GLOSSARY
before hitting your camera. Ex.- shooting outside on
E X P O S U R E : the amount of light let into your camera
H I G H L I G H T S : the brightest parts of your photograph
S H A D O W S : the darkest parts of your photograph
M I D T O N E S : all the tones in between the shadows
and highlights
T O N E S : the amount of lightness or darkness in
a certain part of a photo
C O N T R A S T: the difference in tones of the
highlights and shadows. High contrast means intense
blacks and whites, while low contrast means a lot
more grey tones.
WHITE BALANCE: the process of adjusting the
colors in an image so the whites appear pure white,
and the overall colors in the image appear as they
would in front of your eyes
P E R S P E C T I V E : the spatial relationship between
the camera and the objects in your image
N AT U R A L L I G H T: light that comes from the sun,
and not from electric lights
S I N G L E L I G H T S O U R C E : having your light come
from only one source (like the sun) and from only
one direction
D I R E C T L I G H T: light that goes directly from a light
source into your camera. Ex.- shooting outside on
a sunny day is shooting in direct light
I N D I R E C T L I G H T: light that passes through a filter
G E T TO K N OW T H E L A N G UAG E
a cloudy day is shooting in indirect light
D E P T H : the distance of space in a photograph that
will appear sharp. A shallow depth of field means the
distance it will take for an object to go from sharp
to blurry on your camera is very small, while a wide
depth of field means the distance it will take for an
object to go from sharp to blurry is farther
C O M P O S I T I O N : the arrangement of objects around
your scene
S Y M M E T R Y: an invisible line that splits a symmetrical
object in half
R U L E O F T H I R D S : the idea that you should place
the most important parts of your photograph either
along the horizontal third lines of a photograph,
the vertical third lines of a photograph, or at the
intersection of a horizontal and vertical third line
A C T U A L M O V E M E N T: an object physically
in motion
I M P L I E D M O V E M E N T: the idea that objects can be
arranged in a certain way within your photograph to
mimic actual movement, thus guiding a viewer’s eye
around a scene
G R I D L I N E S : the lines on the screen of your camera
(usually rule of thirds lines) that help to compose your
subject in a compositionally interesting way
V I S U A L W E I G H T: the idea that some objects can
feel heavier than others within a photograph
Balance: the idea that a photograph should have
a balanced visual weight
N E G AT I V E S PA C E : a part or parts of a photograph
with nothing in it
M I C R O A D J U S T M E N T S : making tiny movements
of objects in your scene
DY N A M I C : the idea that a photograph has energy
and feels lively
EDITING APP TERMS
B R I G H T N E S S : the amount of light in a photo
C U R V E S : a digital map of an image’s tonality.
Curves can be used to add brightness and/or
contrast to an image
S AT U R AT I O N : the amount of intensity a color has
S E L E C T I V E M A S K : an edit applied to a certain part
of a photograph