Photography: Terms & Techniques

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Negative Space:​ This is an arguably wrong concept or wrongly interpreted concept. Most references found on net have pointed out the elusive or abstract nature of this idea. If the main object in the image is the positive space, the surrounding space is the negative space. In many classic images we see the vast emptiness around the main object completes the message; sometimes the space is the major object which is just accentuated by the body in it.So it is not only for emotional reasons, but even from a technical point of view the usage is not justified. More than the space it is the secondary objects that can be more distracting which may be termed negative objects.
The immediate space around the main object is the breathing space for the object. Too much of objects can make the image looks cluttered. But all these are some generalization, which definitely go wrong on many occasions. You cannot have so called breathing space in a busy market place or a crowded railway station; why, you need not necessarily have a main object there. Certain ideas are for aesthetic applications under the most ideal conditions

Technically this image has vast negative space

This image has breathing space for the subject and less or no negative space

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Neutral Density Filters(ND filters): They are specially designed glass devices fitted in front of the lens to control the intensity of light entering the lens. They are either clear or tinted glasses. They have estimated absorption of the light passing through them and help to bring down the light to which the sensor is exposed.
Suppose one wants to capture an image in a bright sunny hour, but wants a slow shutter to register motion and wide aperture to minimize the depth of field. Even at the lowest ISO the image will be over exposed. Exposure compensation adjusts either shutter speed (in aperture priority mode) or aperture (in shutter priority mode) This is where a NDF is a real help. Retaining all other parameters at one's desired values one can bring down exposure to the optimum level by using NDF of appropriate stops.
NDF is generally used to enhance aperture or lower shutter speed without over exposing the image. You may say you are providing your camera lens with a cooling glass

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Graduated ND Filters: are special category filters where one half alone does the real filtering. Suppose you want to capture an image where sky is enough bright where as ground is dark due to thick green foliages and dark soil . If we adjust exposure by metering from sky, the ground details will be lost due to under exposure. Conversely If exposure is adjusted with respect to dark ground, sky will be washed out. The image thus requires two different exposures. It is in such situations, a graduated NDF is of immense help. One can keep the filtering half on the top and the other half below and adjusting exposure with respect to the ground, get proper exposure for both upper part and lower part. Gr. NDF is available with sharp demarcation between the two regions or with smooth variation.
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Noise:​In images noise is the grainy appearances, especially when the image is shot at low light conditions. Smaller sensors means less area to capture light and greater the chance of noise. For a given aperture at good lighting condition where we use lower ISO, the pixel counts per unit area or pixel density is not a deciding factor in noise development, but only the sensor size; however in low light condition where high ISO is used, greater the pixel density, more is the chance for noise. Noise has thermal reasons too. A hot day is more prone to cause noise than a normal day. One may say noise is an outcome of the struggle of the sensor to capture more light.





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Normal Lens: A lens having normal field of view compatible to human vision. Its focal length will correspond to the diagonal of the sensor. Unlike a wide angle lens or a telephoto lens, a normal lens generates no distortion to objects in the field. Usually a 50mm lens is considered as a normal lens; but (40-58)mm range is considered to fall within normal.

 

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Out Of Focus(OoF): A Sharp image is formed on the sensor only at certain focusing position. when an image is photographed, light ray from one point on the object photographed reaches sensor through more than one path. Only at a definite focusing position such radiations originating from the same point reaches the same point in sensor without a phase difference. Then only that point will be registered sharp. At positions other than this the rays make phase differences which diffuses the spot formed on the sensor and collection of such diffused spots make the image Out of focus. When a wide aperture is selected the same thing happens on regions other than on a shallow depth of field, creating beautiful bokeh.

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Over exposure: A condition in which the image has too much light than required for normal illumination. It may arise because of bright sunlight as in mid day. A fast shutter, small aperture or low ISO are remedies with their limitations. A neutral density filter is a better option. Waiting for a healthy light condition is the best thing to do. Over exposure kills the details, flattens, burns, takes away the real beauty of colors etc. It has lesser artistic implications compared to under exposure.

 

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Panning: This is a camera technique. If you shoot across a road with a slow shutter , you have everything sharp except the vehicles speeding by. Panning is to create a retro effect where the vehicle is in focus where as the background is converted to some color streaks suggesting movement. Panning is best done with uniform horizontal motion. Shutter speed (shutter priority) to be selected depends upon the speed of the object selected for panning. Faster the object greater the shutter speed to be selected. The requirement is that you could move or pan the camera through some angle horizontally keeping the moving object in focus at the same point in the frame before the shutter shuts. This actually requires much of skill to realize with perfection or even with near perfection.

