Digital Photography Glossary

Aperture	A small, circular opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor as a picture is taken
Application	A computer program, such as an image editor or image browser
Archival	The ability of a material, including some printing papers and compact discs, to last for many years
Buffer	Memory in the camera that stores digital photos before they are written to the memory card
Burning	Selectively darkening part of a photo with an image editing program
CCD	Charge Coupled Device: one of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras
CD-R	CD-Recordable: a compact disc that holds either 650 or 700 MB of digital information, including digital photos
CD-RW	CD-Rewritable: similar in virtually all respects to a CD-R, except that a CD-RW disc can be written and erased many times
CMOS	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor: one of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras
CMYK	Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. The four colors in the inksets of many photo-quality printers
CompactFlash™	A common type of digital camera memory card, about the size of a matchbook
Contrast	The difference between the darkest and lightest areas in a photo. The greater the difference, the higher the contrast
Digital camera	A camera that captures the photo not on film, but in an electronic imaging sensor that takes the place of film
Dodging	Selectively lightening part of a photo with an image editing program
Download, downloading	The process of moving computer data from one location to another
DPI	Dots per inch
EXIF	Exchangeable Image File, the file format used by most digital cameras
External flash	A supplementary flash unit that connects to the camera with a cable, or is triggered by the light from the camera's internal flash
File	A computer document