Photographic Terminology Cesca Haig
Jul 17, 2015
Shutter Speed
o Shutter speed is the amount
of time the shutter stays
open allowing light to reach
the camera sensor. it is
measured in seconds, or fractions of seconds.
ISO
o ISO is the number
indicating a digital camera sensors sensitivity to
light. The higher the
sensitivity, the less light is
needed to make an
exposure.
Aperture
o The aperture controls the amount of
light that reaches a digital camera
sensor. An aperture acts much like
the pupil of an eye. It opens wider
as light decreases to let in more
available light. It gets smaller when
light increases to reduce the
amount of light entering the eye.
o The diameter of an aperture is
measured in f-stops. A lower f-stop
number opens the aperture and
admits more light onto the camera
sensor. Higher f-stop numbers make
the camera’s aperture smaller so
less light hits the sensor
Manual V Automatic Exposure
o Manual Exposure is when you
can select what level of
exposure you want your
pictures to have.
o When Automatic Exposure is
selected the camera will
automatically chose the level
of exposure.
Exposure is the amount of light that you allow to hit an object or
area in a photograph.
Colour Balance & White Balance
If your colour balance is correct
then everything in your image will
be seen on screen, as you see it.
If it is off the image will look
This shows the original which is
more blue and on the right a
better picture in which all the
colours have mixed making it
brighter and more balanced.
Composition
The arrangement of the main subject,
other objects in a scene, and/or the
foreground and background.
Rule of thirdso On this image you can see the
grid lines that has split the photo
into three sections each way. It
shows you how the main focus
of the image is off to the side,
on one of the points instead of
being in the centre. This is
basically what the rule of thirds
consists of.
Analogous colours
o Analogous colours are
colours that are adjacent
to each other on the colour
wheel. One is usually a
primary or secondary with
the others being tertiary.
Some examples of this are;
o red, red-orange, red-violet
o blue, blue-violet, blue-
green
o yellow, yellow-orange,
yellow-green
On this picture I too the colours
are all analogous.
Complementary Colours
o Complementary colours are
pairs of colours that opposite
on the colour wheel.
Examples are;
o Red – green
o Orange - Blue
o Yellow – Violet
In this picture the green and
purple are the complementary
colours. I took this picture myself.
Macro
O Macro is used in close up
photography, it enables the
user to take close up pictures
of smaller objects, allowing
you to see the finer details that
can’t be seen with the naked
eye.
O This is a picture that I took
myself, you can see all the fine
details of the flower.