Common photography terms

If you want to take good photos, basic knowledge is very important. Take ten minutes to understand common photography terms!

White balance

White balance is a function that ensures that objects are photographed in their true colors. In addition to the automatic white balance function that is automatically judged and adjusted by the camera, digital cameras also provide preset white balance modes such as sunny day and incandescent light, as well as manual white balance modes that can be adjusted by the photographer.

Dynamic range

Dynamic range is the range of "grayscale" that represents the photo shooting information from the minimum brightness (darkest part) to the maximum brightness (brightest part). If the dynamic range is large, rich gray levels can be displayed even if there is a certain degree of over or under exposure. On the contrary, if the dynamic range is small, even a slight over or under exposure will cause the image information to be lost. Therefore, we can think of this word as a performance term indicating the extent to which we can take photos that avoid dead white and dead black.

The difference in dynamic range is directly related to the brightness range that the photo can express. For example, when photographing objects with strong contrast, if the dynamic range is large, you can take photos with good light and dark balance and rich grayscale performance; if the dynamic range is small, you will take photos with too strong contrast and monotonous grayscale performance. .

In addition, the dynamic range of digital SLR cameras also has subtle differences depending on the model. Therefore, even if the exposure is the same, there will be some differences in the grayscale information obtained.

Resolution

Digital camera photos are composed of countless "pixels" arranged. The so-called "resolution" is the setting of the arrangement of these pixels. The higher the resolution, which means the more pixels the camera has, the clearer the picture will generally be.

Sensitivity

Sensitivity is a concept retained from the film era. In the film era, it represented the film's sensitivity to light. In the digital camera era, sensitivity represented the image sensor. Sensitivity to light. Sensitivity is expressed as ISO plus a number. The higher the number, the higher the sensitivity and the more sensitive the image sensor is to light. It should be noted that according to the imaging principle of digital cameras, the higher the sensitivity, the more noise the photo will have and the worse the image quality will be.

RAW format

RAW format can store the data captured by a digital SLR camera without image processing. This is the equivalent of film in a film camera that has been shot but not developed. RAW data preserves the rich image information recorded by the photosensitive element, allowing for larger-scale processing of the image in the later stage.

Color saturation

Color saturation actually refers to the purity of the color. The higher the purity, the more vivid the performance. The lower the purity, the darker the performance.

Macro lens

A macro lens is a special lens used for macro photography. It is mainly used to shoot very small objects, such as flowers, insects, etc.

Guide index

The guide index is a numerical value that indicates the amount of light emitted by the flash (light intensity). The larger the number, the farther the flash can shine. Moreover, the reach distance of the flash light can be calculated by using the flash index value, F value (aperture), and ISO sensitivity. If "GN" is used to represent the flash index and "F" is used to represent the aperture, then the calculation formula is as follows (unit meter): Reaching distance = GN÷F×ISO/100. In most cases, the flash of a digital SLR camera automatically adjusts its output power, so few people are aware of the existence of the guide number.