What are the basic terms of photography? Analysis of ten basic terms of photography.

Do you really know anything about photography? Someone once said an incisive language: the photographer's ability is to transform the fleeting ordinary things in daily life into immortal visual images. Nowadays, with the improvement of people's living standards, more and more people have SLR, but many people are just taking pictures and don't really understand photography. Next, this article will analyze ten basic photography terms for you.

Keywords 1: Half-press the shutter

I believe that everyone who has used a camera knows that he wants to take a picture and press the shutter, but not everyone knows the mystery of this seemingly simple shutter action. When pressing the shutter, it is usually divided into half-pressing the shutter and full-pressing the shutter, which are essentially different.

Half-pressing the shutter is the most basic operation function of a digital camera. When we slowly press the shutter, our fingers will feel obviously blocked when we press it halfway. At this time, the shutter has not been released, which means we haven't taken pictures yet. This is called half-pressing the shutter. Only when we press the shutter to the bottom and hear a click can we take pictures. At this time, it is called to press the shutter completely.

Step 1: Focus by half pressing the shutter.

Step 2: Move the picture and re-compose it.

Then why divide the simple shutter pressing into two steps? Simply put, all cameras need to focus before shooting. Although the camera is smart now, it is not smart enough to guess what we are going to shoot. If the shooting target is wrong, the shooting subject will be unclear. Therefore, when we half press the shutter, we actually turn on the autofocus function of the camera. At this time, the camera will set the aperture and shutter of the object in the focus area of the viewfinder, and start autofocus. If we keep the shutter at half, the camera will lock these settings until you press the shutter. So setting the aperture size, shutter speed and focusing are all done when the shutter is half pressed, which is the main function of the shutter half pressed.

Bottom line: Half press the shutter to focus, and all press the shutter to finish shooting.

Keyword 2: Focus

As mentioned above, the purpose of half-pressing the shutter is to focus, so what is focusing? If the camera in our hands is compared to the human eye, then when the human eye wants to observe an object, the first thing it needs to do is to concentrate. This process of concentration is focusing. In other words, focusing is the process of making the subject clear.

For professional digital SLR cameras, focusing is mainly divided into two types, one is manual focusing (MF) and the other is automatic focusing (AF). Needless to say, the user only needs to turn the focus ring on the lens. Generally speaking, unless you are an experienced photographer or shoot works on a specific subject, few people will try to focus manually. In contrast, autofocus is a very practical function. The camera will focus itself according to the focus we set, and the focusing speed is also quite fast.

Of course, according to the different needs of different users, autofocus is also divided into many types, the most common of which are the following three categories. Single autofocus, continuous autofocus, artificial intelligence autofocus (different brands of cameras may have different names). Single autofocus means that the camera only focuses once when the shutter is half pressed. Once the focus is completed, as long as the shutter is half pressed, the focus will always be locked. At this point, the user can make a second composition at will without destroying the clarity of the focus.

Different from single autofocus, continuous autofocus system continues to work after the processor thinks that the focus is accurate, and does not lock the focus. Its purpose is that when the subject moves, the autofocus system can drive the lens to adjust in real time according to the change of focus, so that the subject can always keep clear. Of course, the camera's focus frame should also be aimed at the subject in real time, so you don't have to worry about the subject's inaccurate focus if you press the shutter completely.

Finally, artificial intelligence autofocus actually combines the advantages of single focus and continuous focus, which is more suitable for use in scenes with changing subjects. When the subject is stationary, it is a single autofocus; When the subject moves continuously, it is continuous autofocus. Because the switching work is done by the processor, we just need to press the shutter.

Bottom line: The point is to make the theme clear.

Keyword 3: focal length

For beginners of photography, it is easy to confuse focusing with focusing. Focusing is the process of making the subject clear, and focusing is to change the viewing angle range of the camera by adjusting the focal length of the lens. The focal length is directly related to the lens. What kind of lens you buy determines what kind of focal length you have.

We usually say 18-200mm and 18-55mm refer to the focal length of the lens. The focal length of zoom lens can be changed, while the focal length of fixed-focus lens is fixed. Next, the author will show you the difference of different focal lengths through a set of real-life pictures.

You can simply understand that the smaller the focal length, the wider the viewing angle, which is more suitable for shooting scenes with close distance and large range. The larger the focal length, the narrower the viewing angle range, which is more suitable for shooting distant scenes.

When it comes to focal length, we have to mention an equivalent focal length and focal length conversion coefficient. 18-55mm and 18-200mm refer to the focal length of the lens, but in actual shooting, the same lens is installed on different cameras, and the visual effect may be different. This is caused by the different sizes of photosensitive elements in different cameras.

On the high-end Quan Huafu SLR camera, the equivalent focal length is equal to the actual focal length, and the conversion coefficient between them is 1. On the entry-level APS-C SLR camera, the conversion coefficient is not equal to 1, but 1.5. That is to say, when the focal length of the lens is 70mm, the equivalent focal length of the full-frame camera is 70mm, while the actual focal length of the APS-C camera is 701.5 =105 mm. Therefore, the APS-C camera has certain advantages in telephoto photography.

