Breaking Down Photography Slang

Just like any other industry, photography has its own jargon that might not make sense to those who are not familiar with it. In today's post I will be explaining ten popular terms of photography slang with the hope that when you talk to friends who are photographers or work with one yourself, you will be able to follow the conversation.

1. "Shoot"

I say this first term all the time. It's an abbreviation of the word "photoshoot", and to me, it's a different way to describe the action of taking photos. Instead of saying "I'm going to go take pictures", I say "I'm going to do a shoot." Or if I'm working with a friend, it'll be "Let's go shoot."

2. Edit

For most people, editing an image means changing its properties to make it look better. If I say to someone, "I'm going to go edit pictures.", that's what they will probably think of. On the contrary, this semester I learned that editing is actually something different. In the commercial photography world, making an edit means narrowing down images from a photoshoot to a few selects to present to a client. Now, when I make an edit, I'm taking away all the blurry, badly framed photos or ones where my subject has their eyes closed or is making a weird face.

3. Retouch

Now, on to what retouching means for me. I have learned that "editing" and "retouching" are not interchangeable in the commercial photography world. When I retouch, it is probably closer to most people's definition of editing. Retouching is what I do after I make the edit, I will take the selects into photoshop and do any retouching that might be needed, like removing small blemishes or adjusting color.

4. Aperture

I have a few terms that are on the more technical side of photography, so if you're a beginner jumping in, hopefully these will help! Aperture refers to the size that your camera's lens opens to when you take a picture. A larger opening lets in more light and a smaller opening lets in less light. Large apertures are given smaller numbers and small apertures have bigger numbers (F2.8 versus f22, for example). A large aperture will give you a large depth of field, aka a fuzzy foreground or background, and a small one will give you a sharp photo.

5. ISO

The ISO setting in your camera measures how sensitive your image sensor is. A low ISO is 100 or 200, and a high ISO is considered anything over 400 or 600. Most photographers will avoid high ISOs because at a higher sensitivity, more noise and grain can get into your photos. ISO goes hand in hand with aperture and shutter speed to determine the quality of your photos, but for most situations you can leave your ISO low and not have any problems.

6. Shutter Speed

Shutter speed refers to how quickly your camera captures an image. A photographer working with a professional sports team will use a fast shutter speed like 1/1000 of a second to freeze their motion. Slow shutter speeds like .5 of a second or even a second or more will blur motion because more light is being let into the camera.

This image was captured using a slow shutter speed

7. RAW

RAW refers to a file type that photographers work with, like JPGs or PNGs. A camera can capture RAW files and that basically means that when you put those in an image processor like Lightroom or Photoshop, you will have more control over the data in your image. A RAW file means you will have more freedom when changing exposure, highlights, or shadows.

8. Glass

When a photographer is talking about glass, they are talking about lenses. "High-quality glass" means a high-quality lens. "Where did you get that glass?" means "Where did you get that lens?"

9. Bokeh

Bokeh refers to a lighting effect you get when using a large aperture. A large aperture will blur your background, so light sources will look fuzzy and indistinct. Some photographers love it, others hate it.

10. Golden Hour

This term refers to a specific time of day photographers like to shoot at. It's called golden hour because the sun is either rising or setting, and the light has a really beautiful golden quality to it that you cannot get in the middle of the day.

You all have seen this image before, but I took this during the morning golden hour

Those are the terms I have for you all, I hope this has been helpful! Are there any other photography terms that you don't understand that I didn't cover? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

xx,Hannah