Abberation:

An optical defect in a lens causing it to form an image that’s not sharp or that’s distorted. This can take the shape of edge distortion or a lack of sharpness.

Abstract Art:

Style that does not imitate real life but consists of forms, shape and color, independent of subject matter.

Abstract Expressionism:

Post-World War II American art movement characterized by a desire for freedom of expression and the communication of strong emotions through the sensual quality of paint. Chief artists include Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.

Acid Free Mat:

Acidic paper can harm artwork over time. As a result, acid free mats are used when images are framed to help ensure the longevity of the print.

Action Painting:

Technique in which paint is applied with gestural movements, often by pouring or splashing. Its chief exponent was American painter Jackson Pollock.

Adobe RGB (1998):

The RGB working space, created by Adobe Systems Incorporated, providing a fairly large gamut of colors that are well-suited for documents converted to CMYK. Generally speaking, this is the setting recommended by most photographers.

AF (Autofocus):

Used to prevent autofocus operation once the subject is in focus and gives you more creative control by allowing you to focus, compose your image and then capture the image.

Angle of View:

The area of a scene that a lens can cover. The focal length of the lens determines the angle of view. A wide-angle (short-focal-length) lens includes more of a scene than a standard (normal-focal-length) lens or telephoto (long-focal-length) lens. Angle of view is basically the angle at which light rays can pass through the lens to produce an image on the film.

Aperture:

The aperture is the opening formed by the blades of the iris or diaphragm in the lens, through which light passes to expose the film. Aperture size is usually given in f-numbers, the larger the number, the smaller the opening. Aperture size, together with shutter speed, determine the amount of light falling on the film (exposure). The aperture is sometimes called the “stop".

Aspherical Lens:

A lens with a curved, non-spherical surface used to reduce aberrations and achieve a more compact lens size. With a spherical lens, rays traveling from the lens periphery create the image before the ideal focal point and produce a blurred image center. With an aspherical lens, even the rays traveling from the lens periphery converge at the ideal focal point, thus producing a sharp image.

Atelier:

French for studio. An atelier libre was a studio where there was usually no formal tuition.

Avante-Garde:

Term used to describe any new, innovative and radically different artistic approach.

Bauhaus:

German school of art, design and architecture founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius and closed by the Nazis in 1933. Its trademark streamlined designs became influential worldwide.

Barrel Distortion:

The image distortion produced when the position of the camera lens is at its widest angle and lines you expect to appear perpendicular are not. It’s most noticeable when you have a straight edge near the side of the frame; for example, a wide angle shot of a building. Barrel distortion causes the edges of an image to look curved or at a skewed angle. Most barrel distortion can be corrected using image editing software.

Bracketing:

Best explained as the photographer taking numerous photos of the same subject using a variety of different camera settings. Bracketing is ideal when you’re struggling to get a shot with exposure you like, exposure that suits the image and also ensures correct exposure of a photo when lighting may be difficult.

Chromatic Aberration:

The inability of a lens to bring all light wavelengths, particularly red and blue, into the same plane of focus, causing an overall blur. Usually found in regular large-aperture telephoto and super-telephoto lenses. While it’s not improved by reducing aperture size, chromic aberration can be corrected with low dispersion (ED, LD or SD) glass.

CMYK:

The four process colors used in printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. c

CMYK Image:

A four-channel image containing a cyan, magenta, yellow and black channel. A CMYK image is generally used to print a color separation. When submitting photos to traditional printing presses, you’ll typically need to convert to CMYK. The conversion from RGB to CMYK will often cause dramatic changes in your digital image

Collage:

Style of picture-making in which materials (typically newspapers, magazines and photographs) are pasted together on a flat surface. This technique first gained prominence with the rise of Cubism in the early twentieth century.

Color Field Painting:

Term originally used to describe the work of Abstract Expressionist painters Rothko, Newman and Still in the 1950s, and Frankenthaler, Louis and Noland in the 1960s. Works characteristic of this style are notable for large areas of flat, single color.

Color Temperature or Color of Light:

A method of expressing the color content and quality of light and measured in Kelvin (K). Photographic daylight has a color temperature of about 5500K. Photographic tungsten lights have color temperatures of 3200K to 3400K. depending on their construction.

Conceptualism:

Artistic style in which the ideas or concepts behind an artwork are prioritized over the piece itself, which is sometimes regarded simply as a document of the idea-making process that preceded it. Its heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s, though the same principles were being employed by Duchamp decades before.

Constructivism:

Art movement founded by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko in Russia around 1914, spreading to the rest of Europe by the 1920s. Notable for its abstraction and use of industrial materials such as glass, metal and plastic.

Cotton Rag:

Cotton rag paper is made from 100% cotton fibers. Cotton paper is superior in both strength and durability to wood pulp-based paper. Cotton fiber paper is known to last hundreds of years without appreciable fading, discoloration or deterioration.

Curator:

An art expert who is responsible for building a collection, research, exhibition and writing.

