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Digital Exposure - filming glossary Category: Film and Animation > Photographic and Digital Imaging terms Date & country: 15/08/2008, CA Words: 796

Ring flash
A circular-shaped electronic flash unit that fits around a lens and provides shadowless, uniform frontal lighting, especially useful in close-up photography

Ring light
A circular lamp or bundles of optical fibers arranged around the perimeter of an objective lens to illuminate the object in the field below it. A wide variety of sizes are available on both a stock and custom basis

Rinse
Is a brief clean water wash between steps of a processing cycle to reduce carry-over of one solution into another

ROM
Read Only Memory. A memory type that cannot be change or rewritten and will not lose information when a computer is turned off

S-RAM
(Static RAM) The most expensive type of RAM found in on-board memory units, some printers, and in PCMCIA Type I Cards. D-RAM, Dynamic Ram. Most often seen as the expandable RAM used by the computer for memory

Saturation levels
Light intensity that exceeds the maximum level designed for a CCD

Scan Size
The length and width dimensions of the part of a document that can be digitized

Scan Time:
The total time to convert text or graphical information into electronic raster form

Scanned image
The computer picture that results when a photograph, slide, paper imager, or other two or three dimensional images are converted into a digital image

Scanner
A device that captures an image for your computer and converts it to a digital form that your computer can display, edit store and output. A scanner can be used for a wide variety of application, such as incorporating artwork or photos into documents, scanning printed text into your word processor to eliminate retyping, scanning faxed docum...

Scanner Threshold
Setting that determines whether a pixel is white or black

Scanning back
High quality digital camera back for medium or large format cameras which scans in three passes (RGB) one pass for each colour, therefore best used with still life subjects

Scheimpflug rule
A useful rule when using camera movements is that when the planes of the subject, the lens panel, and the image are made to coincide at a single line, everything will be in focus

Scratch disk
A virtual memory scheme used to temporarily use hard disk space as a substitution for RAM

Screen angle
The angle at which the halftone screens are placed in relation to one another

Screen frequency
The number of lines or dots per inch in a halftone screen

Screen resolution
The size of the rectangular grid of pixels displayed on a monitor

Screen ruling
Number of raster points either per inch or per centimetre. Measured in lines per cm (l/cm) or lines per inch (lpi). A 60 l/cm raster therefore corresponds with 152 lpi

Screening
Another name for halftoning

SCSI
A high-speed input/output bus used mainly in Macintosh computers but also popular in many high-end PC's

SCSI chain
A chain that links SCSI devices on your system. A SCSI chain may include such devices as a scanner, a CD-ROM drive, an external hard drive, and a tape drive. Each SCSI device on the chain must have its own SCSI ID number, or conflict will ensue

SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory; often used in digital cameras and other computing devices. SDRAM is a relatively new type of memory that runs at higher clock speeds than traditional memory

Secure Digital memory
Memory card about the size of a postage stamp that weighs approximately two grams; available with storage capacities as high as 128MB. Secure Digital memory is gaining favor in all types of personal electronics devices

Selection (tool or box)
A tool in some software that allows you to target a specific area of an image for some type of manipulation; this can be a pointer arrow, crosshairs, a lasso, a box made of dotted lines

Selective focus
Choosing a lens opening that produces a shallow depth of field. Usually this is used to isolate a subject by causing most other elements in the scene to be blurred

Self-timer
Mechanism delaying the opening of the shutter for some seconds after the release has been operated. Also known as delayed action

Sensitive
In photography, refers to materials that react to the actinic power of light

Sensitometer
An instrument with which a photographic emulsion is given a graduated series of exposure to light of controlled spectral quality, intensity, and duration. Depending upon whether the exposures vary in brightness or duration, the instrument may be called an intensity scale or a time scale sensitometer

Sensitometry
Is the scientific study of the response of photographic materials to exposure and development. It establishes emulsion speeds and recommended development and processing times

Sepia
A brownish coloured, old-fashioned look to an image often created as a special effect either within a digital camera or in an image editing software

Serial Interface
(Also called RS232C or RS422 interface) An interface which allows peripheral devices such as a mouse, modem and certain digital cameras to be connected to the computer. Data is transferred serially, which means bit by bit, one piece after another, via a connection cable

Serial port
Is a general-purpose personal computer communications port in which 1 bit of information is transferred at a time. In the past, most digital cameras were connected to a computer's serial port in order to transfer images to the computer. recently, however, the serial port is being replaced by the much faster USB port on digital cameras as we...

