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PHOTOGRAPHY GLOSSARY (E-G)


A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


Photo Glossary - E


•E6 - Kodak's standard chemical process for developing Ektachrome or compatible slide films.

•Easel - device to hold photographic paper flat during exposure, usually equipped with an adjustable metal mask for framing.

•Eberhard effect - border effect occurring in a developed image. It appears as a dense line along an edge of high density and as a light line along an edge of low density. It occurs most often in plates developed flat in solution that is not sufficiently agitated. The effect was described by Gistav Eberhard in 1926.

•Edge numbers - reference numbers printed by light at regular intervals along the edge of 35mm and roll films during manufacture.

•Effective aperture - diameter of the bundle of light rays striking the first lens element that actually pass through the lens at any given diaphragm setting.

•EIS - Electronic Image Stabilizer. A feature that minimizes effect of camera shake.

•Electroluminescence - conversion of electric energy directly into visible light.

•Electronic flash - artificial lighting produced by an electronic discharge in a gas filled tube. A single tube can produce a large number of flashes.

•Electronic shutter - shutter system timed by electronic rather than mechanical means.

•Electrophotography - creation of images by alteration to the electrical properties of the sensitive material as a result of the action of light.

•Element - single lens shaped piece of glass that forms part of a compound lens system.

•Elon - another term for Methylaminophenol sulfate. It is more commonly known as metol.

Emulsion - light sensitive material which consists of a suspension of silver halides in gelatin.

•Emulsion side - side of the film coated with emulsion.

•Endoscope - optical device allowing the viewing and photography of small inaccessible subjects.

•Enhanced back printing - Advanced Photo System feature available in some cameras that enables users to encode detailed information at the time of picture-taking.

•Enlargement - term used to describe a print larger than the negative used to produce it.

•Enlargement ratio - ratio denoting the amount of linear (not area) enlargement between a print and the negative from which it is made.

•Enlarger - apparatus for producing prints by projecting a negative or transparency on sensitive paper.

•Enprint - small enlarged print, with dimensions of a fixed ration, produced commercially in an automatic printer. Usually 3 ½" wide.

•Entrance pupil - size of the beam of light which, entering the elements of a compound lens that are in front of the aperture, completely fills the iris diaphragm.

•Equivalent focal length - distance in a lens between the front nodal point and the focal plane when the lens is set to focus a subject at infinity. In a telephoto lens the equivalent focal length is shorter than the back focus. The reverse is true in a wide angle lens.

•Etch - process of removing small imperfections in a print or negative by scraping away part of the emulsion.

•Etching - dissolving away selected areas of a surface while shielding the other portions with a resistant. The process is used as a creative drawing medium as well as for making half-tone plates on copper or zinc.

•Ever-ready case - camera case that can be opened, allowing the camera to be used without removing it. A front flap hinges down to uncover the lens, viewfinder and camera controls.

•Everset shutter - simple camera shutter mechanism on which a single depression of the release both tensions and fires the shutter.

•Exit pupil - image of the iris diaphragm formed on the back surface of a compound lens by the elements behind the aperture.

•Expiry date - date stamp on most film boxes indicating the useful life of the material in terms of maintaining its published speed and contrast.

•Exposure - product of the intensity of light and the time the light is allowed to act on the emulsion (I x T = E).

•Exposure index - see Speed.

•Exposure latitude - amount by which it is possible to over or underexpose a light sensitive material and, with standard processing, still produce acceptable results.

Exposure meter - instrument for measuring the amount of light falling on or being reflected by a subject.

Exposure value (EV) - scale of values used to indicate the sensitivity range of a TTL or off-camera meter system within which accurate exposure measurement is guaranteed.

•Extension bellows - device used to provide the additional separation between lens and film required for close-up photography.

•Extension tubes - metal or plastic tubes used on small format cameras, to extend lens-to-film distance, enabling magnification greater than 1x.

•Extinction meter - early type of exposure calculator.


