Photo Glossary

Teleconverter

A device mounted between a camera body and the lens to increase the effective focal length of the lens.

Telephoto lens

A telephoto lens has a longer focal length and narrower field of view than a normal lens.

Texture

Broadly defined as the surface character of an object.

Thin negative

A negative that is underexposed or underdeveloped.

Thumbnail

A small representation of an image.

TIFF

Tagged Image File Format. A computer graphics lossless compression file format.

Time exposure

A comparatively long exposure made in seconds or minutes.

TLR

Twin lens reflex. A camera with two lenses the upper one is the viewfinder lens that has a mirror reflex view and the bottom one is the taking lens.

Tomography

Radiographic technique used in medial photography.

Tone

Refers to the gray values in an image.

Toning

Intensifying or changing the tone of a photographic print after processing. Common toning colors are sepia and blue.

Transmission

Passage of light through a transparent or translucent material.

Transmittance

The fraction of the incident light that passes through an object.

Transmitted light

Light which is passed through a transparent or translucent medium.

Transparency

A positive photographic image , which is produced on transparent film.

Transparent magnetic layer

Information storage layer built into Advanced Photo System film that enables enhanced information exchange capabilities.

Trigger

Term used to describe a shutter release.

Tripod

A three legged supporting stand used to hold the camera steady. Especially useful when using slow shutter speeds.

Tripod mount

A thread in the base plate that is used to connect to a tripod.

True color

This is used to describe 24-bit colour mode that can produce as many as 16.7million colours, creating a "true colour" image.

TTL metering

"Through the Lens" metering. A camera that takes exposure reading of the light that passes through the lens.

Tungsten light

Light from standard room lamps and ceiling fixtures, not fluorescent.

Tungsten type film

A color film that is color balanced to work under tungsten lighting.

Tungsten-light film

A colour film that is balanced to remove the yellow cast that you would obtain when taking pictures in tungsten light sources of 3200K.

TWAIN

A standardized interface that allows software to communicate with scanners and digital cameras.

Type A film

Color film that is color balanced for scenes illuminated by artificial light sources at a color temperature of 3400K, typically flood lamps.

Type B film

Color film that is color balanced for scenes illuminated by artificial light sources at a color temperature of 3200K, typically tungsten and household lamps.