The words that turn up in spot captions — aviation and ATC jargon, photography vocabulary, and spotter slang. Terms found in a caption link straight here.
All Aviation Photography Slang 44 terms
A aperture The adjustable opening in a lens that controls how much light reaches the sensor, expressed as an f-number. aperture priority An exposure mode in which you set the aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed. autofocus Automatic focusing, driven by the camera's detection of contrast or phase differences in the scene. B back-lit Lit from behind, with the light source on the far side of the subject from the camera. blue hour The twilight period before sunrise and after sunset when the sky is deeply and evenly blue. bokeh The visual quality of the out-of-focus parts of an image, as distinct from how much of it is out of focus. bracketing Shooting the same frame at several exposures so at least one is right, or so they can be combined. burst mode Shooting a rapid sequence of frames while the shutter button is held. C chromatic aberration Coloured fringing caused by a lens focusing different wavelengths at slightly different points. clipping Loss of detail where tones exceed what the sensor or file can record, leaving pure white or pure black. crop factor The ratio between a sensor's diagonal and that of a 35mm frame, used to compare fields of view across formats. crop sensor A sensor smaller than a 35mm frame, most commonly APS-C at around 24 by 16 millimetres. D depth of field The range of distances that appear acceptably sharp in an image. dynamic range The span between the darkest and brightest tones a sensor can record in one exposure. F f-stop The aperture expressed as the ratio of focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil. focal length The optical property, in millimetres, that determines a lens's angle of view and magnification. full frame A sensor the size of a 35mm film frame, around 36 by 24 millimetres. G golden hour The period after sunrise and before sunset when low sun gives warm, soft, strongly directional light. H heat haze The shimmering distortion caused by light passing through air of varying temperature. histogram A graph of how many pixels fall at each brightness level in an image. I image stabilisation Optical or sensor-shift compensation for camera shake, allowing sharp handheld frames at slower shutter speeds. ISO The setting that controls how strongly a sensor's signal is amplified, and so how much light an exposure needs. J JPEG A compressed, already-rendered image format, and the usual out-of-camera output. L lens flare Stray light scattered inside a lens, appearing as haze, streaks or a chain of coloured ghosts. long exposure An exposure long enough for movement to record as a trail or a smear. M metering The camera's measurement of scene brightness, used to choose an exposure. monopod A single-legged camera support that carries a lens's weight while leaving it free to swing. N noise Random variation in an image that is not part of the scene, seen as grain or coloured speckle. P panning Following a moving subject with the camera at a slow shutter speed, so the subject stays sharp while the background blurs. pixel peeping Judging an image by inspecting it at 100% magnification or beyond. polariser A filter that blocks light of one polarisation, cutting reflections and deepening a blue sky. prime lens A lens with a single fixed focal length rather than a zoom. R RAW A file holding the sensor's minimally processed data, rather than a rendered image. rule of thirds A composition guide that places key elements along lines dividing the frame into thirds. S shutter priority An exposure mode in which you set the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture. shutter speed How long the sensor is exposed to light for a single frame. silhouette A subject rendered as a dark shape against a bright background. spot metering Metering from a small area of the frame rather than the whole scene. T teleconverter A supplementary optic between lens and body that multiplies the focal length. tripod A three-legged support that holds a camera steady. V vignetting A darkening of the image towards its corners. W white balance The adjustment that makes neutral tones in a scene render as neutral, compensating for the colour of the light. 
