Photography News
The name of a hugely popular series of low-cost, easy-to-use cameras made by Kodak. First sold in 1963, Instamatics used Kodak’s cartridge-based 126 film. In 1972, the company introduced the Pocket Instamatic, which used the smaller 110 film.
Antialiasing
A method of smoothing diagonal or curved lines in digital images to avoid a ‘staircase’ or ‘stepped’ appearance (also called ‘jaggies’), caused by the fact that the pixels making up an image are discrete blocks of colour.
Angle of view
A measurement of how much a lens can see of a scene from a particular position, usually measured in degrees. The longer the focal length of the lens, the narrower the angle of view. Zoom lenses have adjustable angles of view.
The ABC of Photography -Auto-bracketing
A feature on some cameras that enables you to automatically shoot a sequence of shots of the same scene at slightly different shutter speeds (or aperture settings) from the ‘correct exposure’. This feature can be used if there’s some doubt that the meter reading is accurate for a particular subject. It can also be used to shoot a sequence that’s combined into one high dynamic range image. See HDR. Other auto-bracketing features available on some cameras include automatic flash, ISO or white balance bracketing.
Astrophotography
Photography achieved by attaching a camera to a telescope and concerned with recording images of astronomical objects in the night sky such as stars, planets and the moon. Astrophotography can also be used to record astronomical objects invisible to the human eye by using long exposures.
A lens element that has a surface that isn’t perfectly spherical. All camera lenses are made up of a number of individual lenses or elements. Many of these elements are spherical, as if cut from a sphere. A-spherical elements are less rounded and are used in wide-angle and wide-aperture lenses to help provide distortion-free images.
Ambient light
The existing light in a particular scene, which may be sunlight, moonlight or an artificial light already providing illumination. It excludes any light source added by the photographer, such as flash or studio lighting.
Alternative processes
This term refers to a range of photographic processes, mostly dating from the late 19th and early 20th century, which devotees continue to use for their unique qualities. They include the daguerreotype, gum bichromate, cyanotype, salt print, bromoil, platinum, and palladian processes.
Albumen print
A type of photographic print invented in 1850 by Frenchman Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard (1802-1872). It consists of a sheet of paper coated in egg white (albumen) and salt, then dipped in a light-sensitive silver nitrate solution. The paper, when dried, is overlaid with a glass negative and exposed to the sun. The albumen print was widely used until the late 19th century.
AF illuminator
This is a system used by some cameras and flashguns to assist autofocus in low light. A pattern of red light is projected on to the subject, which aids the contrast-detection autofocus to adjust the lens correctly.