The Great Big List of Important Photography Terms

I'm often asked what certain photography term means so as part of my goal to provide free photography resources here is the great big list of important photography terms I think you'll find helpful. This is by no means a comprehensive list of every photography term you might want to know or understand but it is a list of the most important photography terms that I'm often asked about.

As you can see the list is here but the definitions are being added as time allows. Please check back often to see the updates. If there is an important photography term that you'd like to know more about please comment below or write to me on my contact page and I'll add it to the list and work on defining it faster.

Without further ado, here is my great big list of important photography terms.

Photography Terms

The following photography terms in my giant list are in alphabetical order. Feel free to search for what you're looking for or try to

Aperture
Aperture Priority
Catch-Light 
Color-cast
Color Temperature
Color Theory 
Composition
Crop 
Cropped Sensor
Depth of Field
Digital Zoom
DSLR
Dynamic Range
Environmental Portrait
Field of View
Flash
Focus
Headshot
Histogram
Hue
ISO
JPG
Leading Lines
Lens
Light Meter
Light Quality
Luminosity
Macro Photography
Megapixel
Neutral Density Filter
Noise
Polarization
Portrait
RAW
Resolution
Saturation
Sensor

Shutter Priority 

Shutter Priority is a mode you can use on your camera. With shutter priority you're setting the shutter speed on your camera. Additional settings are controlled by your camera. As a result the camera decides what the exposure should be. However, you have set the shutter speed so it won't change.

Shutter Speed

The amount of time your shutter is open allowing light to strike your sensor (or film). It is one of the two fundamental exposure settings along with aperture. In addition, those two exposure settings, along with ISO (sensitivity) make up the three sides of the exposure pyramid.

Telephoto Lens

A lens with a smaller field of view which compresses far away objects and therefore seems to make them larger. These types of lenses are often used for sports and wildlife. Too, shorter telephoto lenses are often used for portrait photography.

TTL

Through the Lens (usually used in reference to your camera's light meter. It means any part of your camera that "sees" through the lens. This includes your light meter, sensor, viewfinder on DSLRs and SLRs, and your auto-focus sensor.

White Balance

Wide Angle Lens

A lens with a wide field of view which distorts the scene causing objects to appear farther away from the lens than they really are.

Do you have any requests or other terms you want me to add to the list? If so contact me here or leave a comment below. I'm always happy to help photography students advance their knowledge and understanding of the subject. If you're looking for more hands on learning check out my list of photography classes and private photography lessons.

While I am still working on the list I encourage you to Google these terms or to look them up on Wikipedia. If you have any questions after looking them up either here or elsewhere please reach out and I'll try to help clear up the confusion!