Serial transfer
Connecting a digital camera to a computer via the serial port ( also known as the COM port on PC's or Printer / Modem port on Apple Macs ) in order to download images. Quite slow

Server
One computer that acts as a networking device for many interconnected computers

Service bureau
A business that specializes in outputting computer files on laser imagesetters, film recorders, large-format plotters and other types of output devices

Shade
The brightness or luminance of an image when compared to a gray scale

Shadow
A term that refers to the amount of detail contained in the dark parts of an image. It is desirable to maintain shadow detail but there is a risk of decreasing overall contrast if one lightens the shadow too much in an attempt to expose detail. If an image is scanned without shadow detail, it will be impossible to regain detail in an image ...

Shadow Point
The darkest tone printable in an image without being black. All tonal values below this threshold will print as black

Sharpen
Electronic photo-retouching function for enhancing image detail and contrast either globally or in selected regions of the picture

Sharpen edges
An image editor technique to enhance the edge of an object

Sharpening
Sharpening in a digital sense is the enhancing of edge detail. It is performed by a mathematical formula which is applied across the image. Put simply it enhances the visibility of a boundary between light and dark tones in an image

Sharpness
An image degree of clarity in terms of focus and contrast

Sheet film
Film that is cut into individual flat piece. Used in large format view camera, with sizes like 4x5, 8x10 and 11x14 inches. Also called cut film

Shelf life
Is the length of time unused material or chemicals will remain fresh

Shift
Movement on large format camera ( or special ' shift lens ' in other formats ) which can eliminate converging angles

Shooting Modes
The amount of control you have in choosing how your digital camera captures an image. All digital cameras usually have an Auto mode: the camera decides for you the best shutter speed/aperture settings

Short lens
Term describing a wide-angle lens (a lens whose focal length is shorter than the diagonal measurement of the film used)

Shutter priority
A mode of automatic exposure by which the photographer manually adjusts the shutter speed, and the camera adjusts the aperture accordingly to produce a normal exposure

Shutter release
The mechanical or electromechanical button that releases the shutter and takes the exposure

Shutter speeds
The duration that the shutter is held open during an exposure. A typical range is from 1 full second to 1/1000 of a second. Combined with the lens aperture it controls the total amount of exposure

Signal-to-noise ratio
The ratio of the usable signal to unusable noise in a scan. A high degree of noise can mask the shadow detail in an image regardless of tonal resolution

Silhouette
A dark image outlined against a lighter background

Silver halide
A chemical compound of silver (usually silver bromide, silver chloride and silver iodide) used as the light-sensitive constituent (emulsion) in films. The invisible image produced when the halides are exposed to light is converted to metallic silver when the film is subsequently developed

SIMM
Single In-line Memory Module. A common type of plug-in RAM memory module for personal computers

Skew
During printing or scanning, the content of a page are almost never exactly vertical, which referred to as being skewed. De-skewing is a process where the computer detects and corrects the skew in an image file

Skylight filter
A UV filter with a pale rose tinge to it eliminate a blue colour cast caused by haze, it may be kept in place permanently to protect the lens from dust and scratching

Slave unit
A light sensitive trigger device used to synch strobes and flashes without an electronic synch cord

Slide
A transparency (often a positive image in colour) mounted between glass or in a frame of cardboard or other material so that it may be inserted into a projector

Slide scanner
A scanner with a slot to insert 35mm slides; usually capable of scanning only 35mm transparent material

Slot
Expansion interface in computers, notebooks and other devices. Expansion cards, e.g. PC Cards, can be plugged or built in here to increase performance, capacity or the capabilities of the device

Slow film
Is film having an emulsion with low sensitivity to light. Typically films having an ISO or 50 or less

SmartMedia memory
A memory card developed by Toshiba that uses flash memory to store data. It measures 45 x 37 mm and is less than 1 mm thick. Available in capacities to 128MB, SmartMedia is portable and can easily be transferred between electronics devices

