Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice Terminology (P1, P2, M1, M2)Term Explanation of term e.g. what

it is used for / the effect it has on your images

Examples

Shutter Speed Shutter speed is basically how fast a camera can take a picture. It is effectively the length of time of exposure before the lens shuts. Examples of the uses of shutter speed are things like using slow shutter speeds to capture pictures of cars where the light stretches along the photo. An example of fast shutter speeds is the picture of a bubble popping and the picture is taken before the whole bubble is burst.

ISO ISO is the measuring of quality contrasted with the amount of light in the background. The lower the number of ISO the less sensitive the camera is to light therefore the higher the quality in a well-lit area. In a dark place a higher ISO produces a finer picture as shown on the picture.

Aperture & Depth of field (F stop)

Depth of field is the difference between a well-focused landscape shot and a shot of a flower with the background blurred out. A sharp picture would be referred to as having lots of depth of field, whereas one where the foreground or background is out of focus would be said to have limited depth of field. The main controlling factor of depth of field is the aperture; which is essentially the size of the gap that light can get through into the picture, the rule goes, the smaller the aperture the more depth of field in the picture.

Automatic ExposureAutomatic exposure is the cameras way of creating a few settings for the aperture and shutter speed that automatically set to a different amount of exposure

Manual Exposure Manual exposure is when the photographer chooses the settings on the shutter speed and the aperture to maintain a very specific amount of exposure. This can be harder to do but can show better results than automatic.

Colour Balance Colour balance is an effect that can be placed onto still images to lessen or strengthen certain colours in the image to give the picture a different look altogether.

Composition Composition is essentially the placement of the elements of a picture, how they are arranged in order to give the photo a specific look.

Rule of thirds The rule of thirds is a simple concept involving The picture being split into thirds both horizontally and vertically when the picture is taken, the important elements should be shown where the thirds meet. This is to make the picture look more interesting, full and give the shot a good composition.

Complementary Colours

The complementary colours rule applies to more then just photography, And is merely a style of photograph that can be chosen, not the strict method of capturing a good picture. The rule simply suggests that throughout the colour scale each colour has a different hue, almost the strength of the colour, each colour with the same hue would be complimentary, for example Red and green on the colour scale shown here.

Analogous colours Similar to Complimentary, the analogous colour rule is a method of photography that is best used with certain colours not all the time. The rule refers to certain colours that match, rather than being the same, one being the dominant colour (usually a primary or secondary colour) over the other colour.

Macro Macro Photography is essentially extreme close up photography. The term refers to when the image captured on the photo is either life-size or greater than the object itself. Macro photography is usually used on small objects to obtain a closer and more detailed look. There is also usually a specific mode on up to date cameras specifically for macrophotography, such as macro focus.