I will be finding terms, alphabetizing them, and posting them soon.

Thank you for all of your patience!

~Anji

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Ambient light 

The natural light in a scene.

Aperture 

 A small, circular opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor as a picture is taken. The aperture diameter is expressed in f-stops; the lower the number, the larger the aperture. For instance, the aperture opening when set to f/2.8 is larger than at f/8. The aperture and shutter speed together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. A larger aperture passes more light through to the sensor. Many cameras have an aperture priority mode that allows you to adjust the aperture to your own liking.

Bitmap image 

An image with 1 bit of color information per pixel, also known as a bitmapped image. The only colors displayed in a bitmapped image are black and white.

Brightness 

One of three dimensions of color; the other two are hue and saturation. The term is used to describe differences in the intensity of light reflected from or transmitted through an image independent of its hue and saturation.

Buffer

Memory in the camera that stores digital photos before they are written to the memory card.

Burning

Selectively darkening part of a photo with an image editing program.

Color correction 

The changing of the colors of pixels in an image, including adjusting brightness, contrast, mid-level grays, hue, and saturation to achieve optimum printed results.

Continuous-tone image 

An image containing gradient tones from black to white. 

Contrast 

The tonal gradation between the highlights, midtones, and shadows in an image.

DCS Desktop Color Separation 

A file format that creates four color separations

Dodging 

 Selectively lightening part of a photo with an image editing program

DPI 

Dots per inch: a measure of image resolution.

EXIF 

 Exchangeable Image File: the file format used by most digital cameras. For example, when a typical camera is set to record a JPEG, it’s actually recording an EXIF file that uses JPEG compression to compress the photo data within the file.

Grayscale image 

An image consisting of up to 256 levels or gray, with 8 bits of color data per pixel.

 

Halftone 

The reproduction of a continuous-tone image, made by using a screen that breaks the image into various size dots.

Highlight 

The lightest part of an image, represented in a halftone by the smallest dots, or the absence of dots.

Hue 

The main attribute of a color that distinguishes it from other colors.

Image resolution 

The amount of data stored in an image file, measured in pixels per inch (ppi).

ISO speed 

 A rating of a film’s sensitivity to light. Though digital cameras don’t use film, they have adopted the same rating system for describing the sensitivity of the camera’s imaging sensor. Digital cameras often include a control for adjusting the ISO speed; some will adjust it automatically depending on the lighting conditions, adjusting it upwards as the available light dims. Generally, as ISO speed climbs, image quality drops.

JPEG 

Joint Photographic Experts Group. 

This group established a standard method for compressing and decompressing digitized photos or images. The high-resolution images provided with PhotoDisc are compressed according to JPEG standards.

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display: a low-power monitor often used on the top and/or rear of a digital camera to display settings or the photo itself.

LPI 

Lines per inch. 

A measure of resolution, usually screen frequency in halftones.

 

Luminance 

Lightness. The highest of the individual RGB values plus the lowest of the individual RGB values, divided by two; a component of a Hue-Saturation-Lightness image.

Megabyte (MB) 

 A measurement of data storage equal to 1024 kilobytes (KB).

Megapixel

Equal to one million pixels.

Midtone 

Tonal value of dot, located approximately halfway between the highlight value and the shadow value.

Moiré pattern 

An undesirable pattern in color printing, resulting from incorrect screen angles of overprinting halftones. Moiré patterns can be minimized with the use of proper screen angles. 

Panning

A photography technique in which the camera follows a moving subject. Done correctly, the subject is sharp and clear, while the background is blurred, giving a sense of motion to the photo.

Pixel 

A single dot on a computer display or in a digital image. 

PICT 

A standard file format for exchanging graphics or image information.

PPI 

Pixels per inch, 

a measure of the resolution of a computer display or digital image.

Printer resolution 

The amount of detail a printer or imagesetter will reproduce, measured in dots per inch (dpi).

Process color 

The four color pigments cyan, magenta, yellow, and black used in color printing.

RAW

The RAW image format is the data as it comes directly off the CCD, with no in-camera processing is performed.

Red-eye

The red glow from a subject’s eyes caused by light from a flash reflecting off the blood vessels behind the retina in the eye. The effect is most common when light levels are low, outdoor at night, or indoor in a dimly-lit room.

Resample 

To change the resolution of an image. Resampling down discards pixel information in an image; resampling up adds pixel information through interpolation.

Resolution 

The number of pixels per inch in an image, or the number of dots per inch used by an output device. 

RGB 

Red, green, and blue, the additive primaries; RGB is the basic additive color model used for color video display, as on a computer monitor.

Saturation 

The amount of gray in a color. More gray in a color means lower saturation; less gray in a color means higher saturation. 

Screen angle 

The angle at which the halftone screens are placed in relation to one another.

 

Screen frequency 

The density of dots on the halftone screen, commonly measured in lines per inch (lpi). Also known an screen ruling. 

Shadow 

The darkest part of an image, represented in a halftone by the largest dots.

Sharpness

The clarity of detail in a photo.

Shutter speed

The camera’s shutter speed is a measurement of how long its shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time. When the shutter speed is set to 1/125 or simply 125, this means that the shutter will be open for exactly 1/125th of one second. The shutter speed and aperture together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. Some digital cameras have a shutter priority mode that allows you to set the shutter speed to your liking. See also aperture.

Thumbnails 

Miniature pictures, resembling slides, that the LightBox catalog displays. Each thumbnail contains specific information for each image that comes with PhotoDisc.

TIFF 

Tagged Image File Format, a file format for exchanging bitmapped and grayscale images among applications.

USB

 Universal Serial Bus: a protocol for transferring data to and from digital devices. Many digital cameras and memory card readers connect to the USB port on a computer. USB card readers are typically faster than cameras or readers that connect to the serial port, but slower than those that connect via FireWire.

White balance

A function on the camera to compensate for different colors of light being emitted by different light sources