Photography Glossary

88 photography terms explained in plain English, with links to the calculators and guides where you'll use them.

5

• 500 rule

A

• Alpenglow
• Angle of view
• Aperture
• APS-C
• Astronomical twilight
• Aurora
• Azimuth

B

• Backlight
• Blue hour
• Bokeh
• Bortle scale
• Bracketing
• Bulb mode

C

• Circle of confusion
• Circular polarizer
• Civil twilight
• Composite
• Crop factor

D

• Dark frame
• Declination
• Depth of field
• Diffraction
• Dynamic range

E

• Equinox
• Equivalent focal length
• Exposure blending
• Exposure triangle
• Exposure value (EV)

F

• Field of view
• Filter factor
• Focal length
• Focus bracketing
• Focus stacking
• Full frame

G

• Galactic core
• Geomagnetic latitude
• Golden hour
• Graduated ND filter

H

• HDR
• Histogram
• Hyperfocal distance

I

• Intentional camera movement (ICM)
• Intervalometer
• ISO

K

• Kaleidoscope (photography)
• Kp index

L

• Leading lines
• Light pollution
• Long exposure
• Luminosity mask

M

• Macro photography
• Meteor shower
• Micro Four Thirds
• Milky Way season
• Moonrise

N

• Nautical twilight
• ND filter
• New moon
• Noise
• NPF rule

O

• Optical density

P

• Panorama
• Pixel pitch
• Prime lens

R

• Radiant
• RAW
• Reciprocity
• Rule of thirds

S

• Sensor size
• Shutter count
• Shutter speed
• Side-light
• Silhouette
• Solstice
• SQM
• Star tracker
• Star trails
• Stop
• Sun path

T

• Telephoto compression
• Time-lapse
• Tripod

U

• Ultra-wide lens

V

• Vignetting

W

• White balance

Z

• Zenithal hourly rate (ZHR)
• Zoom lens