Browse All 840 Photography Terms A–Z

Colour Banding Colour & Colour Management bits Visible steps in what should be a smooth gradient, caused by too few tonal levels to render the transition continuously.

Colour Cast Colour & Colour Management An unwanted overall tint across an image, usually caused by the light source or by reflections from coloured surfaces.

Colour Checker Colour & Colour Management patches A card of printed patches with known colour values, photographed in a scene to allow accurate colour correction and profiling.

Colour Constancy Colour & Colour Management The perceptual effect by which an object keeps its apparent colour across widely different illuminants.

Colour Filter Array Sensors & Digital Capture A mosaic of coloured filters over the photosites that allows a monochrome sensor to record colour.

Colour Gel Lighting & Flash stops (absorption) A translucent coloured sheet placed over a light to change the colour of its output.

Colour Grading Colour & Colour Management The deliberate shaping of an image's colour for stylistic effect, as distinct from correcting it toward accuracy.

Colour Harmony Colour & Colour Management A relationship between the colours in an image that the viewer perceives as coherent rather than accidental.

Colour Label Files, Metadata & Workflow A coloured tag applied to a file to indicate its status in a workflow, independently of its quality rating.

Colour Management Colour & Colour Management The system of profiles and conversions that keeps colour consistent as an image moves between camera, screen, printer and web.

Colour Negative Film Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes ISO Film that records a colour image with tones and colours inverted, printed or scanned to produce a positive.

Colour Noise Reduction Post-Processing & Retouching % Processing that removes the random coloured speckles that appear in shadows and at high sensitivity.

Colour Rendering Index Colour & Colour Management CRI (Ra) A score out of 100 describing how faithfully a light source reveals the colours of objects compared with a reference illuminant.

Colour Reversal Film Film, Darkroom & Historic Processes ISO Film that produces a positive transparency directly, viewable and projectable without printing.

Colour Space Colour & Colour Management A defined set of colours, described by primaries, a white point and a transfer function, within which numerical colour values have a specific meaning.

Colour Temperature Colour & Colour Management K (kelvin) A measure of the colour of a light source, expressed as the temperature of a theoretical black body radiating the same hue.

Coma Optics, Lenses & Filters An aberration that renders off-axis points of light as asymmetric comet-shaped smears rather than dots.

Compact Camera Cameras, Formats & Systems A small fixed-lens camera designed to be carried everywhere, with automatic exposure and focus as the default.

Complementary Colours Colour & Colour Management Pairs of colours sitting opposite each other on the colour wheel, which produce maximum contrast when placed together.

Compositing Post-Processing & Retouching count Combining elements from several photographs into a single image.

Composition Composition & Visual Design The arrangement of elements within the frame, and the decisions about what to include, exclude and where to place things.

Compression Artefact Files, Metadata & Workflow Visible distortion introduced by lossy compression, such as blocking, ringing or colour smearing.

Conceptual Photography Genres, Movements & Theory Photography in which the governing idea precedes and directs the image, rather than the image being discovered.

Consent and Privacy Genres, Movements & Theory The question of when a person's permission is required to photograph them and to publish the result.

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