Every camera word from the lessons, explained the plain way — plus example photos and a short clip so you can actually see what each one means.
59 words
Light from a small, bright source. It draws shadows with crisp, clearly defined edges.
Example: Noon sun or a phone flash straight at someone's face.
Left = hard light (sharp shadow). Right = soft light (fuzzy shadow).
See it in the lesson →Light from a big source. Shadows fade out gradually. It flatters faces.
Example: A cloudy sky, or a window with a thin curtain over it.
See it in the lesson →The main light — the brightest one doing most of the work on your subject.
Example: One desk lamp placed slightly off to the side of your subject's face.
See it in the lesson →A dimmer light on the opposite side that fills in the dark half so it isn't pitch black.
Example: A white sheet of paper bouncing the key light back onto the shadow side.
See it in the lesson →A light behind your subject. It puts a glowing outline on their hair so they don't blend into the wall.
Example: A small lamp on a shelf behind the person you're filming.
See it in the lesson →
The hour right after sunrise or right before sunset, when the sun is low and turns everything warm and orange.
Example: A walk at sunset — hair glows and shadows stretch out long.
Golden hour: low sun, warm color, glowing edges.
See it in the lesson →How bright or dark the whole picture is. Too much and it's white mush; too little and it's a dark cave.
Example: Tapping your phone screen and sliding the little sun icon up or down.
See it in the lesson →Camera at the same height as your subject's eyes. Feels normal, fair, and honest.
Example: Crouching to your dog's eye height instead of shooting from standing.
See it in the lesson →
Camera below your subject, pointing up. Makes them look tall, strong, and heroic.
Example: Setting the camera on the ground as a skater rolls past.
Shot from the ground up — instantly heroic.
See it in the lesson →Camera above, pointing down. Makes your subject look smaller, softer, or more vulnerable.
Example: Shooting down at someone working at a low table.
See it in the lesson →Straight down from above, like a bird flying over.
Example: The classic flat-lay photo of a meal on a table.
See it in the lesson →Shows the whole place so we know where the story is happening.
Example: The whole street scene before you cut in to one person.
See it in the lesson →
Fills the frame with one thing — usually a face — so we feel the emotion.
Example: Just the eyes and hands of someone opening a letter.
Nothing else in the frame — we only feel the feeling.
See it in the lesson →
Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid on your screen. Put the important stuff on a line, not smack in the middle.
Example: Placing a tree on the right grid line and the horizon on the bottom line.
Tree on the line, horizon on the line — feels balanced.
See it in the lesson →Lines in the picture that point toward your subject. Eyes follow lines.
Example: A sidewalk, fence, or long shadow aiming right at your subject.
See it in the lesson →Trimming the edges off a photo so the good part gets more room.
Example: Cutting a parked car out of the corner of your park photo.
See it in the lesson →The gap between the darkest darks and the brightest brights. A little more makes photos pop.
Example: Too much contrast turns a face into black blobs and white blobs.
See it in the lesson →Highlights are the bright parts, shadows are the dark parts. You can fix each one on its own.
Example: Sky looks blank white? Pull highlights down. Face too dark? Pull shadows up.
See it in the lesson →
How strong the colors are. A tiny bump helps; a big bump looks fake.
Example: Grass that glows like a highlighter means you went too far.
Left is normal. Right is way too much saturation.
See it in the lesson →The warm-or-cool mood of the colors — orange and cozy, or blue and chilly.
Example: Photos indoors often look too orange until you cool the white balance down.
See it in the lesson →Making edges crisper. A small amount helps; too much looks crunchy.
Example: Weird glowing outlines around hair = too much sharpening.
See it in the lesson →The strip in your editing app where clips sit in order, left to right.
Example: Dragging your best clip to the front so it plays first.
See it in the lesson →The first messy version of your edit. Every real movie starts as one — it's supposed to be ugly.
Example: All your clips in story order with the boring bits still attached.
See it in the lesson →Extra footage of hands, objects, and scenery. You lay it on top to hide cuts or show what someone is talking about.
Example: Someone says 'I love my camera' — you show a shot of the lens turning.
A 5-second b-roll detail clip: hands, lens, gentle camera move.
See it in the lesson →When you cut out the middle of a shot and the picture visibly jumps. B-roll or a new angle hides it.
Example: Snipping out 'ummm…' from the middle of a sentence.
See it in the lesson →Adjusting colors at the very end so all your clips match and the whole video has one mood.
