Aperture: The iris or opening of a lens that controls how much light is passed through the lens.
Aperture Priority: Automatic setting that sets the camera's priority to the aperture setting. The user may manually set the aperture and the camera compensates ISO and shutter speed.
Auto Control: The setting on the DSLR camera that controls the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings to ensure proper exposure.
Auto Focus: An automatic control of a DSLR camera that automatically senses the focal point of a composition and targets that as the point in which the optics focus.
Bird's Eye View: A very high angle of composition, typically taken from the sky.
Bounce Flash: When light from the flash is reflected off an object such as a wall or ceiling.
Bracketing: A 3 step process in which you expose your photo, then stop down, take another shot, stop up one exposure above the first and taken another photograph.
Candle Light: The color temperature of a burning candle is 1800 degrees Kelvin.
Composition: The orientation in which you frame a photograph.
Cool White: A blu-ish colored light typically at the 5600 degree Kelvin mark.
Depth of Field: The relation of how much focal length is measured in the optics of a lens.
DSLR: Digital Single Lens Reflex camera.
Embers: Color temperature of slowly burning ember light is rated at 800 degrees Kelvin.
Exposure Time: The amount of time in which your shutter stays open to expose and image.
Eye Level View: An eye level composition in which the photographer holds the camera at eye level and photographs their subject on the same plane.
F-Stop: The measurement that is used to measure how much light is getting through the iris of the lens.
Fast Exposure: The shutter opens for a very small fraction of a second.
Fast Lens: A lens with a very shallow depth of field.
Fill Light: An angle of light in a 3 point lighting setup that illuminates the front of a subject at a 45 degree angle.
Flash/Strobe: A device used to produce a artificial light source typically attached to the body of a DSLR. They can also fired remotely off camera.
Focal Length: The distance in which a lens focuses.
Illuminate: To light a subject.
Iris: The blades within a lens that open and close creating your f-stop or aperture.
ISO: Acronym for International Standards Organization. The ISO controls how much electricity is sent to your sensor to regulate it's sensitivity to light.
Kelvin Temperature: A scale of measurement used to gauge the temperature of light from cool (daylight) to warm (artificial light)
Key Light: An angle of light in a three point studio lighting setup that illuminates the front of a subject on a 45 degree angle. This is the stronger of the two light sources from the front.
Landscape framing: A horizontal orientation of composition.
Lens: The glass optics used with your DSLR body.
Long Exposure: A type of image capture that utilizes a very long shutter speed, usually between one and thirty seconds of shutter exposure.
Manual Focus: The skill of manually controlling the focus ring on a lens to accurately focus on a focal point of a composition.
Natural Light: Sun light that can be utilized in direct form, as a shade, or indirect, such as through a window. It is typically the only source of light in a composition.
Point of View: The angle that your composition is shot from.
Portrait framing: A vertical orientation of composition.
Prime Lens: A lens with a wide aperture capability and a fixed (no zoom) focal length.
Rule of Thirds: A grid system that divides the composition into both horizontal and vertical thirds. The methodology is to form the focal point into any of the intersecting grid lines.
Shutter Priority Mode: An automatic setting that sets the camera's priority to the shutter setting. You may manually set the aperture, and the camera compensates the ISO.
Shutter: The mechanical system on your camera that opens and closes to expose your sensor to the image the lens is projecting onto it.
Studio Lighting: In a studio lighting setup, three lights are used; a Key light, set at a 45 degree angle strongly illuminating the subject. Second, the fill light on the opposing 45 degree angle fills in the shadows cast from the key light at a lesser intensity. Finally the rim light, hair light or backlight is aimed from behind the subject to outline it's shape with an aura of light.
White Balance: A collection of preset settings for a number of different lighting situations that corrects for the type of light the camera is seeing. It is based on the Kelvin degree temperature scale.
Zoom Lens: A lens that has adjustable focal length.