If moving object is very slow, panning requires more time lag which in turn would bring camera shake. In such cases a tripod with swivel movement need be used. Too much close up will not work ; there must be enough space around the object in the frame to suggest the panning effect. It is better to have the object just behind the center in the moving direction to retain more space in front.
In the case of a vehicle where the whole body is moving with the same speed the whole body may be achieved in focus; but in the case of running animal or human being where body parts differ in relative speeds some body part may go blurred (like arms and legs) which would only enhance the effect. Too much brilliant background or bright light patches in the background may adversely affect the quality of the image

A usual method is to pre-focus on a spot where the moving object would enter in the frame. Once the object reaches the focused point move camera with it until the shutter shuts. In canon camera AI Servo mode helps to track the object focused.

Two pseudo panning techniques: While travelling in a train focus on your cotraveler friend who sits near the window; ask him/her to remain still for a while and shoot with a slow shutter in day time; you will get him/her in a speeding back ground.

Or looking through the window of your car focus on another car speeding equally in the same direction on another parallel track and click with a slow shutter.
If you pan faster than the object panned, you will see ghosting of the object in front; conversely if you pan slower than the object panned, you will see ghosting behind. Think of this and you will know why.



Ouchhhh....You are slow....Better luck next time...or after several times

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Panorama:This is a software/in camera technology by which you can merge together two, three or more images taken by looking around from the same point moving the camera horizontally, withouht any apparent boundary of mismatch or pronounced marks of overlapping. Many modern cameras can do this in the dedicated mode where you need only turn around and click at regular intervals; sony has a model in which you need only hold in click position and view around; rest is done by the camera. There are many softwares which do the seamless stitching for you once you have the images in a row with no loss of the landscape part in between. To maintain the quality of the stitched image always depend on a tripod to capture the image so that all the images are in perfect level.
There are even 360 degree panoramas too. vertical panoramas are also there but restricted to 180 degrees. Technology may soon bring hemispherorama where you place the camera on a flat surface on a mountain peak and click, the whole things in the visible range is captured, which if you paste into a hemispherical construction's inner wall, reproduces the same experience as standing on the mountain top. May be it has already happened, because advancement of technology is at cosmic rates compared to our mundane imaginations.
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Parallax:This is a problem with prosumer cameras and point and shoot cameras where the view finder has a slightly shifted frame than the image frame that the lens captures, because they are two different optical systems. This is not a serious problem if the image captured is not a close up subject. For distant objects the two frames (that the photographer sees and the lens sees) are almost the same.

Single Lens Reflux (SLR) this is not a problem-whether the object is a closer one or a distant one- since what the photographer sees is what the lens sees. The only difference is that there is a fractional time lag between these two events. The sensor shutter opens only when the shutter release button is depressed and the shutter prevents the view through view finder anymore, since its present position is on the way to penta prism through which the image is reflected to the view finder.
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Patterns:​​ ​A recurring structure, shape, design, texture, color etc are called patterns. The recurring can be at uniform intervals or with uniformly changing intervals. Patterns are interesting subjects for photography. They turn especially interesting when some sudden variation is included. Patterns can be Natural or man made.

It is the irregularity of shapes that is the common feature in this abstract.....

Here regularity of shapes and arrangement is defied by random variation of colors

Patterns are common feature of architecture


Can Traditions ever do away with patterns?

A case of Natural vertical lines


Nature the Greatest Pattern Maker; ours are all but feeble emulations
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Perspective: Every body has its own geometry whether it has a recurring pattern or not. But the geometry we see may not be its real geometry. It depends upon the distance, angle etc of ones viewing. Perspective is all about such things. Patterns can be varied by changing perspective too.

We see parallel railway tracks meeting at distance, a building tapering towards height, a hand extended towards you having out of proportion size etc. These are all effects of relative variations. Of course such distortions depends upon the point of viewing . If a building is seen from a distance, you will see its edges parallel up to the top, without any noticeable distortions

In addition to human eye perspective issues, the lens also has its own perspective issues which may accentuate or reduce our visual distortions. But distortions can sometimes benefit an image to keep away the boredom of normalcy.
When coming to perspective related matters, a wide angle lens and telephoto lens have different roles to play. A wide angle lens exaggerates a nearby object and dwarfen objects behind by distancing them.
On the other hand a tele lens compresses the distances between layers of objects and normalizes their sizes.
Perspective distortions can be eliminated by shift and tilt adjustments of lens; perspective modifications can be had in post processing using softwares like photoshop.