Bottom line: the lens determines the focal length. The smaller the focal length, the wider the viewing angle, the larger the focal length and the better the distance.

Keyword 4: viewfinder

Many SLR users are still accustomed to using the screen viewing method of the previous card camera when they first get the camera, staring blankly at the dark display screen, expecting the picture when shooting to be displayed on it. In fact, in SLR cameras, few people still use the screen to take pictures, and most people use the optical viewfinder to take pictures.

As the name implies, the optical viewfinder is the composition of the viewing range observed by the human eye through a set of optical mechanisms on the camera. This is to ensure that when the player takes a view, the picture he sees is exactly the same as the picture he will shoot. Almost all SLR cameras use this framing structure, usually directly above the screen. So, what other functions does the viewfinder have besides framing? In fact, for a senior photographer, you can also observe most of the parameter settings closely related to shooting through it.

An excellent photographer can complete his artistic creation only by the parameters such as the aperture of the camera, shutter time, exposure prompt, the number of remaining lenses in the camera, focusing and so on. So, the next time you take a picture with a SLR, don't take a picture with the screen, so as not to fall into an unprofessional reputation.

Bottom line: Professional photographers use an optical viewfinder.

Keyword 5: Sensitive

If you often wander around major photography forums, then the word sensitivity must be familiar to you. Sensitivity comes from traditional film, and its quantization mark is ISO. When there is no digital camera, photographers should choose suitable films according to different shooting environments. For example, ISO 100 can be used in sunny environment, ISO200 can be used in cloudy environment, and ISO400 or higher sensitivity can be used in dark environment such as stage and concert.

In the era of digital cameras, although we used CMOS or CCD instead of traditional film, the concept of ISO remained. We still use ISO to express the sensitivity of camera photosensitive elements. Sensitivity ISO is generally divided into these grades in cameras: ISO 100, ISO200, ISO400, ISO800, ISO 1600, ISO3600, etc. Some cameras can also be set to 1/2 or 1/3.

In digital cameras, sensitivity represents the sensitivity of photosensitive elements to light intensity. The higher the ISO setting, the more sensitive the photosensitive element is to light. In the same aperture and shutter environment, the brighter the photo effect. Usually shooting in a dark environment, we all need to increase the sensitivity of the camera.

But blindly improving sensitivity will also have some side effects, which is what we usually call noise. Noise refers to foreign pixels that should not appear in the picture, which will destroy the purity of our photos and reduce the quality of the picture.

It is precisely because high ISO has two sides, so try to choose the appropriate ISO value when taking pictures, rather than the higher the ISO, the better. Generally speaking, in a sunny environment, you should try to set the camera ISO at the lowest level, because the camera quality is the best when shooting with the lowest ISO. When taking pictures on cloudy days or indoors, you can appropriately improve the camera ISO to ensure the brightness of the picture. If you really can't grasp it well, choose automatic ISO and leave the task of adjusting ISO to the camera.

To sum up: the light is strong, so the sensitivity is reduced; Dim light, improve sensitivity.

Keyword 6: White Balance

Although the word WhiteBalance is not a hot word, it is necessary for beginners to understand it. The basic concept of white balance is that white objects can be restored to white under any light source. This involves some knowledge of chromatics.

White refers to the visual response of light reflected to human eyes because of the same proportion of blue, green and red light and a certain brightness. Generally speaking, white is the brightness without color components, and the ratio of red, green and blue of its reflected light is the same.

There is almost no such concept in traditional photography. At that time, color filters were used for color correction. However, digital cameras do not rely on changing color filters to adjust color temperature, but use circuits to change the gain of electrical signals generated by different colors of light. There are three CMOS electronic coupling elements in the camera, which feel blue, green and red light respectively. By default, the electronic magnifications of these three photosensitive circuits are the same, which are all 1: 1: 1. The adjustment of white balance changes this ratio according to the adjusted scenery. For example, the ratio of blue, green and red light in the adjusted scene is 2: 1: 1 (blue light is more and color temperature is higher), then the white balance adjustment ratio is 1: 2: 2, and the obvious blue ratio in the adjusted circuit amplification ratio is reduced, while the ratio of green and red is increased, so that the adjusted scene is photographed by the white balance adjustment circuit.

General cameras have built-in white balance setting options, including automatic white balance, sunshine, shadow, cloudy day, tungsten lamp, fluorescent lamp, flash and customization. We can choose the white balance option suitable for the current photo environment. Of course, the built-in white balance setting of the camera may not be comprehensive. In some complicated light environment, we can also use custom white balance, which requires some white balance correction tools. Common white balance tools include white balance card, white balance mirror and white balance filter.

Bottom line: In order to determine the overall color of the screen, it is usually set to automatic.

Keyword 7: Aperture

Among all photographers, the frequency of aperture is absolutely the highest. The aperture is actually a component inside the lens, and its function is to control the amount of light entering the lens. Generally speaking, the common aperture values are: f 1.0, f 1.4, f2.0, f2.8, f4.0, f5.6, f8.0, f16, f22 and f32. We can illustrate the relationship between the aperture of different values and its aperture size through a simple schematic diagram.

