25 essential terms that every photographer must know

Getting used to the sheer number of technical terms and numbers in photography can be pretty overwhelming for beginners. There are a lot of them out there. But you don’t really need to know about all of them from day one. But there are some that you’ll want to learn and understand first.

You’ll hear these terms quite often if you hang around other photographers or partake in any of the photography groups on Facebook. They might confuse you at first, but this video from Apalapse goes through 25 of the most important and breaks down exactly what they mean.

All of them are fairly common terms used on a daily basis in the world of photography. And it’s a pretty comprehensive and potentially intimidating list if you’re new. But when each is explained in simple terms, they’re quite easy to get to grips with.

• Aperture – 0:20
• Focal Ratio – 0:44
• Focal Length – 0:53
• Depth of Field – 1:15
• Bokeh – 1:33
• “T-Stop” – 2:08
• Shutter Speed – 2:36
• Exposure – 3:09
• Long Exposure – 3:21
• “Exposure Triangle” – 3:35
• ISO – 4:06
• Brightness – 4:42
• Noise – 5:24
• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) – 5:33
• Expose to the Right (ETTR) – 6:39
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) – 7:45
• RAW Image Mode – 8:08
• JPEG Image Mode – 8:11
• Post Production – 8:21
• Auto Shooting Mode -8:54
• Meter – 8:58
• Auto ISO – 9:22
• Shutter Priority Mode – 9:24
• Aperture Priority Mode – 10:04
• Manual Mode – 10:23

Chances are, if you’ve been into photography for a while, few or none of these terms will be new to you. But it may still be worth watching the video to give you some ideas on how to explain those terms to others.

But if you’re new to photography, and weren’t sure what some of these meant, now you know. Although it may leave you asking even more questions.