Part 4. Common Photography Terms & Meanings | S-Z

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our mini series on common photography terms.

S

Saturation – Relates to the intensity of colour in an image
Shutter Lag – Is the delay between the shutter being pressed and then firing
Shutter Speed – The shutter is in the camera and opens and closes to allow light in. A slow shutter speed allows more light in and a fast shutter speed allows less. A fast shutter speed ensures a frozen image whereas a slow shutter can be used to created motion blur
Speedlight – Also know as a flashgun that attaches to your camera
Spot Metering – A camera setting where the exposure is determined by only a small area of the frame. Other settings maybe Partial Metering, Evaluative Metering or Centre Weighted Metering
Stop – Is a change in exposure by half or double. E.G. If you reduce the shutter speed, aperture or ISO by 1 stop then you half the exposure

Telephoto Lens – A lens with a long focal length that brings a subject in the distance closure while narrowing the width of the shot
Tilt Shift Lens – A specialist lens often used in architecture to avoid parallel lines converging
TTL – Through The Lens. Where a speedlight uses the light entering the camera to calculate the strength of flash required

UV Filter – An ultraviolet filter placed over the front of the lens to reduce the amount of UV light entering the camera. Modern cameras tend to not suffer from UV light issues so a UV lens is now primarily used as a lens protector

Vibrance – A slider setting used to increase the amount of saturation but only in less saturated areas rather than the whole image
Vignetting – When the corners of an image become more or less bright. This can be caused by flaws in the lens or artistically in post-production

White Balance – A camera setting used to set the colour temperature of the photo
Wide Angle Lens – A lens that has a wide angle of view, often used in landscape photography or close-up shots where the environment is also captured