Perspective is the visual geometries of things we see around us with our naked eyes, which changes with respect to the point of view. Perspective involves distortion compared to the original geometry of objects like the tapering of a building towards top when looked from below upwards. A normal lens gives nearly the same visual effect as we see with our naked eyes. Other lenses may exaggerate or diminish the natural distortions. This can generate awkward results. For instance if someone attempted to level the width of the building from top to bottom, shot as mentioned earlier, then that would look ready to collapse into the head of the viewer. So one must understand that visual geometry-with Natural distortions- is more important in photography than their original nature.



A different perspective can make an ordinary thing more interesting...



Heigthts give good perspectives of expanses of lands below


Instead of looking straight at a construction it will be more interesting to view it from an angle; that would give a wider view and also would enhance its architectural beauty


This is a combined case of pattern and perspective

Churches render themselves as splendid subject for perspective study from both inside and outside

Looking straight up midst woods makes a feeling that they make a canopy for you
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Photogenic:A person who comes out very pleasingly natural in images is called photogenic.

Children have no posing nor any pretension; that is why a child is almost always photogenic
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Pin cushion Distortion:This is distortion by which the middle part of the image appears to slightly curve inwards; It arises the high zoom end of a tele lens. It happens because of increase in magnification away from the principal axis of the lens
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Point Of Interest(POI): This is regarding the composition of the image. Sometimes looking at an image we feel that there is nothing to focus our attention on. The image has no object of interest anywhere and conceptwise flat. Such images are said to lack a POI. POI need not be or should not be at the center of the image. Of course there can be many exceptions to this generalization. A landscape have several POI and so no POI in particualr. An image of a pattern may or may not have a POI.

You can have an image of several rows of green apples on a rack suggesting a pattern; if you break the monotony(if you feel, it is there) by placing one red apple at some point -better on one of the four golden point- the image may sound more interesting.



The green clip breaks the monotonous yellow, which may a point to lock your view first, from where you can send your eyes in all directions


Sometime the point of interest of the event is the point of interest in the image


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Polarization Filters: These are filters made of glass having multi-layers of coating of materials with specific properties. They are mainly used to cut off stray light originating from various reflecting surfaces around. Normal light radiations are non-polarized which vibrate in all the planes with respect to their line of propagation. Many reflections are polarized and vibrate in certain planes only. A polarizing filter cut of all radiations vibrating in certain planes and permits others which vibrates in a perpendicular plane. This controls the light that crosses the filter and reaching the sensor though the lens.

Using a polarizing filter deepens the color of the sky and brings more distinction to the cloud patterns. It restores the green of foliage, by cutting the grey or silvery reflections. Many designs on various surfaces come out , which are otherwise lost by finishing reflections. Polarization filter mounted in front of the lens is rotated until reflections are seen vanished, before clicking; meanwhile it also protects the front element of the lens.
# To get maximum benefit of polarizing filter the the viewing axis through the camera must be perpendicular to the axis from Sun to the photographer. The polarizing filter will be less effective when shooting in front light or back light. Side lighting is the best to attain maximum benefit of the filter.
# Metal reflections cannot be curtailed using Polarizing filters because metal reflections are non polarized.Polarizing filters can act only on plane polarized radiations.
# Using polarizer may sometimes require a longer shutter or wider aperture, since there a reduction of light entering though filter
# Since wide angle lens covers wide areas, some areas get the benefit of polarization filter where as some areas miss it; this causes uneven saturation effects on different parts, which is unwelcome
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Posterization: This is a digital anomaly, if happened undesirably or a digital possibility if created artificially. In the image, parts having tonal gradations are converted to color bands of single colors and such different color bands appear due to merging of near by colors into singular color bands. It is also termed Banding of colors. This is applied as a technique to create posters, hence the name posterization.
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Prime Lens: A lens of fixed focal lens is called a Prime lens with a primary focal length or fixed focal length(FFL) or Unifocal length. Other category is that with variable focal length, the zoom lenses with narrow or large focal ranges.
A prime lens has less number of optical elements making the lens more compact, light and simple to work with. It can offer wide aperture that makes photography in low light easier; for the same reason it gives very shallow depth of field. The images will be more clear and sharp. Above all it will be cheaper.

