Browse the dictionary
840 terms · page 32 of 35
Stop
The fundamental unit of exposure change: one stop doubles or halves the amount of light reaching the sensor.
Film, Darkroom & Historic ProcessesStop Bath
A mildly acidic solution used after development to halt the process immediately.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesStop Motion
Animation created by photographing an object frame by frame, moving it slightly between exposures.
Genres, Movements & TheoryStraight Photography
An approach insisting that photography's proper qualities are sharpness, detail and tonal range, without imitation of other media.
Genres, Movements & TheoryStreet Photography
Candid photography of everyday life in public places, made without directing the subject.
Motion, Video & Creative TechniquesStroboscopic Flash
Firing a flash repeatedly during a single long exposure, recording a sequence of positions in one frame.
Sensors & Digital CaptureStuck Pixel
A photosite permanently reporting its maximum value, appearing as a fixed bright dot regardless of exposure.
Genres, Movements & TheoryStudium
Barthes's term for the general, culturally shared interest a photograph holds — its subject, context and craft.
Focus & Depth of FieldSubject Tracking
A mode in which the camera identifies a chosen subject and follows it around the frame, moving the active focus area to match.
Exposure & MeteringSunny 16 Rule
A field estimate stating that in bright, direct sunshine, correct exposure is f/16 with a shutter speed of one over the ISO.
Composition & Visual DesignSymmetry
A composition in which one half of the frame mirrors the other across a vertical, horizontal or radial axis.
Film, Darkroom & Historic ProcessesT-grain Emulsion
An emulsion using flat, tabular silver crystals that present a larger surface area to light for a given volume.
Exposure & MeteringT-stop
A measured aperture value that accounts for the light a lens actually transmits, rather than the geometric ratio an f-number implies.
Optics, Lenses & FiltersTelecentric Design
A lens design in which light rays strike the sensor nearly perpendicular across the whole frame rather than at increasing angles toward the…
Optics, Lenses & FiltersTeleconverter
A supplementary optic mounted between lens and body that multiplies focal length at the cost of light and, usually, sharpness.
Optics, Lenses & FiltersTelephoto Lens
A lens with a focal length longer than the format's diagonal, magnifying distant subjects and narrowing the angle of view.
Printing, Display & OutputTest Print
A small print, often of selected crops, made to evaluate colour, tone and sharpening before committing to full size.
Film, Darkroom & Historic ProcessesTest Strip
A piece of paper exposed in bands at increasing times, used to determine the correct exposure for a print.
Files, Metadata & WorkflowTethered Shooting
Connecting a camera directly to a computer so images transfer as they are captured.
Composition & Visual DesignTexture
The tactile surface quality of a subject as revealed by light, giving a sense of how something would feel.
Post-Processing & RetouchingTexture Slider
A control that increases or decreases medium-scale detail while deliberately leaving very fine detail and broad tones alone.
Genres, Movements & TheoryThe Decisive Moment
The idea that in any unfolding event there is a single instant at which form and content align most expressively.
Genres, Movements & TheoryThe Family of Man
A 1955 exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art presenting 503 photographs from 68 countries as evidence of shared human experience.
Genres, Movements & TheoryThe Gaze
A critical concept describing how looking is structured by power, and how images position their subjects and viewers.