Smoothing
Averaging pixels with their neighbors. It reduces contrast and stimulates an out-of-focus image

Snapshot
An informal photograph, especially one taken quickly by a simple, hand-held camera

Sodium thiosulfate
The active ingredient in most fixer

Soft focus
Is the definition of a diffused image. this can be achieved at the camera or enlarging stage

Soft focus lens
Is a lens, uncorrected for spherical aberrations, used to produce a soft focus effect

Soft lighting
Low contrast illumination

Soft Proof
Viewing a digital image with a monitor instead of generating a hard copy proof

Soft-Edge Masking
A technique used to isolate a portion of an image with an edge that allows for a smoother transition to areas around the masked part

Softbox
Large, diffuse light, usually with electronic flash as the light source

Spatial Resolution
The finest image portion that can be seen at any magnification

Speckling
Isolated light pixels in predominantly dark image areas, sometimes caused by incorrect readings or noise in the scanning device

Spectral data
Colour information stored as multiple measurements (typically 16 32, or more ) across the range of wavelengths of visible light

Spectrophotometer
A device that captures colours as spectral data, thereby providing maximum accuracy in measuring and specifying colours

Specular highlight
A bright reflection from a light source containing little or no detail. Specular highlight within an image should not be used for Set Whitepoint

Specular reflection
Light rays that are highly redirected at or near the same angle of incidence to a surface. Observation at this angle allows the viewer to 'see' the light source

Speed
A measure of the sensitivity to light of a photographic emulsion

Spherical aberration
Light passing through a convex lens will be brought to different focus depending upon whether the light passes through near the center of the lens or closer to the periphery. Lens designers strive to correct this kind of zonal aberration to bring peripheral and near-central rays to a common focus

Sponge
This toning tool is used to saturate or de-saturate areas of an image

Spot meter
An exposure meter that measures the light reflected from a small area of the subject Hand-held spot meters may measure an area as small as one degree; those built into the camera may measure a somewhat larger area

Spotlight
Is an artificial light source using a fresnel lens, reflector, and simple focusing system to produce a strong beam of light of controllable width

sRGB
A calibrated RGB colour space, proposed as a Web standard

SSFDC
SolidStateFloppy DiskCard, a removable Flash Ram Memory Card used in digital cameras and other digital product. Both 3.3 Volt and 5-Volt card exist. SSFDCs are also called Smart Media Cards

Stabilizer
A processing solution used in colour processing to make the dyes produced by development more stables

Stand
Is an alternative name for a tripod

Standard deviation
A measure of dispersion of a frequency distribution

Standard lens
Lens with a focal length approximately equal to the diagonal of the film format with which it is used

Step wedge
A printed series of density increases, in regular teps from transparent to opaque. its a method of making exposure tests when enlarging

Stock Photos
An already existing picture that can be purchased for use instead of having a photograph specifically made

Stock solution
A concentrated chemical solution that is diluted before use

Stop bath
An acid solution used between the developer and the fixer. The stop bath halts development and at the same time neutralizes the alkaline developer, thus preventing it from lowering the acidity of the fixer. Generally a diluted solution of acetic acid; plain water is sometimes used as a stop bath for film development

Stopping down
In photography, to decrease the size of aperture in a lens, e.g., to 'stop down' from f/3.5 to f/16 (larger aperture numbers signify smaller apertures). Increases depth of field and reduces the amount of light allowed to expose the film. Opposite: open up

Storage cards
The storage card in a digital camera is it's film, it's the removable storage device which holds images taken with the camera (a few low-end digital cameras don't have removable storage cards but instead have a built-in flash RAM unit). When the card is full it can be removed and another card inserted. The memory on these cards is non-volat...

Streak noise
Vertically correlated noise in a scan or other image capture that appears as white streaks in the output

Strobe duration
The amount of time, expressed in microseconds, during which the flash lamp (strobe) is at 90% intensity

Studio
A room specially equipped for photography

Stylus
A tool that is used on a graphic input tablet as a drawing instrument, or as a mouse

Subsampling
Using an algorithm to derive a lower-resolution image from a higher-resolution image

Superimpose
To place one element over another to create stacking of images or overlays