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Powerline Challenge: While we shoot a landscape, to its Naturality intrude those power lines. And it invites the head ache of processing them out. The options in such situations are i. To choose an angle from where the power lines do not appear in the frame ii. To clone them out during post processing. iii. The include them in the frame in such a way that it merges with the settings, naturally. Why, powerlines them selves can be made the point of interest in some instances. So no more cursing power lines
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Program Mode:This is one of the exposure mode available in all camera makes and models. Here the camera chooses a combination of shutter speed and aperture for an exposure conducive to the prevailing lighting. However one can go for control the depth of field or speed of shutter by turning the selection knob, which is named Program shift. The other value will get adjusted accordingly. In case selected aperture or shutter speed leads to over exposure or under exposure due limiting value of the speed/aperture, the warning light would blink. In program mode, ISO, AF, drive mode etc can be selected. Program mode is a promotion from fully auto mode in your journey of learning.

 

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Quick Control button: This is short cut button available in some models of cameras. It is a collection of short cuts to various frequently used options which in the main menu could be reached at from different lists. The quick control items available in the list changes with the change in shooting modes, like aperture priority, shutter priority, program mode, landscape mode etc. It is a very convenient inclusion

 

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Rainbow rule: This is about the color combinations. Any two color that comes adjacent in a rainbow will go harmonious-like green and yellow or yellow orange. Non adjacent colors will remain contrasty; greater the separation, greater the contrast- like blue and orange
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RAW File:This is the most unprocessed file format as the name implies. As such it is not a readable visual language which needs processing to render them as a visible or a printable image.
* A RAW image is considered to be the negative equivalent of the digital world
* It has a high dynamic range of information ingrained in it *it preserves maximum details regarding what has been captured on the sensor *White balance, color, saturation, brightness etc can be regulated *It preserves a wider color gamut *A RAW file may have an associated JPEG image for immediate visualization * It will have an associated EXIF *It has a loss less compression * Since it can secure High dynamic range, using an HDR software is not necessary * RAW files are 12 or 14 bits.
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Rear Curtain Flash Synchronization: The flash must go in the same time span in which the shutter remain fully open. In most DSLR cameras the synchronization can work up to a shutter speed of 1/250 seconds. If the shutter is faster than this the synchronization will not work.

Further there are two sync. options such as first curtain sync and second/rear curtain sync. In rear curtain sync the flash goes just before the second curtain starts its journey to close the shutter. This can be creatively made use of.

For instance if you are taking a portrait of a person standing by the side of the road, such that the trafficking road is his/her background. If you use a slow shutter that would register a passing by vehicle with motion blur in the back ground and in the meanwhile the flash freezes the person in the foreground. Thus you can combine a person in the foreground and a speeding vehicle in the background with only non-distracting illumination upon it.
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Recycle Time: It is the time required for the flash to get charged, once it is fired , so that it is ready for the next shot.
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Red Eye Effect: It is an optical uninvited effect in photography where eyes are exposed to flash light, more or less directly. The flash light flashes so fast so that the pupil does not get sufficient time to reduce its aperture to control the intense light passing through and reaching retina. Behind retina,in choroid there are micro nervous systems with much blood vessels there. Further eye globe has several light absorbing cells which absorb all colors more effectively than red. So the light entered the eye from the flash, gets reflected from the back of the retina, the red color alone is projected back which reaches the sensor and record the pupil as red.
The pigment melanin is present in some cells within the eyes (located in retinal pigment epithelium present in fovea). Its amount will be less in light colored eyes and more in dark ones. It can absorb a good portion of the light reaching it. So dark eyes reflect back less light and will have comparatively lesser red eye problem. Conversely light colored eyes have low melanin content, leading to more reflected light and more red eye effect.
When flash is used in low light , then the pupil will be wide open to capture more light and flashes used in such situation will have greater red eyes. Children show more red eye because their eyes are more sensitive to low light.
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Red Eye Reduction: Red eye can be avoided at three stages such as -at the time of photo capturing, by the camera's internal edition and during post processing.
i. Some cameras send out some pre-flashes in quick succession which give the eyes sufficient time to reduce the pupil. When flash is near the lens-as in compact cameras and while using built in flash- and if the subject is looking at the camera, the chance of red is more since optical axis of the eyes and focal line of the lens are very close and flash light can easily enter the eye through the pupil. So using a separate flash at an angle would help prevent the direct entry of light in to the eye. Other methods include increase the overall lighting in the place, use a high ISO, or use a wider aperture- all to avoid the use of flash.

ii. Cameras having red eye reduction option will detect eyes in the image and the red eye if developed, would replace it with dark shade- but in some cameras this would remove the catch light too.

iii. Many photo editing softwares can remove red eye once the red eye region is selected.