Depth of Field:

Refers to how much of a photo is in focus when the camera is focused on the main subject. Depth of field is controlled by a camera's aperture, in conjunction with the focal length of the lens. Deep (more) depth of field means that all or most of the picture is in focus from front to back. Shallow (less) depth of field means that a subject is in focus but objects in front and behind it appear out of focus.

Digital Zoom:

A common term for small video cameras and digital cameras. Digital zoom is an electronic zoom where the camera interpolates the sensor readings to simulate a zoom. Many people consider this to be a poorer quality image. See Optical Zoom.

Electronic Flash:

Designed to provide light where lighting on the scene is insufficient. Electronic flash requires high voltage, usually obtained through batteries and a voltage-multiplying circuit that discharge a brief, intensive burst. Generally considered to have the same photographic effect as daylight. Modern flash units have multiple through the lens exposure control functions and auto focus control.

EXIF Data:

Data stored in jpeg and TIFF image files, such as shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and whether or not a flash was used at the time a photo was taken. EXIF data, or Exchangeable Image File data, can be very useful when you‘re evaluating your photography.

Exposure Compensation:

The ability to increase or decrease the exposure in an image from the exposure automatically selected by a camera metering system. See bracketing.

Exposure Meter:

Built-in digital camera meter that measures the amount of light when framing a photo and determines the best exposure. Matrix (Evaluative), Spot and Center-weighted are the main metering types; some digital cameras have all three.

Expressionism:

Term used to describe a twentieth-century style that distorts color, space, scale and form for emotional effect and is notable for its intense subject matter. Adopted particularly in Germany by artists such as Kandinsky, Nolde, Beckmann and Macke.

F-numbers or F-stops:

Numbers on the lens aperture ring and the camera's LCD (where applicable) that indicate the size of lens aperture. The lower the number, the larger the aperture. As the scale rises, each number is multiplied by a factor of 1.4. Standard numbers are 1.0, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, etc.; each change resulting in a doubling or halving of the amount of light transmitted by the lens to the film. The actual value represents a relationship between the focal length of the lens. F-numbers are calculated by dividing the focal length of the lens by the effective diameter of the aperture.

Film Speed:

ISO or ASA ISO stand for International Standards Organization. Film was always manufactured to be at a certain ASA. Digital cameras give you the ability adjust your sensitivity to light or ISO. The higher the number, the more sensitive or faster the film. The slower the film, or low ISO number, the sharper and clearer the photograph. In a digital camera, a higher ISO setting will mean the sensor is more sensitive to light and can allow faster shutter speeds. The negative to this is that higher ISOs sometimes produce images that are noisy with digital grain.

Flash Sync Speed:

Most modern cameras have two shutter panels: a top and a bottom. When you press the shutter button, the top starts to raise, then the bottom starts to follow until both meet and light is shut out. The speed that you set your shutter will determine the time between when the top door starts moving and the bottom door follows. Your camera make and model also can affect this. Essentially, your maximum sync speed is the setting at which the top door has reached the top of the sensor before the bottom door has started moving. This provides an entirely unobstructed view of the sensor for the flash to come in. A flash's duration is around 1/4000 or higher, so it will always be fast enough to hit the sensor for only a fraction of your shutter duration. Please note that cameras have a maximum sync speed at which the panels separate. However, some flash units have special modes that allow users to go beyond the sync speed.

Focal Length:

The distance from the film to the optical center of the lens when the lens is focused on infinity. On most adjustable cameras, focal length is marked in millimeters on the lens mount. On 35mm-format cameras, lenses with a focal length of 50mm are called normal or standard lenses. Lenses of 35mm or less are called wide angle lenses. Lenses of 85mm or more are called telephoto lenses. Lenses that allow varying focal lengths without changing focus are called zoom lenses.

Focal Plane Shutter:

A shutter exposing the image by moving two light-blocking curtains across the front of the image sensor. The first curtain slides open to begin the exposure, then the second curtain slides closed to terminate the exposure. In order to expose the picture from a flash, both curtains must be open at the time the flash is fired.

High Contrast:

The wide range of density in a print or negative.

Highlights:

The brightest areas of a subject and the corresponding areas in a negative, print or slide.

Hot Shoe:

The fitting on a camera that holds a small portable flash. The hot shoe has an electrical contact that aligns with the contact on the flash unit's foot, firing the flash when you press the shutter release. This direct flash-to-camera contact eliminates the need for a PC cord.

Hyperrealism:

Used to describe a resurgence of high-fidelity realism in painting and sculpture that began in the late 1960s. Proponents include Spanish artist Antonio Lopez Garcia and American artist Chuck Close.

Hyperfocal Distance:

The distance of the nearest object in a scene that is acceptably sharp when the lens is focused on infinity.

Illustration:

A visualization, such as a drawing or painting, that stresses subject more than form.

Ink Jet Printing:

Printing method that works by spraying tiny droplets of liquid ink onto the surface of the paper. High-end inkjets are increasingly capable of producing photorealistic images, so they have continued to gain in popularity over time.

