Photography tutorials. Glossary A-M.

Glossary of Terms A-M

I will get round to filling this up eventually but it is pretty tedious.

A

agitation: Causing chemical solutions to move or flow over the film/paper surface ensuring a good supply of active solution at the point of surface contact.

aperture: A hole. The circular hole in the centre of a lens through which light passes to reach the film. The size of the hole can be varied using the aperture control which in turn alters a diaphragm within the body of the lens. Measured in f-stops. Altering by one F-stop either halves or doubles the amount of light reaching the film.

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C

contrast: Relationship between tones on negative or print. The range of grey tones produced between black and white.

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D

developer: Chemical solution containing a developing agent, as well as other constituents, which acts on exposed silver halide crystals in the photographics emuslion to produce a metallic silver image.
developing tank: Small plastic or stainless steel tank into which 35mm or 120 rollfilm can placed in, on spiral reels, for processing. Lightproof tops allow solutions to be poured in and out in daylight.
drying marks: If water drops form on the surface of drying film they will leave a residual mark as they dry.

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E

easel: Sits on baseboard of enlarger and holds paper flat and in position. Two or four adjustable blades adjust to fit different sizes of paper or border. Use to crop during printing.
edge number: Film has a clear unexposed strip running the length of both edges.This strip, called the rebate, is pre-exposed with edge numbers to identify each frame as well as a product code to identify the film make and type.
emulsion: The emulsion forms the light sensitive part of film or paper. The film base is usually polyester or tri-acetate which is then coated with a layer or layers of an emulsion made up of silver halide crystals in gelatin.
enlarger: Used to project a magnified image onto printing paper. Comprises a lamphouse, negative carrier and lens assembly which can be raised or lowered on a column to project an image onto a baseboard.

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Effect of extraneous light or accidental exposure on film or paper. Causes a grey veil in light areas. Gross fogging can turn film or prints completely black. Slight fogging will cause reduced contrast and is generally pretty bad news.It is also possible to fog chemically.

film leader

Shaped portion at the start of 35mm film used to aid loading.

film leader retriever

Device which can be inserted into a 35mm cassette to pull out a film leader which has been fully wound in. Useful if you want to re-use film that was removed mid-roll. Also helpful during film processing.

fixer

Chemical solution used after development. Converts unexposed and therefore undeveloped silver halide into soluble salts which can be washed out leaving behind the now stable silver image and rendering the film insensitive to light.

f-stop or f-number

Relative size of a lens aperture. Calculated by dividing the focal length by the effective aperture diameter. A one stop change in f-number effectively alters the amount reaching the film by a factor of two. Fortunately this is all done for you as lenses all come calibrated in f-stops. F-numbers are also used to gauge the relative speed or light gathering abilities of a lens. Smaller the number the faster the lens. Photographers also discuss exposure in terms of " stops". i.e. that one is a couple of stops over. You'll be doing it as well.

large aperture---f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32, f45, f64,---small aperture. Top