As one can imagine the best option is the first one, as the old saying goes, Prevention is better than cure.

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Rembrandt Lighting: A special kind of facial lighting where main light falls on one side of face and a reflected light beam or a feeble second light partially illumines the other half of the face, creating a triangle of light which is not distracting harsh. The light patch should not be wider than the eye below it appears not it should be extended below nose. Rembrandt, the world famous painter used this kind of light effect in his painting, using the same effect on his models.
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Resolution: The is regarding the non aesthetic quality of image, that is, how much details are available in the image so that it does retain details even on enlargement of the image. It in turn depends on the pixel density of the sensor which is usually expressed in terms of pixel per inch(PPI). More the PPI, more the details gathered on the sensor and so the quality of the image.
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Rim Light: Please see 'Back Light (Studio)'
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Rule Of Third: This concept was evolved not in photography but in painting, in the second half of 18th century.It was Sir Joshua Reynolds (Redemption is his famous painting) who proposed a ratio of 2:1 for bright and dark regions in an image for its maximum appeal. It was John Thomas Smith, his contemporary artist extended this idea to other composition related matters and named it Rule Of Thirds.
The rule is mostly related to landscapes where dividing the image into two exact or nearly exact halves using the horizon build up a sort of stagnation to the image. Landscapes mostly contain Earth, water body and sky and may be out of this view the concept of dividing the image into three horizontal portions might have come out. Even there allocating one third to each, would again bring in stagnation of symmetry. One third of the bottom one-third was given to Earth- which the least important part in the image- serving as border. The remaining 2/3rd of the bottom one third was given to the water body like river or lake and the major 2/3rd of the whole frame was given to the beautiful sky with much cloud patterns. Even when we stand near a shore and look across the river, the distribution of the space will be very much similar to this.

Even when there are only two segments like water body and sky or earth and water body, one third is meant for one and the rest for the other.

If the image is divided into three equal segments both horizontally and vertically, a rectangle will be generated at the center and the four corners of the rectangles are taken to be visually the most important points- the golden points- and any object which needs special attention needs be placed on one of this corner.

These concepts are not limited to landscape photography alone. In any image the dividing lines and and the intersecting points are important. Anyhow this is a rule of thumb. Observation of this rule alone does not patch up other shortcomings of the image; this alone won't guarantee a perfect composition either. Conversely you will find great images-even by Masters- that intelligently violate this rule to meritorious results.

 

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Selective Focusing: This is to choose a shallow depth of field by using wide aperture to keep a selected object alone in focus keeping things in foreground and background out of focus





Short Light: This is a studio light setting where the camera sees the face at an angle from front. The key light illumines the other side of the face; this helps to bring out details on the face like wrinkles; it also reduces the chubbiness.
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Silhouette:This is a wonderful way of visual expression, where the objects are reduced to two dimensional black outs set against a bright plane background. Care must be taken to feature the most conversing part of the object, like getting the side profile of human faces than getting their front showing the outline of head and ears.
For getting things in the silhouetted form meter from the bright/light background, so that camera automatically reduce exposure making the foreground objects completely dark/black. To keep the far and near objects appear equally sharp , keep the aperture f/8 to f/11.






Silhouettes are best seen as side views.....



Silhouettes can tell stories of a different savor....
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Shutter lag: This is the time lapsed between the triggering of the button and the event of photo capturing. The mechanical system requires certain time to prepare the sensor and open the shutter. This is especially important when a fast event is captured. If the lag is long, one may miss the crucial point and so needs advanced click to synchronize shutter opening with the event. Any how advanced technologies in digital cameras made this time lag to extreme small values that in day to day photography time lag is not a serious problem.
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Shutter Mechanism: Shutter is the sliding door of the lens. It is a combination of two half doors. When clicked the first shutter half or the first curtain moves to one side and completes its movement so that the sensor is completely opened. Now the second shutter half or rear curtain starts moving and completes its journey where by the shutter is completely closed.

