Photo Editing Terms 3 – I to M

Image Resolution
The Resolution is the number of pixels, or dots, in a picture.

Inkjet Printer
An Inkjet printer sprays tiny jets of ink onto paper.

ISO
The sensitivity of film is measured by ISO, and the larger the number, the more senstive the film. ISO 100 needs a lot of light, like outdoors on a sunny day. ISO 1600 doesn’t need much light. However, higher ISO means more grain in the film. Digital images borrowed the ISO scale to measure the sensitivity of a camera sensor. Just like the grain that’s added to film at higher ISO settings, more “noise” is added to digital images at higher ISO. In general, as ISO goes up, quality goes down.

JPG or JPEG
The Joint Photographic Experts Group developed a method for making digital images smaller while sacrificing only a little bit of quality in the process. This is called JPG compression, and is the most common picture format on the Internet.

Landscape
The word landscape, like portrait, actually has two meanings. The first and original is the photography term for a picture of wide open spaces, like a mountain or sunset. The second meaning is a description of the alignment of a picture. Pictures that are oriented horizontally–with the narrow sides upright–are known as Landscape images, whether they depict a mountain or not.

Layers
Think of Layers as sheets of tracing paper or transparency film laid over top of your image. Graphic designers use layers to separate out elements of their project, so that they can work on individual pieces without damaging others. Adjustment Layers are a special kind of layer that shows the results of whatever filter or function is attached to that layer.

Media
Media is a technical term for storage. Compact disks, memory chips, even floppy disks, are all storage media. Removeable media is a chip or disk that can be moved from one computer to another without losing data.