For beginners and amateurs, the hardest part of photography can be the daunting amount of confusing technical terms. Listed below are a few common terms with easy to understand explanations.
Aperture
This refers to a diaphragm inside all cameras which change size to admit more or less light. This structure is very similar to how the human eye works in that a circular opening becomes enlarged or smaller dependent upon how much light there is.
For many, the most confusing part about aperture is the nomenclature used. This is quoted in what are commonly referred to as ‘f-stops’. To better explain, a smaller f-stop number such as f/1.8 means the aperture will open wider while a larger f-stop number such as f/22 means the aperture will open very slightly.
If you have an SLR camera, you will not have the wide range of f-stops. The range can run from f/2.8 to f/8 which means the widest the aperture will open is 2.8 and the narrowest is 8.
Sensor
Your digital camera contains a light-sensitive panel that records the light that hits it when you press the button to take a photo. This performs the same function that film does in older cameras. The sensor remains hidden behind the closed shutter (see below) and is only exposed when a photo is taken. Your camera records the light hitting the sensor when you take a picture, and stores the result on the memory card in the camera.
Shutter Speed
A cameras shutter sits just in front of the image sensor. It is normally closed so that no light is getting through to the sensor, but when you press the button, it opens for a certain length of time to expose the sensor to light.
In most cases, the shutter of a camera is made up of two curtains. When using fast shutter speed, the first curtain opens only a tiny gap between it and the second curtain, and travels across the sensor with the second curtain following close behind. When longer exposures are being taken, the whole sensor might be exposed for a period of time before the second curtain closes it.
The speed of the shutter is expressed in whole seconds as well as fractions of a second. A shutter speed of 1/640 means the shutter will open and the sensor exposed for only one-six-hundred-and-fortieth of a second.
Exposure
Exposure is so named because it refers to exposing the sensor or film to light in order to take a photograph. An exposure is also another name for a photograph for this reason.
As a photograph is taken, how much light reaches the light-sensitive sensor is determined by aperture and shutter speed. If a darker photo is desired, a slower shutter speed and larger aperture or combination of both may be required for a quality photograph.
A correct exposure is one that approximates what could be seen by the photographer with the naked eye at the time the photo was taken, but this is ultimately a matter of taste. It is possible, for example, to take photos at night with shutter speeds so long that the resulting photos look as if they were taken in broad daylight.
Tobias Sterling is life long fan of photography. He is an experience photographer who loves to share his knowledge. His articles including Basic Photography Camera Settings and Male Physique Photography can be found on Clivir.com.