In fast shutter uses, the time for which sensor remains completely opened will be very small where as for a slow shutter the time for which shutter remains opened will be more. It never happens that the second shutter moves even before the first shutter completes its journey. That would make the shutter work like a narrow slit
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Shutter speed:It is the time span for which the shutter remains opened , letting the light reach the sensor. It is usually expressed in seconds, because most images are captured within fraction of a second. Available fractions are 1/30/ 1/60/ 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 up to 1/4000 second; on the other side longer shutters of 1 minute and more are also available. A special option is the "bulb(B)' which means the shutter remains open until it is closed.
Photography is the art by which you can freeze moments of stillness from movements and bring movement in stillness. All these are achieved by selecting proper shutter speed. For instance by using a fast shutter speed you can freeze a diver in space, a drop in air, the galloping of a horse and so on. On the other hand you can register the movement of a car or a running man or a waterfall by using a slow shutter. Actually these are the things what we cannot see in daily life nor in a motion picture and exclusive benefits of this art form.

Even though Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO are mentioned as the three prominent features of proper exposure, i would say aperture and shutter speed are the two creative aspects of it. If aperture and shutter speed are the two creative eyes of photographic vision, ISO is the goggle to adjust the visibility. That is why you might have heard of and talked about a desired shutter speed or desired aperture but never a desired ISO, but only a required ISO.Aperture deals with the statics and shutterspeed deals with the dynamics of photography and ISO just suitably modify the lighting to suit the situation



A fast shutter freezes action

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Shutter Priority: This is an exposure mode available in camera. Here the user decides the time for which the shutter should remain open, letting in the light to reach the sensor to register an image. Time span can be as fractional as 1/4000 of a second to 30 seconds. In addition, there is the bulb mode which permits keeping the shutter open for any desired length of time.
One can creatively freeze action or register movement by choosing a fast shutter or slow shutter respectively. Panning also needs a proportionally slow shutter. A careless selection of shutter speed may lead to under exposure or over exposure. A slow shutter requires a sturdy placement of camera, best on a tripod.

A fast shutter(1/250 second) freezes the movement, giving a crispier looks to water, where as...

..a slower shutter (1/4 second) gives a silky smooth appearance.....
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Soft Box:This is not a box indeed. It is a lighting system which diffuses the light, sending out evenly spread moderated light either by using a diffusing filter or by letting the light get reflected from some bright surfaces. It helps illuminate objects without harsh shadows.
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Spherical Aberration: This is an innate problem of spherical optical devices like lens and mirrors. It arises due to difference in the extent of reflection/refraction of rays hitting at different distances from the principal axis. In the case of spherical lenses the light rays suffer different extents of refraction in such a way that they fail to converge on to a single point. The rays travelling closer the principal axis converge closer to the lens where as those rays hitting the lens towards its periphery converge at greater distances. This adversely affects the sharpness of the image and results in the so called soft focus images. Applying optical analysis it could be proved that only an aperture covering 43% area around the focal axis are properly converged on the focal axis resulting in sharp images.
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Split Lighting: In studio portrait photography one side of the face alone is illumined where as the other half is kept in dark, using a single light.

Use a singe light and highlight one half of the face and keep the other half in darkness
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Straight OLut Of Camera, SOOC:This means an image that has not been processed in any way, not even trimmed. Sometimes such images need be submitted for genuineness of the image when participating in some photography competition. Most of the images we see are seldom SooC because most require basic adjustments like contrast, brightening, saturation etc. Extreme processing is never good. Too much of anything is not good, as per the old saying.
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Sunny 16 Rule:As per this rule on a bright sunny day, if an aperture of f/16 is used, then a shutter speed which is the reciprocal of ISO need be selected for proper exposure. for instance an ISO of 200 can work with a shutter speed of 1/200 seconds; ISO of 400 demands a shutter speed of 1/400 seconds.
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Sweet Spot:This is regarding the aperture value which offers the sharpest image results. As a general rule this comes in the range f/8 to f/11. So a wider aperture or a too shrunken one are not offering images of the highest sharpness. Sweet spot actually talks about sharp spot. A very wide aperture means a very shallow depth of field and so sharpness restricted to a small depth only where as at very small aperture, diffraction sets in which affects the quality of the image.

 

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Through The Lens (Flash) Metering: A camera has to meter the light it receives before it decides proper exposure. The light reaches the sensor through the lens systems and so the real quantum and quality of light the sensor receives decides the exposure to be adopted by the camera. It is here, the so called Through The Lens(TTL) Metering becomes important. All Single Lens Reflux (SLR) cameras work based on this principle.

