Photography Terms: A Glossary for Samsung Galaxy Users

There’s lots of terminology in photography that guides and tutorials assume you already know, and plenty of confusing names in your camera’s menus. So we’ve pulled together the terms you’re most likely to come across and explained what they mean in plain English. We’ve grouped them by theme: exposure, lenses and focus, light, composition, files and editing, and the names Samsung uses in the Galaxy camera.

If a term is likely to appear in your phone’s settings, we’ll tell you where to look. Menu names are from a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9 (as checked in our linked guides), and some options may appear under slightly different names on older phones and in the Galaxy A range. Each entry links to the guide that covers it in detail, and our photography basics path puts the most important ones in a sensible order.

Exposure terms

• Exposure: Exposure controls how bright or dark an image is. In photography, good exposure means that your important highlights and shadows retain as much detail as possible.
• Exposure triangle: Aperture, shutter speed and ISO determine the exposure of an image. Adjusting one requires you to adjust another in order to compensate for the change in exposure. Our exposure triangle guide explains it with Galaxy examples.
• Stop: In photography, a stop means doubling or halving the amount of light that reaches the sensor. Going from 1/125s to 1/60s, or from ISO 200 to ISO 400, is one stop brighter.
• Aperture: The opening in the lens that lets light through, expressed as an f-number such as f/1.7. On Galaxy phones the aperture size is fixed for each lens, so there’s no aperture setting in Pro mode. See aperture and depth of field explained.
• f-number (f-stop): The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture, so smaller numbers mean a wider opening. For example, f/1.4 lets more light reach the sensor than f/2.4.
• Shutter speed: Shutter speed is the amount of time the camera sensor is exposed to light when taking a photo. On recent Galaxy flagships, shutter speed can range from fractions of a second all the way up to 30 seconds in Pro mode. A fast shutter speed can freeze motion while a slow shutter speed can blur it. Our shutter speed guide has settings for each subject.
• ISO: How much the signal from the camera sensor is amplified, which brightens the image in dim light. As ISO goes up, so does image noise. In Pro mode the control is labelled ISO. See our ISO guide.
• Base ISO: The lowest ISO setting a camera offers, which usually gives the cleanest image. On many recent Galaxy flagships that's ISO 50 in Pro mode.
• Noise: Image noise manifests itself as grain and blotchy colour in images shot with a high ISO setting or in dim light. Modern phones use noise reduction to hide much of this at the expense of fine detail like leaves and hair.
• Exposure compensation (EV): Exposure compensation allows you to tell the camera to produce an image that’s brighter (+) or darker (-) than it would by itself. Each 1.0 EV adjustment equates to one stop. To adjust exposure compensation in Photo mode, tap to focus and drag the brightness slider.
• Metering: Metering refers to the way in which the camera measures the light in a scene in order to determine exposure. For example, it may take into account the entire image or emphasise the centre. Metering options in Galaxy’s Pro mode include Center-weighted, Matrix and Spot.
• Overexposed and blown highlights: Overexposure is when an image is too bright. Overexposed highlights (also called clipped or blown highlights) are pure white areas with no detail, such as a bright sky behind a person.
• Underexposed and crushed shadows: Underexposure occurs when an image is too dark. Underexposed shadows (aka clipped or crushed shadows) appear as areas of pure black.
• Histogram: A histogram shows the spread of dark, mid-tone and bright pixels in an image. A pile-up against the right-hand edge means overexposed highlights. Many editing apps, including Lightroom, can show one. In Galaxy Pro mode, the Exposure monitor does a similar job, with Zebra pattern and False color options that mark the brightest areas of the image.
• Dynamic range: Dynamic range refers to the difference between the darkest and brightest areas of an image that the camera can record and is expressed in stops. Dynamic range is especially important when shooting scenes with both bright skies and dark shadows.
• HDR (high dynamic range): HDR refers to techniques used to increase the dynamic range of an image either by combining multiple shots taken at different exposures or manipulating a single image during post-processing. HDR images retain more detail in both highlights and shadows. Galaxy phones apply HDR processing automatically when shooting in Photo mode. HDR can also refer to video and displays that incorporate techniques to increase brightness (and therefore dynamic range) especially in the highlights. See what HDR is.
• Long exposure: Long exposure refers to using a slow shutter speed (typically one second or longer) to increase the amount of light striking the sensor. Long exposures can be used to smooth water, capture light trails from moving cars or take photos of the stars. Long exposures typically require a tripod to avoid camera shake.
• Motion blur: Motion blur occurs when either the subject or camera (or both!) move during an exposure. Depending on context it may be undesirable or the very point of the photo.

