The Photography Terms You Should Know

It can be tricky to figure out all the terms and jargon that photographers use!

Just like any industry, photography has jargon, words, and phrases that make sense if you know, but if you don’t know it can be super confusing! So if you are new to photography or just needing to brush up on your jargon, here are a few terms and what they mean.

DSLR

DSLR cameras are currently the best quality camera out there!

DSLR stands for digital single-lens reflex camera. Basically this is one of those big cameras with changeable lenses that you see professional photographers carrying around. These cameras use a single lens and a reflex mirror to bend light and take a picture. And digital just means that we aren’t using film anymore.

DSLR cameras are currently the best you can get quality wise. They are pretty expensive though. If you’re thinking about getting one think about used or refurbished, especially if it’s your first camera!

The easiest way to think about the next two is in terms of your eye.

Shutter Speed

When you have a fast shutter speed you can freeze motion like in the first frame. But when you have a slower shutter speed you are capturing motion, which shows up as blur like in the last frame.

Shutter speed is like your camera’s eyelid. The faster the shutter the faster that eyelid is blinking. When you open your eyes for a long time (like 10 seconds) you can see movement happening. But when you blink really quick all movement is frozen and you only see a quick little snapshot of the scene around you. That’s how shutter speed works too!

When you have a slow shutter speed (like 1 second) that means your camera isn’t "blinking" for a whole second (or whatever it's set to), so it can “see” lots of motion! But that motion shows up as blur in your photos.

When you have a short shutter speed (1/800 of a second) that means your camera just blinks once real quick. This freezes motion in the way that we all appreciate from photographs. Freezing motion is really cool (think water drops from a faucet or a bird flying through the sky), but because your camera’s eye isn’t open for very long you need to have lots of light in order to use a shorter shutter speed.

Aperture

A low f-stop lets in lots of light while a higher f-stop lets in less light.

Think of aperture like the camera’s pupil. Your pupil is the black part in the middle of your eye. When you are in a dark place with not a lot of light your pupil gets bigger to let in more light. And when you are in a bright place your pupil gets smaller to let less light in so that you aren’t blinded.

Your camera does the same thing. When you have a low f-stop (f/2.8, think low light) it means your camera’s pupil is really big and letting in lots of light. When the f-stop is high (f/16, think lots of light) your camera’s pupil is small and limiting how much light will get in. When you have a low f-stop, or a wide aperture, you will also get a shallow depth of field. A shallow depth of field is when your subject is in really good focus but the background is all blurry.

ISO

A high ISO means your camera is more sensitive to light while a lower ISO means your camera is less sensitive to light.

ISO is all about how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. When your ISO is higher (like 1600) your camera is more sensitive to light, which means it can take photos when there is less light. At a high ISO your camera brings in all the light around it so that you can take photos in low light situations.

When your ISO is lower (like 100 or 200) it means your camera is less sensitive to light and your camera is not using all the light around it. Generally if you are outside during the day a lower ISO will work just great.

While having a high ISO that can take photos in low light situations seems great, it isn’t always the best option. Clarity is affected. When you use a high ISO your photo will be grainy or have lots of “noise” Generally, the lowest ISO is the best.

RAW

RAW files remain uncompressed and unedited.

There are several different file types (the format things are saved in), some are JPEG, TIF, PNG, and of course, RAW.

RAW is the best file type to take your photos in if your camera allows it. The reason RAW files are so great is because they are saved in their uncompressed and unedited format. This gives you more power in your post processing and editing. RAW files are just better quality.

Because of their uncompressed nature, RAW files do take up a lot of space. If you are going to shoot in RAW (which I do recommend) just make sure that you have extra memory cards that you can use!

The terms that people use in specific industries can be really confusing! But if you ask, people are always willing to help you out and offer a simple explanation to make sure that you understand what’s going on.

What photography term keeps confusing you?