Example: Making every clip a bit warmer so the day feels sunny all the way through.
See it in the lesson →The adjustable opening in a lens. Wide open (small f-number) lets in more light and blurs the background.
Example: f/1.8 for a soft-background portrait.
See it in the lesson →How long the sensor is exposed to light. Fast freezes motion, slow blurs it.
Example: 1/1000 to freeze a jumping skater.
See it in the lesson →How strongly the camera amplifies the light it captured. Higher helps in the dark but adds grain.
Example: ISO 3200 in a dim restaurant.
See it in the lesson →How wide or zoomed-in a lens sees, measured in millimeters.
Example: 24mm for a room, 85mm for a face.
See it in the lesson →A lens with one fixed focal length. Usually sharper and better in low light than a zoom.
Example: A 50mm f/1.8 'nifty fifty'.
See it in the lesson →Two common sensor sizes. Bigger sensors gather more light and blur backgrounds more easily.
Example: Full-frame handles a dark concert better.
See it in the lesson →How much of the photo, front to back, looks sharp.
Example: Shallow depth of field: eyes sharp, ears already soft.
See it in the lesson →The look of the out-of-focus areas, especially round highlights.
Example: Glowing circles from string lights behind a subject.
See it in the lesson →Technology that cancels small shakes so handheld shots stay steady.
Example: Walking video that doesn't bounce.
See it in the lesson →Dark glass in front of the lens so you can use slow shutters in bright light.
Example: Silky waterfall blur at noon.
See it in the lesson →A slow shutter that records motion as smooth blur or light trails.
Example: Car headlights turned into red ribbons.
See it in the lesson →Grainy speckles that show up when ISO is pushed high or shadows are lifted hard.
Example: Rough texture in a night sky.
See it in the lesson →An unprocessed file holding all the sensor data, giving far more editing room than JPEG.
Example: Rescuing a too-dark sky after the fact.
See it in the lesson →A graph of how dark and bright pixels are spread across the photo.
Example: A spike on the right means blown highlights.
See it in the lesson →Selectively brightening (dodge) or darkening (burn) small areas to shape attention.
Example: Brightening the eyes, darkening a bright corner.
See it in the lesson →A precise contrast and color tool where you bend a line to move tones.
Example: An S-curve for punchier contrast.
See it in the lesson →Editing with layers or instructions so the original file is never changed.
Example: Turning off an adjustment months later.
See it in the lesson →How many frames per second you record. 24fps feels cinematic, 60fps enables slow motion.
Example: Shooting 120fps to slow a splash down.
See it in the lesson →The method used to compress video. H.264 saves space; ProRes edits smoothly.
Example: Exporting H.264 for the web.
See it in the lesson →A small stand-in copy of footage that plays smoothly while you edit.
Example: Editing 4K on a laptop without stutter.
See it in the lesson →Flat, washed-out video recorded to keep maximum color-grading room.
Example: Grey-looking clips that grade beautifully.
See it in the lesson →A preset that maps one set of colors to another, often used to convert or style log footage.
Example: A film-look LUT applied to a whole timeline.
See it in the lesson →Letting audio start before or continue after the picture cut, so edits feel smooth.
Example: Hearing the next speaker before you see them.
See it in the lesson →Cutting between two shots that share shape or motion, linking them visually.
Example: A spinning wheel cutting to a spinning fan.
See it in the lesson →A motorized mount that smooths out camera movement while you walk.
Example: Gliding down a hallway with no bounce.
See it in the lesson →A tiny clip-on microphone worn on clothing for consistent dialogue.
Example: Interview audio that stays even when the head turns.
See it in the lesson →A directional microphone that picks up what it's pointed at and rejects the sides.
Example: Boomed just above frame at an interview.
See it in the lesson →30 seconds of the space's natural quiet, recorded to patch gaps in the edit.
Example: Filling silence so cuts don't sound dead.
See it in the lesson →Audio recorded too loud, causing harsh distortion that can't be repaired.
Example: A shouted word turning into a crackle.
See it in the lesson →Permission for a client to use your work in defined ways, for a defined time.
Example: One year of social media use only.
See it in the lesson →Written consent to use a recognizable person's likeness in commercial work.
Example: Signed before an ad shoot.
See it in the lesson →Exactly what the client receives: how many files, what format, by when.
Example: 30 edited photos plus a 60-second cut.
See it in the lesson →A one-page plan listing times, locations, contacts, and gear for a shoot day.
Example: Emailed to everyone the night before.
See it in the lesson →