Glossary (continued)
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Fill-in flash: Forces a flash to go off even in bright light; often used outside to soften dark areas or shadows. The camera will expose for the background first, then add enough fill-flash to illuminate your subject. Fill-in flash is also known as forced flash or flash on.
Flash exposure compensation: digital camera control that lets you adjust the amount of output from the flash. Increase or decrease the amount to lighten or darken the effect of the flash.
ISO (Sensitivity): The number indicating the camera sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure (see noise).
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD): Monitor on back of a digital camera that shows 100% of the view through the camera lens. Like a viewfinder, it can be used to preview a scene before taking a photo. The LCD also displays camera settings and can be used to review photos and videos saved to a memory card.
Metering system: Measures the amount of light when framing a photo and determines the best exposure. The main digital camera metering types are: Matrix (Evaluative), Spot and Center-weighted.
Megapixel: A megapixel is equal to one million pixels (picture elements). Digital images are made up of thousands of these tiny, tile-like picture elements.
Noise: Randomly-spaced speckles (pixels) that can appear in digital images shot at high ISO numbers. Noise results in a reduction of photo detail and clarity, though it can be reduced with special noise reduction software. Noise is most visible when photos are shot at ISO 200 and above with a consumer digital camera. Some digital cameras have a Super CCD where photos taken at higher ISO numbers (eg. ISO 1600) have little, if any, visible noise.
Optical zoom: A true zoom. The focal length of the lens extends and retracts so an image is magnified by the lens itself. Whatever the focal length of the lens, image resolution stays the same. Optical zooms produce the best photo quality (see digital zoom).
Overexposure: Improper exposure causing an image to look too light. There is a loss of detail in bright areas.
PictBridge: a standardized technology that lets you print images from a memory card in a digital camera directly to a printer regardless of brand. No computer is necessary.
Saturation: The intensity, or vividness, of a color. Increasing saturation makes colors in photos look richer. The amount of saturation can be adjusted in some cameras. It can also be increased or decreased with image editing software.
Shutter lag: The delay that takes place between pressing the shutter-release button and the time a photo is actually taken. Shutter lag times vary from digital camera to digital camera.
Shutter-release button: the shutter-release button on a digital camera must be pressed in two steps to lock exposure and focus and to help prevent camera shake.
Underexposure: Improper exposure causing an image to look too dark. There is a loss of detail in dark areas.
White balance: Adjusts the brightest part of a scene so it appears white. How a digital camera records color is affected by the source of light.
