Photographic Terminology

Emily Davis

Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice TerminologyP1, P2, M1, M2

Shutter Speed

• This is how long the cameras shutter stays open when you take a picture. If the shutter speed is slow you will get it can cause over exposure, but it makes the image more blurred into each other to make it smoother looking. Fast shutter speed captures everything and makes it look as close to real life as it can be.

Slow shutter speed

Fast shutter speed

ISO• This setting on a

camera has the same functions as an older camera. It determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light. It’s chosen so that wherever you are you can choose the right amount of light you need in each shot. In this picture the people are made to look like silhouettes and then the part of the image the photographer wants to capture stands out because of the ISO setting sorting the right light needed to capture it.

Aperture & Depth of Field

• This is how large the iris or the eye of your camera lens opens up. The larger it is the more light that gets through. Depth of field is how much area away from your camera is in focus. It either makes things in the background blurred so it can focus on the foreground or makes if it’s a larger depth of field can bring everything into perfect focus.

Manual Exposure

• This is where you’re in charge; most professionals use this though because they want a certain exact settings for each shot. This is a way to learn all the settings yourself rather than relying on the camera to do it for you. You use this if your somewhere that the automatic setting wouldn’t be able to get the right settings for. This makes your pictures more unique to you.

Automatic Exposure• This is where the camera

chooses the right settings for scene you want to capture rather than you having to choose them yourself. Automatic settings set both lens and shutter speed. Like in this picture on the left the exposure of it is dull and makes the picture look lifeless. Whereas when the camera gets the settings right it can make it look like its been taking on a different day in a different place. Everything colour in the picture becomes more defined, especially the yellow.

Colour Balance• This is about getting

the right amount of each of the three colours used (red, blue and green). It changes the overall mixture of colours in the image. Colour balance doesn’t just effect the neutrals though, it changes the image to a mix instead of the normal picture which just shifts to one colour more.

This picture shows the original which is more blue.

However in this picture the three colours have mixed and made the flower brighter and balanced.

White Balance• White balance is the process

of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the colour temperature of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light in an image. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often cant adjust to auto white balance and can create blue, orange, or even green colour casts.

Colour contrast

Daylight white balance

Composition• This is an organized

method. It’s to make sure you have good positioning of the subject. It makes sure it leaves out everything irrelevant. It accentuates the main subject and organizes all the elements in the shot. It basically means everything in the shot. The composition in this picture is that there are rocks floating in the air and we see their shadows on the ground. There are clouds in the sky and the sky is light blue. Composition is what's in the picture.

Rule of thirds• It’s where you divide your shot

into lines two equally spaced horizontal and two equally spaced vertical lines. Then if you put your subject on one of the spaces where the lines cross your shot will be more interesting and dynamic. Most picture showing this have three layers visible on the picture for example sky trees and then ground. Each layer goes in to each rectangle in each third. Like in this picture we see the photo split up, the little girl then the back of her dress and the sun and then the rest of the sea clouds and sky in the last third.

Examples of Rule of thirds

Analogous colours

• Analogous colour schemes use colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. They usually match well and blend together.

• They are often found in nature and are harmonious.

• Make sure you have enough contrast when choosing an analogous colour scheme.

• The first colour is to dominate, the second to support. The third colour is used along with black, white or grey as an accent.

Complementary Colours

• This style of photography shows to different colours that are very dominant but work together. For example like flowers and nature they shouldn’t go together but nature makes them look good, like the green stems with the bright flowers on the ends.

Macro• This is extremely close up

photography. Usually of very small objects or insects mostly. It shows the definition up close. The object looks a lot bigger in the photo than in real life. Its not just close up photography though its about the ratio of the object showing the relationship between the actual size of the object and it on camera. It can go from life size to ten times bigger.