Fundamental Photography Jargon

When taking a moment out of your day to do a little phone scrolling, chances are, you are looking at a photograph.

(Is it too soon to look up Christmas tablescapes?)

Social media is king for this kind of visual medium, but even if you are reading an article, a photograph will probably be involved in one way or another. From holiday decoration ideas, cute kitties, to the latest headlines, photography will be there.

Photos are something we devour daily, yet the jargon may remain a mystery. To shed some light, here are some basic terms to help build a foundation of photography knowledge.

The size of the lens opening on your camera, which determines how much light is passed through, is called the aperture. Aperture can be used to control the exposure, or brightness, of your subject, as well as the depth of field in your photo. A higher aperture, meaning the lens smaller (convoluted, I know), will keep everything in the photo sharp. A lower aperture, with a bigger lens opening, will keep the foreground sharp and blur out the background of your photo. Just with aperture alone we can control a lot about a photo.

The range of what is in focus in the photo is called depth of field. This range can vary, depending on the aperture setting, distance from your subject, and focal length of the lens. There are some photos that are crystal-clear from foreground to background — a wide depth of field — but many have a shallow depth of field by keeping a small plane sharp as a focal point for our eye.

The speed in which the camera lens opens and closes is called the shutter speed. If the subject is moving, this setting is especially important. Naturally, a fast shutter speed produces a sharp photo, while a slow shutter speed (or long exposure) creates motion blur. Motion blur can be used artistically, but for photographers looking to capture fast subjects clearly, like athletes or wild animals, a fast shutter speed is crucial.

To some, ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, but here in photography ISO defines the setting that will either lighten or darken a photo. There is a cost for this, however. As the ISO values get higher and as the photo gets brighter, there is a higher chance of noise, which may leave the photo unusable. Too much noise — also called grain — creates fuzzy surfaces and blotchy colors if left uncorrected. A higher ISO does combat motion blur (as discussed above), so those wildlife photographers get extra brownie points when making a clear photo of a bird in flight.

The camera sensor’s ability to keep the brightest parts of the photo from “blowing out” and the darkest from turning into black pits of nothing is called dynamic range. Some cameras (like in your smartphone) have a very limited dynamic range — when looking up at a tree during the day, the sky will appear white instead of blue, and the tree itself appear black instead of brown — while professional cameras give a wider range of color and detail from their wide dynamic range.

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