Photography and Camera Terminology Explained Part 1

One of the most confusing things about photography for amateurs and beginners is the abundance of technical terms. Read on for explanations of some of the most common and useful terms.

ISO

Technically, this stands for “International Standards Organization” but that isn’t the definition we are looking for. For us, ISO stands for a sensor on a digital camera that determines how sensitive to light the sensor is. There are cameras that can range in sensitivity from ISO 50 to ISO 3200 or higher, doubling each time. A camera with a low ISO value means the sensor is less sensitive to light. This allows for taking pictures in low light more problematic, but gives the picture a higher quality in return. The higher ISO value means taking photos in low light is easier, however the drawback is your photos are subject to digital ‘noise’ or random dots of color found mostly in the darkest areas of the photo. Unfortunately, this will limit the size of which the photo can be printed.

It is important to remember that most digital cameras will automatically choose an ISO value. If the current light is sufficient, the camera will choose a low ISO.

Zoom Range

This refers to how wide and zoomed in you can take a photo. Most often, cameras are set to default to the widest setting as soon as the camera is turned on. To change this, you can simply use the controls to zoom in on something small or far away in order to fill the cameras frame.

Zoom range is quoted either in 35mm terms (i.e. 35-175mm), or in a multiple (i.e. 5x), where the widest settings times the multiple is the longest setting (for example, 5 x 35 = 155).

Most common cameras come in the range of 28-35mm and will zoom from 4x to 5x. If it is possible, select a camera with the widest available range in zoom. The reason for this is that it is much easier to take photos indoors where there is generally insufficient space to back up to get everything you want in your photo.

Megapixel

Just like the display on your computer monitor, a picture is made up of many different dots. So the term ‘megapixel’ refers to a million of these dots. It is said that the higher the megapixels, the higher quality photo.

When a camera is listed as having a certain number of megapixels, this refers to the maximum number of pixels a photo can be comprised of. A higher megapixel camera will allow the photographer to take pictures comprised of more pixels than a lower megapixel camera.

Photos comprised of more pixels are finer grained than those with less, and this means that they can be printed or viewed at larger sizes and from closer distances with no noticeable drop in quality. This makes high megapixel cameras useful, but be aware that a 6 megapixel camera would be more than sufficient for 99% of casual users. Camera manufacturers will try to make you believe that you need more, but this just isnt the case unless you want to make really large enlargements.

Tobias Sterling is a keen photography enthusiast who is passionate about writing and sharing his photography knowledge about Photography basics and tips and Photography and Shutter Speed on Clivir.com.