Saturday 7 January 2017

Camera Terminology Explained Series, Part 3 (E-H)


Exposure

Exposure is the amount of light you let into the camera that is read by the image sensor.  Exposure is controlled by a combination of aperture (how wide the lens is open determined by f/stop) and shutter speed (the amount of time the shutter is open).

Over Exposure is when you’ve let too much light in to the camera for the scene and the image will appear too light, looking washed out with little color or definition.

Under Exposure is when you’ve not let enough light in to the camera for the scene and the image will appear too dark.


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F/stop

The f/stop determines the size of the opening of the lens (aperture).  A small f/stop number such as f/2.8 indicates a wide aperture, whereas a high f/stop number such as f/22 indicates a small aperture.

A small f/stop number (wide aperture) gives you a shallower depth of field, whereas a high f/stop number (small aperture) gives you a longer distance depth of field.


Field of View (FOV)

The Field of View is the area that can be seen by a lens’ angle of view.


Filters

Filters are camera accessories that can be clipped or screwed on to the front of a lens to help modify the captured images.  There are many different types of filters, some are used to enhance or make subtle changes to the photographs you take, while other filters give special effects to make you pictures really different.

Filters can help to create more natural colors, enhance the contrast of photos, soften images, remove haze, and so much more.

For more details on camera filters, read our article on the Top Most Popular Camera Filters Explained.


Focal Length

The Focal Length is described as the size of the lens, e.g. 28mm, 50mm, 90mm and so on.  Lenses can be described as fixed-focal-length lenses, wide-angle lenses, telephoto lenses, zoom lenses, macro lenses.

Typically, a 50mm lens is the most common lens found on an SLR or DSLR camera.  50mm lenses are most popular because they are said to mimic very closely what the human eye can see.  Because of this, a 50mm lens is the best lens to have for everyday use.   This fixed-focal-length lens is a nice size, not too big or heavy, and will produce good quality pictures.

Focal lengths of zoom lenses are described in terms of ratio, e.g.  3x denotes a 35-105 lens, 10x denotes a  38-380mm lens.

For more details on lenses, read our article on the Different Types of Camera Lenses Explained.


Histogram

If your camera has a histogram display, you can check the graph to identify the dynamic range of an image, which will help you to determine whether your image has been exposed properly.  This will help you determine the brightness, dark and light areas of your pictures, contrast, tonal range etc.

The graph displays the tones from black on the left through to white on the right.  The higher points on the graph indicate more pixels of that particular tone are present in the image.

A histogram with lots of dark tones will be bunched to left, while a histogram with lots of light tones will be bunched to the right.

An over-exposed shot will be bunched to the right, giving a washed out look to your picture, while an under-exposed shot will be bunched to the left, giving a dark look to your picture.

Checking the histogram straight after taking a photo, allows you to re-adjust settings and take another picture if you need to.

There’s no such thing as a perfect histogram, but generally speaking you want to aim for an even spread of tones to produce a balanced picture (and, of course, depending on the effect you are aiming for).  A good exposed picture will have a histogram where the graph peaks somewhere in the middle, then evens out and tapers off towards each end of the graph.


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Further reading/articles in the Camera Terminology Explained Series:

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