Photo Glossary - F


•Factor - number that tells how many times exposure must be increased in order to compensate from loss of light.

•Fahrenheit scale - scale of temperature named after its German originator, G. D. Fahrenheit. On this scale, the freezing point of water is 32° F, and the boiling point of water is 212° F.

•False attachment - part of one object seen behind another so that lines, shapes or tones seem to join up. A composition device used in various ways to produce images in which foreground and background objects appear to occupy the same plane.

•Farmer's reducer - used for bleaching negatives and prints.
See reducers

•Farraday shutter - high-speed shutter using a pair of crossed polarizers, between which is a glass block within a coil. When a voltage passes through the coil, the plane of polarization changes, allowing light to pass through the second polarizer.

•Fast film - film which has an emulsion that is very sensitive to light. These films have high ISO ratings.

•Fast lens - lens with a wide maximum aperture (low f number).

•Ferric chloride - bleaching solution used on negative materials.

Ferrotype process - method of creating direct positive images with dark enameled metal plates as a base. Also known as the tin-type process.

•Fiber based paper - photographic paper without a resin coating. Processing times are longer than for other papers, but the paper is more archivally permanent.

•Field camera - sheet film camera suitable for use in location work.

Fill-in - light used to illuminate the shadow areas of a scene.

•Fill light - source of illumination that lightens shadows. See Fill-in.

•Film - photographic material consisting of a thin transparent plastic base coated with a light sensitive emulsion.

•Film characteristic curve - describes a graphical relationship between the logarithm of the exposure value (horizontal axis) and density (vertical axis) of film. Each brand of film exhibits a different characteristic curve.

•Film clips - metal or plastic clips used to prevent the curling of a length of drying film.

•Film holder - light tight container to hold sheet film.

•Film pack - container holding several sheets of film, so devised that when fitted to the camera the photographer can pull a tab to remove an exposed sheet and replace it with another. Film packs are typical with Polaroid film.

Film plane - plane at the back of the camera across which the film lies.

•Film speed - see Speed.

•Filter factor - number by which an unfiltered exposure reading must be multiplied to give the same effective exposure through the filter. This compensates for the absorption of light by the filter. This process is unnecessary with TTL metering systems as long as the filter is attached during the metering process.

•Filters - colored glass, gelatin or plastic disks, which modify the light passing through them, mainly in terms of color content. They can be used at the camera or printing stages.

•Finality development - prolonged development, reducing silver halides affected by light to silver until no further image density improvement occurs.

•Finder - abbreviation for viewfinder.

•Fine grain developers - film developers which help to keep grain size in the photographic image to a minimum.

•Fisheye lens - extreme wide-angle lens with an angle of view exceeding 100° and sometimes in excess of 180°. Depth of field is practically infinite and focusing is not required.

Fixation - chemical bath which converts unused halides to a soluble silver complex in both negatives and prints, making the image stable in white light.

•Fixed focal length - camera system whose lens cannot be interchanged for a lens of different focal length.

•Fixed focus - lens camera system that has no method of focusing on a fixed point, usually at the hyperfocal distance.

•Fixer - chemical solution used for fixation.

•Flare - non-image forming light scattered by the lens or reflected from the camera interior.

•Flash - artificial light source giving brief but very bright illumination. It is produced by a combination of certain gases within a transparent tube. There are two types; electronic, which may be used repeatedly, and expendable in which the bulb can be used only once.

•Flash bulb - replaceable bulb for use in expendable flash units. A glass bulb contains a pyrotechnic wire or paste which burns out in a brilliant flash when a low voltage firing current is applied.

•Flash cube - obsolete bulb containing four small flash bulbs built into a single unit.

•Flash factor - number which provides a guide to correct exposure when using flash. See also Guide number.

•Flashing - briefly and evenly exposing photographic materials to white light.Often used to lower contrast of printing paper, when the flashing exposure is made in addition to the regular exposure.