Impasto:

A technique whereby paint is thickly applied using a brush or palette knife, so that the strokes or marks remain visible and in some cases raised from the surface to provide texture.

KELVIN:

The visible light spectrum scientifically described in terms of color temperature and measured in degrees Kelvin (K).

Lens:

One or more pieces of optical glass (or similar material) designed to collect and transfer rays of light to form a sharp image on film, paper or projection screen. In practical photography, compound lenses made of a number of different types of glass are used. This enables the manufacturer to correct most of the faults, or aberrations, found in simple lenses and provide images that are sharp across the entire picture.

Lens Speed:

The largest aperture, i.e., the smallest F-stop, at which a lens can be set. Fast lenses transmit more light and have larger openings than slow lenses. This is determined by the maximum aperture in relation to focal length. Lens speed is relative: a 400 mm lens with a maximum aperture of F/3.5 is considered extremely fast, while a 28mm F/3.5 lens is considered to be quite slow.

Limited Edition Print:

The issue of something collectible, such as prints, limited to a certain quantity of numbered copies. The first number indicates the number of the piece; the second number indicates the total quantity of the edition – i.e., 155/250.

Minimalism:

Style of abstract art, characterized by a spare, uncluttered approach and deliberate lack of emotive expression or conventional composition that arose in the mid-twentieth century and flourished until the 1970s. Practitioners range from Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana to Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland.

Op Art:

Abbreviation of optical art. Style of abstract art of the 1960s that used optical illusion, employing a range optical phenomena to make artwork appear to vibrate or flicker. Primary exponents included Riley and Vasarely.

Optical Zoom:

A true zoom. The focal length of the lens extends and retracts so an image is magnified by the lens itself. No matter the focal length of the lens, image resolution stays the same. Optical zooms produce the best photo quality.

Overexposure:

Improper exposure that causes an image to look too light and includes a loss of detail in bright areas.

PictBridge:

A standardized technology that allows photographers to print images from a memory card in a digital camera directly to a printer, regardless of brand. No computer is required.

Panning:

The act of following a subject with a camera to add motion to a photograph. For example, if you’re photographing a runner, you would want to follow the runner with your camera. When done correctly, the subject will be in focus and the background will show motion.

Perspective:

A two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional scene. In photography, this can be achieved by viewing 3-D objects from an angle rather than head-on. A photograph is also given perspective if there are objects in the foreground, middle distance and background, giving the scene depth. For most photographers, perspective refers to the relationship of the subject to the camera sensor or film plane.

Prime Lens:

A lens that has one focal length. One example is a 135 mm lens.

RGB:

An additive color model that starts with black. Computer monitors emit a combination of three colors: red, green and blue to create a full color display.

Saturation:

The intensity, or vividness, of a color. Increasing saturation makes the colors in a photo look richer. The amount of saturation can be adjusted in some cameras or increased or decreased with image editing software.

Shutter Lag:

The delay that takes place between the act of pressing the shutter-release button and the time a photo is actually taken. Shutter lag varies from digital camera to digital camera – oftentimes, the less expensive the camera, the longer the lag.

Shutter Speed:

The shutter speed is the length of time that the light capture medium is open to the light. For example, 1/30 is 1/30 of a second. Try to keep your shutter speed 1/90 - 1/125 or faster to avoid camera blur. Should you use anything less than 1/60, you will need to use a tripod or be very aware of your camera movement. For some, 1/60 may be too slow of a shutter speed, while others can work at 1/25. Also note that the longer the focal length, the more camera movement will affect image sharpness (i.e., a telephoto vs. a wide angle lens). If you wish to obtain a crisp image of a moving object, you will need a fast shutter speed of at least 1/250 or higher. To obtain a blur effect, a slow shutter speed is needed. 1/15 - 5 seconds is usually sufficient. A tripod is necessary to eliminate camera shake.

Single-Lens-Reflex (SLR) Camera:

Works by light entering the camera through the lens, which is reflected by a mirror behind the lens onto a ground glass screen above. This screen is then viewed through the camera’s viewfinder and a glass pentaprism turns the image the right way up.

Social Realism:

Term used to describe art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that protested against adverse social conditions and hardships of everyday life while employing a broadly representational technique. It’s used to describe muralists active in the United States during the Great Depression, such as Rivers and Orozco.

Underexposure:

A condition in which too little light reaches the film or camera sensor. Underexposed film will producing a thin negative, a dark slide or a muddy-looking print. In general, digital cameras handle underexposure better than negative film.

Unipod or Monopod:

A one-legged support used to hold the camera steady.

Vignetting:

A fall-off in brightness at the edges of an image, slide or print. Vignetting can be caused by poor lens design, using an incorrect lens hood or attaching too many filters to the front of the lens.

Wide-Angle Lens:

A lens that has a shorter focal length and a wider field of view than a normal lens.

YBA:

Abbreviation of Young British Artists. Used to describe a group of avant-garde British artists, including Davenport, Whiteread, Lucas and Hirst, prominent in the 1990s.

Zoom Lens:

A lens in which you adjust the focal length over a wide range.