Photo Editing Terms 1 - A to D

Aperture
The Aperture is the size of the opening in the camera lens at the moment a photo is taken. Aperture is measured in fractions, so the larger the number, the smaller the aperture opening. Shutter speed and aperture are the two primary controls for limiting the amount of light that hits the film or sensor.

Application
An Application is just another word for computer program.

Browser
A Browser is an application that allows the photographer to sort and rename the pictures in his or her collection.

Burning
Burning means darkening part of a photograph. In the darkroom, it's done by blocking some of the light that would normally reach the rest of the photo. In digital photo editing, it's usually a paintbrush-like tool built into the application.

CD
Compact Disks are the typical means of storing digital photographs. They hold about 700 megabytes of information, and can be CD-R for writeable CDs and CD-RW for re-writeable CDs.

Cloning
Cloning is an image editing term for copying one part of the image into another part of the same image or a different image entirely. It's used for painting out unwanted items, like electric lines.

CMYK
CMYK is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. These are the four colors used in the standard printing process. It's also a color mode in photo editing programs.

Compact Flash
Compact Flash is one form of digital camera media. It was the original standard, and is still one of the most common formats.

Cropping
Cropping involves chopping out part of a picture. You might crop to focus attention on the real subject, or to remove extra stuff that intruded on the picture.

DVD

When it comes to storing digital pictures, a DVD is basically a monster-sized CD. It will hold over four and a half gigabytes of data.

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