•Flash powder - chemical powder consisting of a mixture of metallic magnesium and an oxidizing agent. Ignited by heat to produce a brilliant flash of light.

•Flash synchronization - method of synchronizing flash light duration with maximum shutter opening. There are usually two settings on a camera, X and M. X is the setting used for electronic flash. M is for most expendable types of flash (bulbs) which require a delay in shutter opening.

•Flat - used to describe a negative or print with very low contrast.

•Flat-bed camera - camera designed for copying artwork and documents. Mounted on a vertical column, like an enlarger, allowing the photographer to accommodate different documents or artwork for duplication.

•Flat gradation - subjective term used to describe low-contrast values.

•Flat lighting - lighting that produces very little contrast or modeling on the subject and a minimum of shadows.

•Floating elements - one or more elements in a lens which adjust position relative to other components during focusing or zooming. Used to maintain correction of lens aberrations at all settings.

•Floodlight - artificial light source with a dish shaped reflector and a 125-500+ watt tungsten filament lamp producing evenly spread illumination over the subject.

•Fluorescent whites - brilliant highlights produced by applying a fluorescent agent to a printing paper base. The print can also be treated after washing with a fluorescent whitener or dye solution.

f numbers -e numbers on the lens barrel indicating the size of the aperture relative to the focal length of the lens. f numbers are calculated by dividing the focal length of the lens by the effective diameter of the aperture.

•Focal length - distance between the rear nodal point of the lens and the focal plane, when the focus is at infinity.

Focal plane - imaginary line perpendicular to the optical axis which passes through the focal point. It forms the plane of sharp focus when the lens is set at infinity

•Focal plane shutter - shutter which lies just in front of the focal plane. Light sensitive film positioned at the focal plane is progressively exposed as the shutter blinds move across it.

Focal point - point of light on the optical axis where all rays of light from a given subject meet at a common point of sharp focus.

•Focus - position in which rays of light from a lens converge to form a sharp image.

•Focusing - system of moving the lens in relation to the image plane so as to obtain the required degree of sharpness of the film.

•Focusing cloth - dark cloth used in view camera photography.

•Focusing hood - light proof cowl used on TLR and most roll film SLR cameras to prevent extraneous light falling on the focusing screen.

•Focusing magnifier - device to magnify the optical image and aid visual focusing.

•Focusing scale - scale of distances marked on a lens focusing ring.

•Focusing screen - ground glass screen fixed to the camera at the image-forming plane, enabling the image to be viewed and focused.

•Focus range - range within which a camera is able to focus on the selected picture subject.

Fogging (Fog) - produces an overall veil of density on a negative or print, which does not form part of the image. It can be achieved by chemicals or exposing the sensitive material to light.

Fog level - density formed in unexposed areas of film or paper during processing.

•Foreground - area in an image closer than the main subject.

•Format - size of negative paper or camera viewing area.

•Frame 1. single exposure on a roll of film. 2. viewfinder image boundary.
3. Decorative border applied to finished, mounted prints.

•Frames per second (fps) - used to describe how many frames can a motor drive or winder handle automatically.

•Free working distance - distance between the front of the lens and the subject.

•Fresnel lens - condenser lens used on a spotlight to gather together the rays of light coming from a source and direct them into a narrow beam.

•Fresnel magnifier - condenser lens used at the center of some ground glass viewing screens to aid focusing.

•Frilling - wrinkling and separation of the emulsion along the edges of its support material.

•Front curtain synchronization - when the flash fires an instant after the front curtain of a focal plane shutter has completed its travel across the film plane.

•Front element focusing - system of lens focusing in which only the front component of a compound lens moves backward and forward to adjust focus.

•Front projection - method of projection which allows you to combine a figure in a studio with a previously photographed background scene. The image is projected from the camera position onto a special reflective background screen.

•F stop - number that equals the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture.

•Full scale print - print having a wide range of tonalities.

