Basic Photo Definitions

Colour

Colour is electromagnetic radiation called the visible spectrum. Light is invisible and we only see the colours of objects the light reflect from.

HSL

Hue – the actual colour like the three primary colours:

R – red

G – green

B – blue

all colours are made by combining these three colours

Saturation – the amount or intensity of colour present

Luminance – refers to the brightness of the colour – when you turn up the brightness control on your phone, you are adjusting the luminance.

Contrast – removes some middle colours – increases blacks and whites – makes images pop

File formats

Raw file – an unprocessed image from your computer, usually a large amount of megapixels

jpg – stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group – usually about a third the size of a raw file.

is a lossy file – a photo file that is compressed, every time you save and share a jpg file, you loose a little quality

and edited by the camera

the camera adjusts exposure, brightness, enhances colours

JPG 2000 – meant to replace jpg but it never caught on because of copyright issues