Photography terms starting with T

T-grain Emulsion Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes An emulsion using flat, tabular silver crystals that present a larger surface area to light for a given volume.

T-stop Exposure & Metering T-stops A measured aperture value that accounts for the light a lens actually transmits, rather than the geometric ratio an f-number implies. T = N / √(transmittance)

Telecentric Design Optics, Lenses & Filters A lens design in which light rays strike the sensor nearly perpendicular across the whole frame rather than at increasing angles toward the corners.

Teleconverter Optics, Lenses & Filters × magnification A supplementary optic mounted between lens and body that multiplies focal length at the cost of light and, usually, sharpness. N_new = N × magnification

Telephoto Lens Optics, Lenses & Filters mm A lens with a focal length longer than the format's diagonal, magnifying distant subjects and narrowing the angle of view.

Test Print Printing, Display & Output A small print, often of selected crops, made to evaluate colour, tone and sharpening before committing to full size.

Test Strip Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes seconds A piece of paper exposed in bands at increasing times, used to determine the correct exposure for a print.

Tethered Shooting Files, Metadata & Workflow Connecting a camera directly to a computer so images transfer as they are captured.

Texture Composition & Visual Design The tactile surface quality of a subject as revealed by light, giving a sense of how something would feel.

Texture Slider Post-Processing & Retouching % A control that increases or decreases medium-scale detail while deliberately leaving very fine detail and broad tones alone.

The Decisive Moment Genres, Movements & Theory The idea that in any unfolding event there is a single instant at which form and content align most expressively.

The Family of Man Genres, Movements & Theory count A 1955 exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art presenting 503 photographs from 68 countries as evidence of shared human experience.

The Gaze Genres, Movements & Theory A critical concept describing how looking is structured by power, and how images position their subjects and viewers.

Third Stop Exposure & Metering stops (EV) A one-third-stop increment, the fine adjustment step most digital cameras use for aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation. ⅓ stop = ×2^(1/3) ≈ ×1.26

Three-point Lighting Lighting & Flash The standard setup of key, fill and rim lights that models a subject and separates it from the background.

TIFF Files, Metadata & Workflow MB A flexible, usually lossless raster format widely used for master files, scanning and print submission.

Tilt-shift Lens Optics, Lenses & Filters degrees, mm A lens that can be tilted or shifted relative to the sensor, controlling the plane of focus and correcting converging verticals. Scheimpflug: subject, lens and film planes meet on a line

Tilt-shift Miniature Effect Motion, Video & Creative Techniques An extreme selective focus that makes a full-size scene appear to be a scale model.

Time Mode Exposure & Metering seconds A shutter setting, marked T, that opens the shutter on one press of the release and closes it on a second.

Time-lapse Motion, Video & Creative Techniques seconds interval A sequence of frames captured at long intervals and played at normal speed, compressing hours into seconds. Clip length = frames / playback fps

Timecode Motion, Video & Creative Techniques hh:mm:ss:ff A frame-accurate time reference recorded with footage, used to synchronise multiple cameras and audio recorders. HH:MM:SS:FF

Tint Colour & Colour Management tint units The white balance axis running from green to magenta, correcting casts that colour temperature alone cannot address.

Tintype Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes A wet collodion positive made on a thin sheet of blackened iron, producing a cheap, durable, unique image.

TLCI Colour & Colour Management Qa score The Television Lighting Consistency Index, a scoring system that evaluates a light source using a model of a camera's response rather than the eye's.

Terms starting with T