This series of news articles is intended to help the novice digital photographer who wants to learn more. The aim is to explain key terms and introduce new ideas to help you, as a novice, explore the world of digital photography.

What does that mean? Common terms used in the world of digital photography! Part 1

SLR
A term which stands for Single Lens Reflex; a camera design dating back to the late 1800s that uses an internal ‘movable mirror' placed between the lens and the film to project the image seen through the lens. The image seen by the photographer through the viewfinder of an SLR camera is exactly the same as the image recorded by the camera onto film and later developed. For more info, see here.


DSLR
You’ve heard of it, yes? Well, it stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. This is the modern day digital equivalent of an SLR camera. The significant difference between a DSLR and a traditional SLR is that a DSLR doesn’t need film! Your photograph is recorded onto a digital image sensor and saved onto a memory card, which you can then print or transfer and edit later. DSLRs differ from your average point and shoot digital camera in that they allow for greater choice in manual control, and the lenses are interchangeable. “DSLR Type” cameras are becoming more popular though; these are a blend of the camera/lens all-in-one deal, but with some extra manual functions you would normally find on a DSLR. For more info, see here.

Sensor
A sensor is the electronic ‘chip’ that records your image in the digital camera. Sensors generally come in two main types: CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). CCDs are used most commonly in your average digital camera, whereas the higher quality CMOS sensors are used in larger and more expensive DSLRs.

There are other types such as JFET and X3, but they’re not used as commonly, so I won’t go into them here (besides, I don’t want to bore you to death!)

Lenses
While not especially digital photography ‘terminology’, lenses are still relevant to digital cameras, especially DSLRs. Most of the general digital camera families will not have a detachable lens (you’ll be limited to its zoom capabilities and possibly even the manual controls for the lens). However, the DSLR allows you greater freedom to change the camera lens, giving you greater choice in creative expression.

So, what do they do? Simply put, lenses throw a circle of focused light onto the image sensor. In the early days when most people used film cameras, the light fell onto the film to create your image. Nowadays, with digital cameras the light hits the image sensor and then recorded onto your memory card. Image sensors are usually pretty small (not much bigger than a 35mm frame of film)!

Diffuser
Well, you know what your flash is for I hope: there to increase the light on your subject so the camera can record your visible image. The diffuser is an opaque piece of plastic that sits over the top of a flash. Its job is to soften or dull the light from the ‘bare’ flash, and therefore reduces harsh shadows and over-exposure on the sensor. It’s often good to play with the flash settings on your digital camera (if it has them), and get to know what’s good in different settings (day and night photography).

A little tip though: if you don’t have manual control over your flash and the diffuser still allows too much light onto your subject, you can quickly and easily make your own! A simple tissue folded and placed carefully over your flash does almost the same thing (a bonus tip: use a white tissue).

Pixels and Resolution
Pixel is a really common term you’ll hear, especially around the world of photography, and it’s a simple thing which is commonly not explained. A pixel is just a small ‘dot’ in an image. Imagine the average emote for example, when you look up close it’s made of a few hundred coloured pixels to make an image.

Your camera will usually record hundreds-of-thousands, sometimes millions, of pixels to make a digital image. The more pixels that are used to create an image, the closer the result may resemble the original, which is why the high end DSLRs with 8+ ‘megapixels’ are used predominantly by professional photographers.

In terms of digital photography, resolution is another common term which refers to how we measure the number of pixels there are on a sensor. The resolution of digital cameras is usually measured in “megapixels” (mega = millions of). If you’re really interested, it’s just a simple bit of maths – you multiply the number of pixels along the bottom by those up the side. So for example, a sensor with 3,000 pixels along the bottom, and 2,000 up the side equals 6,000,000 pixels in total. That would make it a 6 megapixel camera!

Don’t be put off by your camera's pixel performance ability though! I’ve seen some great shots done with a camera of only around 1.2 mega pixels. Often it’s the skill of the photographer and how well they know their camera which can produce great results!


Coming up in Part 2:
Shutter Speed
Shutter Delay
Aperture
Depth of Field
Noise
Digital Camera ISO
File Format
Post Processing

Some links to consider:
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/
http://digitalphotography.tipcentral.net/
http://www.lexar.com/dp/


Future Editions:
Rule of Thirds
Exposure and how it works
Lighting and Flash
Optical vs Digital Zoom
Lenses and Filters
Special Photography Secrets
Macro special…



So what are you waiting for? Go and have some fun taking photos!
Cheers,
Cath