Lens and focus terms

• Focal length: The strength of magnification a lens provides, measured in millimetres. Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths and telephotos have long ones. The Galaxy’s lens buttons don’t show the millimetres, so our focal length guide converts them.
• 35mm equivalent: Because phone lenses are so small, manufacturers describe them by the focal length a conventional full-frame camera would need to produce the same view. For example, the main camera on many Galaxy phones is quoted as a 24mm equivalent.
• Wide angle and ultra-wide: The main (1x) camera on Galaxy phones is a wide-angle lens, while the 0.6x camera is an ultra-wide angle.
• Telephoto: Telephoto lenses have long focal lengths and are useful for compressing perspective and magnifying distant subjects. The 3x and 5x cameras on Galaxy Ultra phones are telephotos. The S24 and S25 Ultra use a periscope lens for their 5x camera, and the S26 Ultra a related prism design. See our telephoto lens guide.
• Periscope lens: A periscope lens bends light using a prism, allowing a telephoto lens to be incorporated into a thin phone.
• Optical zoom vs digital zoom: Optical zoom uses a lens with a longer focal length, so image detail is preserved. Digital zoom simply crops and enlarges the image. Samsung calls its 2x and 10x steps optical quality because they’re crops from high-resolution sensors.
• Space Zoom: Samsung’s term for its digital zoom. The Ultra phones can zoom digitally as far as 100x. It’s best used when you need a record photo of something really distant, like a sign or the moon, rather than for images you want to keep. See our 100x zoom guide.
• Perspective: The relative size of near and far objects, which is determined by the distance you shoot from rather than the lens. This is why a wide angle up close looks so different from a telephoto taken from a distance, such as in portrait photography.
• Focus and autofocus (AF): Focus decides which distance in the scene is sharp. Galaxy phones focus automatically, and you can tap the screen to choose the point you’d like to focus on.
• Manual focus (MF): Setting focus yourself, which you can do in Pro mode. Handy for close-ups, astrophotography and other situations where autofocus struggles.
• Focus peaking: In manual focus mode, in-focus areas are outlined in colour. In One UI 9 this can be enabled/disabled via Camera Assistant > Focus.
• AE/AF lock: On a Galaxy phone you turn it on by touching and holding the screen. It locks focus and exposure so they don’t change when you recompose. See our AE/AF lock guide.
• Depth of field: Depth of field is the zone of acceptable sharpness in a photo. Backgrounds are blurred in images with a shallow depth of field, while deep depth of field results in everything being acceptably sharp. On phones it’s mostly down to which camera you select and how close you get.
• Bokeh: The aesthetic of out-of-focus areas, particularly lights. See bokeh explained.
• Portrait mode: The Galaxy camera mode that blurs the background in software, using depth information. The strength of the blur can be adjusted with the Portrait effect slider. See our Portrait mode guide.
• Hyperfocal distance: Hyperfocal distance is the focus distance that maximises depth of field, extending from roughly half the distance to infinity. It’s often used in landscape photography. See hyperfocal distance explained.
• Circle of confusion: The largest blur circle that will appear acceptably sharp. All depth-of-field calculations hinge on this. See circle of confusion explained.
• Macro: Photographing small subjects very close up. On many Galaxy phones you can use the ultra-wide camera to get close, and newer models switch to it automatically with Focus enhancer on. See our macro guide.
• Sensor size: The physical size of the image sensor. Larger sensors can gather more light, produce less noisy photos at high ISOs and blur backgrounds more easily. Phone sensors are measured in fractions of an inch (for example, 1/1.3-inch).
• Megapixels (MP): Image resolution, measured in megapixels. A higher resolution allows greater cropping freedom. Most Galaxy phones default to 12MP for cleaner, smaller files. See 12MP vs 50MP vs 200MP.
• OIS (optical image stabilisation): Image stabilisation physically moves a lens element/sensor to compensate for camera shake, enabling slower shutter speeds when shooting handheld.

Light and colour terms

• Golden hour: The period shortly after sunrise or before sunset, when the light can be warm, soft and directional. See our golden hour guide.
• Blue hour: The period of twilight shortly before sunrise or after sunset when the sun is just below the horizon. The sky can take on a deep blue hue that photographs well balanced with artificial city lights.
• Hard and soft light: Hard light comes from a relatively small source, or a distant one like the sun, and makes shadows with hard edges. Think midday sun. Soft light comes from a relatively large source and makes shadows with soft edges that wrap nicely around faces. Think light through a window, or an overcast day.
• Backlight: Light that shines from behind your subject, towards your camera. It can make nice silhouettes and glowing outlines around subjects, and it’s the trickiest light to expose for.
• Silhouette: A subject that appears as a dark shape against a brighter background. To get one, expose for the bright background, and drag the brightness slider down if your phone tries to expose for the darker foreground.
• White balance (WB): How you adjust the colours in an image so that white objects appear white in different lighting situations. On a Galaxy, you can choose a white balance preset or a temperature (in Kelvin) in Pro mode. See our white balance guide.
• Colour temperature and Kelvin (K): A measurement of the colour of light. Tungsten (incandescent) bulbs and candles give off warm light (2000K to 3200K), daylight is around 5500K, and light in the shade or on an overcast day is cooler (bluer), 6500K and up.
• Colour cast: An unwanted colour tint in an image. Some situations that can cause colour casts are shooting indoors (can get an orange cast) or under certain kinds of artificial light, like fluorescents (can get a green cast). You can correct colour casts using white balance.