While we use flash, the camera decides the required output by sending a set of pre-flashes by which it gathers information regarding the prevailing light, the distance up to which the flash light must reach with required intensity etc. and then only the final flash bursts in synchronization with the shutter release.
If we are using First curtain sync, the multiple pre flashes are sent just after the sensor is exposed which being so fast, we can perceive only one flash; conversely, if we use rear curtain sync, then we can feel the multiple flashes working due to sufficient time fractions between them.
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Thumbnail: This is a very small version of the original image with low resolution used for easy recognition from a collection.
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TIFF: This is the acronym for Tagged Image File Format. This is a non-lossy edit,save and compression file format. It permits multiple pages in a single file. It was developed by Aldus and now owned by Adobe Systems. It was developed for Desktop publishing purposes. Compared to JPEG, saving Tiff files require more space.
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Time Exposure: This is long exposures by choosing shutter priority; it helps to register movement. It is used to register light tracks. ___________________________________________________________________________________

Tripod: A device having three footings that can hold a camera on its top to capture images without hand shake, even when heavy lens are loaded on the camera. It could be turned horizontally and vertically; its level can be raised or lowered; it works well with remote control or time lapse. More over it could be folded down to a handy pack and carried with camera bags.
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Tele Convertor:This is supportive device for a lens to increase its focal length. Unlike extension tubes, it has optical elements like a diverging unit of lens which helps to increase the focal length. It magnifies the middle part of the image formed on the sensor. It has some focal length multiplier factor like 1.4x or 2x or 3x etc. Increasing the focal length using optical elements decrease the intensity of light reaching the sensor and so may require longer exposure. Its use also reduces the resolution of the image. Tele convertors maintain the electronic connectivity and so auto functions continue to be available. Compared to extension tubes tele convertos are costly because of the optical elements and circuits in them. On the other hand they are cheaper than a lens with the focal length of (present lens + tele convertor) unit, with unavoidable drop in image quality

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Telephoto lens:These are lenses with focal length greater than 70mm; depending upon the focal length range they are classified as medium telephoto lens and super telephoto lens. Greater the focal length lesser the field of view, which may range between 30 degree to 1 degree.
Telephoto lens has the following features and utilities:
* Its focal length is greater than its physical length
* It apparently compresses the depth of field
* It normalizes the sizes of bodies at different distances
* By zooming on a single object like a face, a flower or an animal everything else in the background can be pushed to a nice bokeh, there by isolating your selected object
* Telephoto lens is essential for wild life photography when you are concerned about your life or your object is concerned about its life
* Even minor shakes can spoil the image at the tele end and a fast shutter is very essential if a tripod is not used.
* You can capture the images of the things at inaccessible locations
*Very much useful in activities happening in a street from a vantage point
* In the field of sports

#
A tele photo lens helps to capture wildlives without frightening them



A telephoto lens compresses fields to give a thick packed look



Tele end of a tele photo gives good close ups

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Three Point Lighting: This is the basic studio lighting for portraiture comprising of key light, fill light and back light(rim light). These three terms are discussed under their respective headings.
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Under Exposure:This suggests the image captured is devoid of required lighting to illuminate the scene fully. It can happen when original situation may have only low light, that is the ambient light is low. A wider aperture, a slow shutter or high ISO are the remedies with their own merits and demerits.

Not sure about this, but under exposing is a creative tool

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View Point: This is the position of your camera with respect to the object focused on. The type of lens -like tele or wide- and the view point together results in various perspective.

Selecting the best view point is very important to get the Best out of it

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Vignetting:This is the phenomena by which an image develops a frame of shade around it. This shade may be either with a sharp boundary or a fade and merge type boundary. Cause of vignetting can be mechanical like some coatings on filters used or a lens-hood that hinders the path of light entering the lens. If the multi-coated lens element is the cause of vignetting, it is called optical vignetting. light beams may diffuse with increasing distance from the center of the light stem; if that is the cause, it is named natural vignetting. Even how the light falls on the sensor pixel can be a root cause for vignetting; if light falls at an inclination, that may lead to vignetting, which is called pixel vignetting
Vignetting has some artistic values too. Sometime it is added to the photo during post processing.

 

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White Balance:If white color appears as proper white in an image, all other colors would appear in their own colors. Further color variation is most easily detected on white. A tint of blue or yellow or green is easily understood on white. So if that is corrected all other colors will be genuine. So white balance to some extend is Color Balance too.
In Nature we have different light sources shedding lights of different tints. For instance incandescent lamps shed yellow tinted light, fluorescent lamps shed bluish light etc. In such lights a white body acquire yellow and blue respectively. White balancing is done to remove all such color shades which has affected not only whites, but the whole image, so that we get the image as if illuminated in white light only. Of course some may taste the bluish or yellowish tint and prefer to retain them. Let us don't irritate them
In all modern cameras we have predetermined white balance modes to be opted directly. For instance if an image is captured in incandescent light, we can opt "tungsten" where by the yellow color cast is nullified by appropriate enhancement of its complementary color blue( combination of a pair of complementary colors generates white light). Fine tuning of colors can be done in softwares like photoshop
If there are some true white object in the frame and camera is chosen to work in auto white balance, its programmed intelligence will make that white as reference and automatically adjust its color readings to reproduce them with near exactness.



