatic mode, marked S or Tv, in which the photographer sets shutter speed and ISO while the camera chooses aperture.
Exposure & MeteringShutter Speed
The length of time the shutter stays open, controlling both total exposure and how much subject or camera movement is recorded as blur.
Files, Metadata & WorkflowSidecar File
A small companion file stored next to a raw file, holding edits and metadata that cannot safely be written into the raw itself.
Sensors & Digital CaptureSignal-to-noise Ratio
The ratio between the useful signal recorded and the noise accompanying it, which determines apparent image cleanliness.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesSilhouette
An image in which the subject is rendered as a dark shape against a much brighter background.
Film, Darkroom & Historic ProcessesSilver Halide
The light-sensitive compounds — silver bromide, chloride and iodide — that form the active ingredient of photographic emulsions.
Composition & Visual DesignSimplification
The reduction of a scene to its essential elements by choice of viewpoint, framing, focus and timing.
Cameras, Formats & SystemsSingle-lens Reflex (SLR)
A camera design in which a hinged mirror reflects the taking lens's image up into the viewfinder, then swings clear when the shutter fires.
Focus & Depth of FieldSingle-point AF
An area mode in which the camera uses one selected focus point and ignores everything else in the frame.
Focus & Depth of FieldSingle-servo Autofocus
An autofocus mode, marked AF-S or One Shot, that focuses once and then locks while the shutter button is held halfway.
Post-Processing & RetouchingSky Replacement
Substituting the sky in a photograph with one from another image, with automatic masking and colour matching.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesSlow Motion
Footage recorded at a higher frame rate than its playback rate, so action appears to unfold more slowly.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesSlow Sync Flash
Combining flash with a shutter speed long enough for ambient light to register, so a sharp subject sits within a blurred environment.
Files, Metadata & WorkflowSmart Collection
A collection defined by a saved set of criteria, which updates automatically as matching images are added.
Post-Processing & RetouchingSmart Object
A container layer that preserves its source data, so transformations and filters applied to it remain editable.
Files, Metadata & WorkflowSmart Preview
A small lossy proxy of a raw file that allows editing while the original is offline.
Cameras, Formats & SystemsSmartphone Camera
A camera module in a phone, where computational processing compensates for the physical limits of a very small sensor and lens.
Genres, Movements & TheorySnapshot Aesthetic
A deliberate adoption of the informal look of amateur photography — casual framing, direct flash, apparent artlessness.
Lighting & FlashSnoot
A tube fitted to a light to restrict its beam to a narrow circle.
Lighting & FlashSoft Light
Light from a source that is large relative to the subject, producing shadows with gradual, feathered edges.