•Futurism - art movement started in Italy c. 1910, characterized by an aggressive rejection of tradition, and the representation of the dynamic movement of machinery.


Photo Glossary - G


•Galvanography - technique of electroplating a gelatin relief image created photographically to produce a photomechanical printing plate.

Gamma - measurement used in sensitometry to describe the angle made between the straight line portion of the characteristic curve of the photograph emulsion and the base of the graph. The gamma is the tangent of the angle so formed.

•G curve - average gradient of a characteristic curve, describing similar characteristics to gamma, but measuring the slope from a line joining the lower and upper limits of the curve actually used in practice.

Gelatin - natural protein used as a transparent medium to hold light sensitive silver halide crystals in suspension, binding them to the printing paper or film, yet swelling to allow entry of processing solutions.

•Gelatin filters - filters cut from dyed gelatin sheets and held in front of the lens or studio light.

•Gelatin sugar process - daylight printing process using paper with a sugar and dichromate coating, which hardens on exposure to light.

•Ghost images - bright spots of light, often taking the shape of the aperture, which appear in the camera viewfinder or in the final photograph when a lens is pointed at a bright light like the sun. Ghost images have been almost eliminated through the use of multi layer coatings of the lens elements.

•Glaze - glossy surface produced on some (non resin coated) printing papers. It is achieved by placing a wet print to to a heated drum or clean polished surface. Glazed print produce denser medium blacks than their matte counterparts.

•Glazer - machine on which wet fiber base prints are placed face down in contact with a polished surface, such a chromed steel, and held by tension. The surface is then heated to dry the print.

•Glossy paper - printing paper with a smooth shiny surface finish to give maximum detail and tonal range.

•Gold chloride - soluble chemical used in gold toners.

•Gold mean - compositional technique used to determine the "ideal" position of the main subject in the frame. It is based on creating a rectangle from a square. A line drawn from the center of one side of the square to the opposite corner becomes the radius of an arc. The side of the square is then protracted until it meets the arc, and from this point a rectangle is constructed. The side of the square which remains in the rectangle indicates the point at which the subject should be placed.

•GOST - arithmetical system of rating film speed used in Soviet bloc countries.

•Graduated filter - filter with a colored section, which gradually reduces in density toward the center of the filter. The rest of the filter is clear. Also referred to as a Graduated filter

•Gradation - tonal contrast range of an image.

•Grade - system of terms and numbers used to denote the contrast characteristics of black and white printing papers.

•Graduate - vessel used for measuring liquids.

•Grain - clumps of silver-halide grains in film and paper that constitute the image. These grains are produced both in the exposure process (film grain) and in the development process (paper grain). Unlike film, the grain in printing paper is largely responsible for the image tone.

•Graininess - clumps of silver halide crystals in the emulsion which are visible to the human eye because of spaces between the crystals.

•Grains - exposed and developed silver halides which have formed black metallic silver grains, producing the visible photographic image.

•Granularity - objective term describing the amount that silver halide grains have clumped together within the emulsion.

•Gray card - card with an 18 percent gray tint (reflectance) used to determine exposure by taking a meter reading from subject light reflected by the card.

•Ground glass screen - translucent glass sheet used for viewing and focusing the image on all large format and some reflex cameras.

Guide number - term sometimes used to describe a flash factor, which provides a guide to correct exposure when using flash.

•Gum arabic - water soluble gum obtained from the Acacia tree and used in coatings of a number of photographic processes.

Gum bichromate - contact printing process once very popular for the manipulative, impressionistic effects it makes possible. Drawing paper is coated with a mixture of gum, potassium bichromate and a pigment of any chosen color. This is then exposed to light behind a negative. Also known as the photo aquatint process.

•Gum platinum process - combination of gum and platinum printing.

•Gyroscopic camera mount - device employing a gyroscope to help stabilize hand held cameras subject to movement or vibration from outside sources.

Photo Glossary H-L to page top Photo Glossary C-D


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