9
Photography Terms and Definitions
Terms
Definitions
Auto Focus
(AF)
Auto focus refers to a camcorder lens’ ability to
adjust its configuration in order to focus properly on
a subject regardless of whether it is near or far from
the camcorder. Auto focus lenses generally provide
vastly superior image quality than do their fixed
focus cousins since they do not have to rely on their
depth of field. Also known as: “AF”, “auto-focus”.
White
Balance
The adjustment of electronic still picture color
channel gains or image processing so that radiation
with relative spectral power distribution equal to that
of the scene illumination source is rendered as a
visual neutral.
Auto White
Balance
(AWB)
With auto white balance, the camcorder attempts to
determine the color temperature of the light and
automatically adjust for that color temperature.
Many people just leave the camcorder set to auto
white balance all the time.
Digital Print
Order
Format
(DPOF)
A standardized ASCII file created in a digital
camcorder and stored on removable media along
with the image files that indicate how many copies
of which images should be printed. It also allows
index prints, cropping, and text overlays to be
specified.
Exif/JPEG
A compressed file format for digital camcorder in
which the images are compressed using the
baseline JPEG standard, described in ISO 12234-2,
and metadata and thumbnail images are stored
using TIFF tags within an application segment at
the beginning of the JPEG file.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group. An image
compression method defined in ISO/IEC 10918-1.
