A room in which total darkness is achievable, permitting light-sensitive materials such as film to be handled without fear of their exposure to light.

Color film designed to render correct color balance when exposed in normal daylight.

An electronic flash unit that integrates automatically with a specific camera’s exposure meter and exposure controls, permitting simplified, fully-automatic use of the flash. A dedicated flash is designed to work with a particular brand or type of camera.

Sharpness of an image (as seen by the clarity of detail) formed by an optical system.

The relative opacity (blackness) of an area of a negative, a transparency or a print. The greater the density, the less light can be transmitted through it. (Sometimes density is also referred to as "Contrast.")

A zone of focus in the camera. If an image is focused on a ground glass screen in a camera, depth of focus makes it possible to move the screen slightly backward or forward and still have the image in acceptable focus.

A solution for developing a film or photographic paper - i.e. for turning an exposed film's or paper's latent image into an image that can be seen.

Container that is light-proof, used for processing exposed film.

A ring or plate with a hole in the center that controls the amount of light entering the camera. An adjustable diaphragm in a lens controls the size of the hole, or aperture, thereby permitting more or less light to pass through the lens to the film.

A phenomenon exhibited by a light’s wave front when passing the edge of an opaque object (one that does not allow light to pass through it). The light becomes modulated, causing a redistribution of the light’s energy within the wave front. You will see it at the edges of the object’s shadow, in the form of minute dark and light bands. The edges of the shadow have a fuzzy appearance. Think of ripples meeting a rock in a pond. They go around the rock in a new series of ripples that can be seen on the sides of the rock. Light waves behaving in a similar manner are said to be diffracted.

A phenomenon exhibited by a light’s wave front when passing the edge of an opaque object (one that does not allow light to pass through it). The light becomes modulated, causing a redistribution of the light’s energy within the wave front. You will see it at the edges of the object’s shadow, in the form of minute dark and light bands. The edges of the shadow have a fuzzy appearance. Think of ripples meeting a rock in a pond. They go around the rock in a new series of ripples that can be seen on the sides of the rock. Light waves behaving in a similar manner are said to be diffracted.

Light that is scattered and spread out as opposed to specular light. Diffused light is softer than direct light, with shadows that are less sharply-defined (lower contrast).

Material that diffuses light. A diffuser may be a translucent material or a rough-surfaced reflective material, both of which scatter light’s rays, thereby softening the light.

1) Softening of detail in a print with a diffusion disk or other light-scattering material. 2) Moderating light so that is softened (diffused), generally either by reflecting it off a material that scatters the light, or by placing a diffusing panel of translucent material between the light source and the subject.

A camera that takes pictures without film, but instead records the image on an image sensor chip in a format that is readable by a computer.

Misrepresentation of proportions of objects or of their arrangement in a scene. The two main types of lens distortion are: (1) Barrel distortion, in which the straight lines near the edges of the viewframe appear bowed outward from the center, like a barrel-shape; and (2) Pincushion distortion in which the same lines bend in towards the center.

Blocking a portion of the light when printing a photograph so that an area of the print will be made lighter.

Exposing the same film frame twice. A typical double-exposure shows the same subject twice in the same image.