It is worth mentioning here that the smaller the f value of the aperture, the larger the aperture, and the more light entering in the same unit time. Similarly, the larger the aperture f is, the smaller the aperture will be, and the less light will enter in the same unit time. And the amount of light entering the upper level is exactly twice that of the lower level. For example, if the aperture is adjusted from F8 to 5.6, the amount of light entering will be doubled. We also say that the aperture is enlarged by one level, and the light input of F5.6 is twice that of F8. Similarly, F2 is 16 times the luminous flux of F8. When F8 is adjusted to F2, the aperture is enlarged by four levels. 、

Aperture has two functions in photography, one is to control the amount of light entering the camera, and the other is to control the depth of field of the photo. The larger the aperture, the deeper the depth of field, and the stronger the blurring ability of the background.

The size of the aperture depends on the lens, which is one of the most important parameters of the lens. It shows the ability of the lens to receive light and can play an active role in controlling the depth of field. The value of aperture can also be seen from the price of lens. A 50mm lens with the maximum aperture F 1.8 costs only a few hundred yuan, 50mmF 1.4 costs more than 2,000 yuan, and Canon's 50mmF 1.2L is close to15,000 yuan.

Bottom line: The larger the aperture, the more obvious the background blur; The aperture is bigger and the price doubles.

Keyword 8: Shutter

When we say shutter here, we don't mean the button on the top of the camera to take pictures. Usually the shutter in the photographer's mouth refers to the shutter time. Shutter time, as its name implies, refers to the shooting time used by a single shutter. In particular, the shutter time of the camera is not determined by the speed of pressing the shutter by hand, but needs to be set in the shooting menu of the camera.

The speed of the shutter is in seconds. Common shutter speeds are:11/21/41/81151/301/60/kloc. Under the same aperture, the shorter the shutter time, the less light entering and the darker the picture. Similarly, the longer the shutter time, the more light enters and the brighter the picture.

Of course, the role of the shutter is not limited to this. In addition to controlling the amount of light, different shutter speeds can also make our photos show different effects. High-speed shutter is generally used to capture the instantaneous beauty of objects. For example, we need to use high-speed shutter when shooting some fleeting pictures or shooting fast-moving objects.

The lower shutter speed allows us to capture the beauty of this process. When you want to shoot the traffic at night, the shutter time will be longer, and the silky water flow effect in ordinary photos can only be photographed with a slow shutter. Shutter time can be manually adjusted to a long time, sometimes even up to several hours.

Bottom line: the subject matter determines the shutter speed, and the grip will be weak for 1/30 seconds or less.

Keyword 9: High-speed continuous shooting

Many novices are familiar with and unfamiliar with the word high-speed continuous shooting. Familiar because in every photography forum, many senior netizens express their views on this function, but unfamiliar because they have never used this function. All SLR cameras have the function of high-speed continuous shooting, and the only difference is the number of shots per second. For example, Nikon's high-end SLR D4 has a continuous shooting speed of 10 frames per second, while Canon's entry-level SLR 600D has only 3.7 frames per second. It should be noted that the high-speed continuous shooting speed is not determined by the speed of pressing the shutter by hand, but by the strength of the camera itself.

In the camera setting menu, there are options for shooting modes, such as single shooting, high-speed continuous shooting, remote shooting, delayed shooting, etc. Players can choose according to their own needs. When we choose the high-speed continuous shooting mode, the camera can take multiple photos in one second.

In single shot mode, no matter how long your finger stays on the shutter, you can only take one photo. When we choose high-speed continuous shooting, as long as we hold down the shutter, the camera will keep shooting until the memory of the camera is full. This function is often used to capture instantaneous scenes and avoid missing opportunities due to untimely shooting.

Bottom line: If you want to take a snapshot, use the high-speed continuous shooting.

Keywords 10: RAW format

Most beginners in photography have no impression of RAW (meat). Except for the photo format, a large number of files will appear in the memory card. In fact, RAW is also a picture format, and we can simply think of it as the negative of a digital camera.

RAW means raw materials or unprocessed things in Chinese. RAW file contains all the photo information of the original image file after the sensor is generated and before entering the camera image processor. It should be noted that the suffix of the image file taken after we set the photo to RAW format is not necessarily xxx. RAW, and RAW is just a general term for this unprocessed image. Each camera manufacturer will record the original data with different encoding methods, so the corresponding suffixes are different.

The advantage of RAW format is that it records all the information of the camera when shooting, and provides a broader post-processing space. For example, white balance, sharpness, saturation and other parameters can be fine-tuned in post-processing, and these adjustments will not damage the photo quality. From the file size, we can also see the difference between the two. For the same photo, the file size in RAW format is obviously much larger than that in JEPG format, and the difference between them is almost four times.

Usually, we can use the official software in the CD that comes with the camera to open and export files in RAW format, which is a better choice. Of course, if you have more than one brand of camera, you can also choose to use third-party application software to open RAW format files. Lightroom software developed by Adobe is recommended here. Of course, how to use these softwares is also a science, and there are many related tutorials online, so interested friends can learn by themselves.

Bottom line: Beginners don't have to use JPEG honestly.