Composition terms

• Composition: Where you place things in the frame. It’s the cheapest way to improve a photo, because it needs no camera settings.
• Composition guide (grid lines): On the Galaxy, enable the grid and level by going to Camera settings › General › Composition guide. See our grid lines guide.
• Rule of thirds: Imagine a 3×3 grid overlaid on your image. Position points of interest along the grid lines or at the intersections. See our rule of thirds guide.
• Focal point: The area of an image that first attracts the viewer’s attention. Good pictures have just one of these. See focal point in photography.
• Leading lines: Lines (roadways, railways, fences, coastline, etc.) that direct the viewer’s attention into the picture, often towards the focal point. See our leading lines guide.
• Framing: Using an object (window, doorway, archway, tree branches, etc.) to create a frame around the subject. See our framing guide.
• Symmetry: Left/right (or top/bottom) balance, e.g. building façades, reflections. Symmetry is one of the few occasions when you might place your subject smack in the middle of the frame. See our symmetry guide.
• Negative space: Areas of an image devoid of detail, e.g. sky, ocean, blank wall. Negative space helps emphasise the subject by providing some ‘elbow room’. See our negative space guide.
• Foreground interest: Including an object (flower, rock, etc.) close to the camera can add a sense of depth to a landscape image. See our foreground interest guide.
• Rule of odds: Subjects often look more natural in threes and fives than in even numbers. See our rule of odds guide.
• Golden ratio: A ratio (~1:1.618) that supposedly occurs frequently in nature and can be superimposed on images as a grid or spiral. Similar in effect to the rule of thirds, its importance is often overstated. See golden ratio composition.
• Patterns and texture: Repetition of similar elements, and the fine detail of surfaces (tree bark, brickwork, etc.). Texture is emphasised by side lighting. See patterns and textures.
• Aspect ratio: The shape of the image, such as 4:3, 16:9 or 1:1. Unless you change it, your phone captures 4:3 images (3:4 held upright), because that’s the shape of the camera sensor.

File and editing terms

• JPEG: This is your standard photo file. Your phone will have already done some processing/compression, meaning it’s ready to share and smaller in size, but less flexible for major editing.
• HEIF (High efficiency pictures): This file format maintains photo quality with smaller file sizes. On your Galaxy phone this can be enabled in Camera settings › Photos › Photo format › High efficiency pictures.
• RAW and DNG: This file format maintains much of the information the sensor picked up, meaning you can tweak the highlights/shadows and white balance more. On a Galaxy phone this will be a DNG file and can be shot in either Pro mode or with the Expert RAW app. See RAW vs JPEG.
• Expert RAW: A camera app from Samsung (free for compatible Galaxy phones) that shoots RAW images, combining multiple shots for greater dynamic range. See our Expert RAW guide.
• Computational photography: One photo built from several frames that are combined to cut noise, keep highlight detail and increase sharpness. Almost every photo your Galaxy takes in Photo mode is made this way.
• Noise reduction and sharpening: Digital processing to reduce noise/grain and increase edge definition. Too much of these will result in that plastic/over sharpened look people complain about.
• Highlights and shadows sliders: These controls can be found in many photo editors (Lightroom and Snapseed for example) and can be used to selectively lighten/darken areas of an image, rather than applying adjustments to the whole image.
• Crop: Altering the aspect ratio/composition of your photo by removing some/all of the outer parts. As you’re deleting image information with every crop, it’s always best to get your composition right in camera.

Galaxy camera terms

• Photo mode: The default camera mode, with automatic exposure, focus and HDR.
• Pro mode: For manual control over ISO, shutter speed, exposure, focus and white balance (in More › Pro). See our Pro mode guide.
• Night mode: Takes several shots in low light and combines them for brighter, clearer images. See our Night mode guide.
• Scene detection (Scene optimizer): Automatically recognises scenes such as sunsets and food and adjusts colour and contrast. On One UI 9 it’s called Scene detection, under Camera settings › Photo enhancer. See our Scene optimizer guide.
• Camera Assistant: Samsung’s free app that adds extra camera settings, including focus peaking, Photo mode ISO and shutter speed limits, softening control and an Auto HDR switch. See our Camera Assistant guide.
• Motion photo: Saves a few seconds of video leading up to taking a photo. See our Motion photos guide.
• Single take: Takes stills and video simultaneously so you can choose the best of either (found in Camera Assistant › Additional modes in One UI 9). See our Single take guide.
• ProVisual Engine: Samsung’s name for the AI image processing in Galaxy phones since the S24 series. Our Galaxy AI hub explains what it does.

Frequently asked questions