Photographers’ gobbledygook can be confusing! This photography dictionary will help you find the real significance behind that jargon.
Large format
As the name implies this is the largest of modern film formats (the most popular being 5"x4" & 10"x8"), and they are especially suitable for high quality commercial work.
(see Medium format)
Lastolite
Well known reflector manufacturer who created the photographers folding 'spring out of the bag' style reflectors and Backgrounds.
(see Reflector)
Latent image
The invisible image left by the action of light on photographic film or paper. The light changes the photosensitive salts and when processed, this latent image will become a visible image.
Latitude
The range of camera exposures from under to over exposure that will still produce an acceptable image from a specific film.
(see Exposure & Exposure latitude)
Leader
The beginning of a 35 mm or roll film, which is attached to the take-up spool.
(see Roll film & 35mm)
Lens shade
A Bellows or Hood at the front of a lens that keeps unwanted light from striking the lens and causing image flare. Should be sized to the particular lens to avoid vignetting.
(see Bellows, Flare, Hood & Vignetting)
Lens Speed
The largest lens opening, e.g. f2 not f16. A fast lens transmits more light and has a larger opening than a slow lens.
(see f-stop & Slow lens)
Also called a Plenoptic camera. Uses a multi Microlens array to capture a scene. The need for initial focusing is eliminated as the chosen focus point and depth of field is calculated using 'Synthetic Aperture Photography' in post-capture computation. Go to http://raytrix.de for further explanation.
(see Lytro light-field camera, Microlens, Plenoptic illumination, Synthetic Aperture Photography)
Lith film
Very high-contrast B&W film which, after correct development with a special lith developer, gives negatives of black and white only (with no greys).
(see Contrast & Dev.)
Long lens
Term describing a lens in which the focal length is much greater than the diagonal of the film format (or standard lens) with which it is used. e.g. 300mm on 35mm format where the standard is just 50mm.
(see Focal length, Standard lens & Tele)
Lossy
Many file formats use compression to reduce the file size of bitmap images (digital photo). Lossless techniques compress the file without removing image detail or colour information; lossy techniques remove detail. JPEG is the most common file format in digital photography but this is a "Lossy" file format. TIFF with LZW(Lemple-Zif-Welch) compression is the most popular lossless file format.
(see JPEG & TIFF)
Low key
Term describing a photograph in which the tones are mostly dark and there are few highlights.
(see High key)
Low Resolution (Low Res)
An image file that is one megabyte or less in size when opened in an image editing application. Useful for presentation purposes but insufficient for high quality printed reproduction except at small sizes.
(see Megabyte)
Lumen
Measurement of "candle power" or light output, a unit of light falling on a surface.
A compact Plenoptic camera which uses existing photographic knowledge in a new way. An exciting prospect for the consumer market; although it is probably destined to become just a 'web tool' because of the technologically restricted image size of its output format. Go to https://www.lytro.com for more information.
(see Light-field camera, Plenoptic illumination, Compact camera)
Peter Ashby-Hayter, Bristol, U.K. Bristol Photographer
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