Digital Photography 1 Final Study Guide

Flashcards covering digital photography fundamentals including camera settings, Photoshop tools, lighting types, and portraiture techniques.

Aperture

The opening within a lens that controls the amount of light reaching the sensor and influences depth of field.

Shutter Speed

The length of time the camera's shutter remains open to expose the sensor to light.

ISO

The level of sensitivity of your camera's sensor to available light.

AI Servo

A focus mode used to track moving subjects by continuously adjusting focus while the shutter button is held halfway.

White Balance

A setting that adjusts how the camera captures colors to ensure white objects appear white regardless of the temperature of the light source.

Digital Noise

Visual distortion or graininess in an image, typically occurring at high ISO levels.

Depth of Field

The distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image.

RAW

A file format containing all the unprocessed data captured by the camera sensor, providing high flexibility in post-processing.

JPEG

A standard compressed image format that processes data in-camera for immediate use.

Histogram

A graphical representation of the distribution of light and dark pixels in an image.

Rule of Thirds

A composition technique where an image is divided into a $3 \times 3$ grid, placing the subject along the lines or at the intersections.

SLR

Single-Lens Reflex; a camera design that uses a mirror and prism system to let the photographer see exactly what the lens sees.

Layers

In Photoshop, these are individual planes stacked on top of each other, allowing for non-destructive editing of separate elements.

Dodge & Burn

Tools or techniques used to selectively lighten (dodge) or darken (burn) specific areas of an image.

Layer Mask

A non-destructive tool used to hide or reveal parts of a specific layer in Photoshop.

Clone Stamp

A Photoshop tool used to paint one part of an image over another part by sampling specific pixels.

Blending Modes

Photoshop settings that determine how two layers interact and merge based on their color and luminosity values.

Paint Brush

A flexible Photoshop tool used to apply color, masks, or edits to a canvas with various sizes and hardness.

Adjustment Layer

A special type of layer that applies color and tonal changes to the layers beneath it without permanently altering the original image pixels.

Bridge

An Adobe software application used for viewing, organizing, and managing digital assets and media files.

Spot Healing Brush

A Photoshop tool designed to quickly remove blemishes or unwanted spots by sampling the surrounding texture and lighting.

High Pass sharpening

A technique using the High Pass filter to emphasize edges and details to make an image appear sharper.

Hard Light

Light that creates distinct, well-defined shadows with high contrast between highlights and dark areas.

Soft Light

Diffused light that wraps around objects, creating subtle transitions and gentle shadows.

Back Light

A lighting setup where the primary light source is positioned behind the subject, often creating a rim or silhouette effect.

Flat Light

Lighting that provides even illumination with Minimal contrast and very few shadows.

Traditional Portrait

A portrait style focusing primarily on the face and expression of the subject, usually against a simple backdrop.

Environmental Portrait

A portrait that depicts a person in their natural surroundings (work, home, etc.) to give context to their personality or life.

Light Painting

A photographic technique where exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long-exposure photograph.

Panning

Moving the camera horizontally to follow a moving subject, resulting in a sharp subject and a motion-blurred background.

Frozen Motion

The use of a fast shutter speed to capture a moving subject with no visible blur.

Motion Blur

The visual streaking of a moving object or the background, caused by a slow shutter speed during exposure.