A wrong white balance sometimes give wonderful results and some times go disastrous(as above)

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Wide Angle Lens: A lens having focal length lesser than that of a normal lens, where by having a greater angle of view. The focal length of a wide angle lens ranges between (35-24)mm.Ultra wide lens have focal range (8-16)mm. Some of them produce rectilinear images where as some produce circular images. Super ultra wide angles in the range (6-8)mm are also there which always give circular images. Lenses generating circular images are called fish eye lenses.(All focal length values are with respect to 35mm full frame sensors. To get the corresponding angle of view in normal DSLR cameras lens of smaller focal lengths need be used; This focal length values are obtained by dividing with the crop factor values.For Nikon and Canon DSLRs, the crop factors are generally 1.5 and 1.6 respectively. Thus to get the same angle of view from a full frame camera using 40mm focal length, the focal length required in a Nikon DSLR will be 40/1.5 =26.7mm
Wide angle lenses have the following applications/specialties;
* It covers greater angle of view
*Depth of field is exaggerated
* Images closer are enlarged where as images at the back are diminished creating the feeling of larger distance between them
* If closer images are more towards the end of the frame, they suffer greater distortion
* Suitable for wide landscapes
*Suitable to capture large gatherings of people at a place
*In creative exaggeration of a thing or a being



A smaller focal length(18mm) helps to cover a wider angle; it also exaggerates the objects near the camera



A kit lens's (18-55) wide end can give good wide angled images...

 

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X-Ray Photography:This, called Radiography used to take the Beauty not of your face, but of your bones . X-rays belong to the electromagnetic spectrum, of which visible spectrum is a small range. Human eyes are tuned to see only a small part of the whole spectrum, which we call the visible spectrum. On either side of it is spread the wide range of invisible spectrum. X rays are seen beyond violet, even beyond ultraviolet with high energy. For convenience x-rays are sub divided into hard and soft. The hard x-rays which comparatively high energy is used in medical studies. Hard x-rays can pass through human flesh, but cannot traverse bone. So when x-rays are passed through human body part and when the emerging rays are made fall on x-ray film, it creates the shadows of bone there in. Where through x-rays pass the silver bromide decompose there depositing black silver. But on the in the shadow regions of bone silver bromide remains un-decomposed. This un-decomposed . silver bromide is later washed out. So we get the x-ray negative which shows the bone regions fairly white and flesh regions dark. Fractures in bone, skull etc appear dark. Even abnormal growths like tumors can be detected, as abnormal growth patterns. Modern scanning methods give much advanced information.

 

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Zoom: Zoom is a property of a lens by which the focal length can be continuously changed within certain range. It is achieved by the movement of a set of convex and concave lens, of which some are fixed and some can move forward and backward.
Some zoom lens retain the same focus through out the operation which are called parfocal lens where as some involve continued change of focus when focal legth is changed, which are called varifocal lens.


The zoom range is expressed as a ratio of highest focal length to lowest focal length. For instance if a zoom lens works in the range 100mm and 500mm, it is specified as (500/100 =) 5X zoom. The zoom achieved through the combined operation of lens groups it is called optical zoom. It retains resolution and quality of the image even on magnification. Conversely digital zoom is just stretching the image without any optical enhancement and so resolution is compromised, leading to a deterioration in the quality of the image. The process of increasing the focal length to enlarge the image is called zoom in where as retro process is called zoom out. zoom lens are very helpful In wild life photography and media photography where the area of activity is not always accessible. Zooming also helps to isolate an event from a multitude of happenings.
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Zoom Burst:This is a camera technique to create a feel of "Moving Towards". For this mount the camera on a tripod. Choose a slow shutter speed, something like 1/60 second. Since shutter is slow, must choose a small aperture or low light condition. Along with clicking, zoom in within the time span. The The image appears blurred radially outwards.
You can get the same effect in post processing in photoshop or by using certain filters dedicated for the same purpose.
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[KmH]

Don't stop there!

 

[Heitz]

I vote for this to become a permanent sticky.