Browse All 840 Photography Terms A–Z

Solarisation Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes seconds A partial tonal reversal produced by briefly exposing a print or negative to light part-way through development.

Spectral Power Distribution Colour & Colour Management W/nm A plot of how much energy a light source emits at each wavelength across the visible spectrum.

Spectrophotometer Colour & Colour Management nm An instrument that measures the full spectral reflectance or emission of a sample, allowing both displays and printed materials to be profiled.

Specular Highlight Lighting & Flash A mirror-like reflection of the light source itself on a glossy surface, rather than light diffusely scattered by it.

Speedlight Lighting & Flash GN (guide number) A small, portable, battery-powered flash designed to sit on a camera's hot shoe or a light stand.

Spherical Aberration Optics, Lenses & Filters A softening caused by rays passing through the outer zones of a spherical lens surface focusing nearer than those through the centre.

Split Lighting Lighting & Flash A portrait pattern in which the key comes from directly to one side, lighting exactly half the face and leaving the other in shadow.

Split Toning Colour & Colour Management hue, saturation Applying one colour tint to the highlights and a different one to the shadows.

Split-grade Printing Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes seconds per filter Exposing a variable-contrast print twice, once through a soft filter and once through a hard one, to control highlights and shadows separately.

Split-image Screen Focus & Depth of Field A focusing screen with a central circle divided in two, whose halves align only when the subject is in focus.

Sports Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography of athletic competition, capturing peak action, effort and outcome.

Spot Metering Exposure & Metering A metering pattern that reads only a small circle, usually one to three per cent of the frame, ignoring everything around it.

Spot Removal Post-Processing & Retouching px A raw-processing tool for eliminating sensor dust marks and small blemishes non-destructively.

sRGB Colour & Colour Management The standard colour space of the web, most consumer displays and untagged images, with a relatively small gamut.

Stacked Sensor Sensors & Digital Capture A design in which the sensor is bonded directly to a separate processing and memory layer beneath it.

Staged Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography in which the scene is deliberately constructed and performed for the camera.

Stand Development Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes minutes A technique using very dilute developer and almost no agitation over a long period, typically an hour.

Standard Lens Optics, Lenses & Filters mm A lens whose focal length roughly equals the diagonal of the format, rendering perspective close to unaided human vision. f ≈ frame diagonal

Star Rating Files, Metadata & Workflow stars (0-5) A one-to-five scale applied during culling to mark an image's quality or priority.

Star Tracker Motion, Video & Creative Techniques arcsec/s A motorised mount that rotates the camera to match the Earth's rotation, allowing long exposures without star trailing. Sidereal rate = 15.04″/s

Star Trails Motion, Video & Creative Techniques minutes Arcs traced by stars across the frame as the Earth rotates during a very long exposure or a stacked sequence. 15° per hour of rotation

Steadicam Motion, Video & Creative Techniques kg A mechanical stabilising system that isolates the camera from the operator's movement using a counterweighted arm and vest.

Still Life Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography of inanimate objects arranged deliberately by the photographer.

Stochastic Screening Printing, Display & Output µm A halftoning method using dots of fixed size distributed in a randomised pattern rather than a regular grid.

Browse the dictionary