| CVBS | Chrominance, Video, Blanking, and Synchronization i.e. a composite video signal. |
| Cut-In | a brief CU or ECU of the main subject |
| Cutaway | a shot of a subject related to the main subject (but not the main subject itself) |
| Cut | A technique of moving instantly from one image (sound) to another. Often used in editing |
| Curves | Allows you to control your color changes precisely and from the entire tonal spectrum. The Curves tool also allows you to preview changes as you make them, as well as view the changes to the ink values in the Info palette at the same time. |
| CUR | This is a file format for storing Windows cursors (mouse pointers). Many imaging applications do not load or save transparency information in these files. The size when you write these images should be exactly 32-by-32 pixels. |
| CU | (Close-Up) A shot taken close to the subject. The CU explains the action definitively |
| CS | Photoshop’s camera suite |
| CRT | Cathode Ray Tube AKA old style (not flat screen) TV/monitors |
| Cropping margin | different monitors can crop the image to less than full frame. There is a safe area in the frame inside which the image is unlikely to be cropped |
| CPU | Central Processing Unite, used to compute exposure |
| Convex Lens | A lens in which the principal optical surface bulges outwards. |
| Conversion lens | A supplementary lens that fits in front of the camcorder lens. Can be wide angle or telephoto |
| Control Track | Electronic signal recorded on video tape which tells the VCR how fast/slow to play the tape |
| contrast | the difference in desity between parts of an image. High contrast, for example, denotes larger differences with blacker blacks and whiter whites. |
| Continuous tone | An image containing the illusion of smooth graduations between highlights and shadows |
| Continuous | (C) the camera's ability to continuously focus on a moving subject |
| Continuity | Unbroken flow of scenes |
| Conté Crayon | Replicates the texture of dense dark and pure white Conté crayons on an image. The Conté Crayon filter uses the foreground color for dark areas and the background color for light areas. |
| Contact sheet | A sheet that contains thumbnails of images. Contact sheets can be used to catalog images on your computer, in your digital library, for your library of logos and designs, or to offer choices for different photos or logos to clients. You can automatically create a contact sheet using the File>Automate>Contact Sheet II command |
| Concave Lens | A lens in which the principal optical surface curves into the body of the glass, i.e. the glass has a hollow or dent. |
| Compression | Many file formats use compression to reduce the file size of bitmap images. Lossless techniques compress the file without removing image detail or color information; lossy techniques remove detail. |
| Composite video | Used by VHS and standard 8mm. The signals for colour and luminance are combined in one signal. |
| Compact Flash Type II | Slightly thicker than type Compact flash type I and with greater capacity. Most common type is IBM's Microdrive |
| Compact Flash Type I | Most common type of storage card with identical contacts to PCMCIA cards (found on laptops). |
| Compact Cameras | Cameras where the lens is built-in to the camera body. AKA Point and shoot, digicams |
| Compact | Type of camera that does not employ a SLR viewfinder. |
| ColorSync | System level software developed by Apple, designed to work together with hardware devices to facilitate predictable color |
| Color Wheel | Theoretical representation of color spectrum where all colors have an opposite. |
| Color Temperature | The precise color of a light source. |
| Color Space | The actual color information put out by a device |
| Color palette | Displays information on the current foreground and background colors and allows you to change the colors as desired and/or base the colors on different color models. |
| Color Modes | Color modes determine the number of colors that can be displayed in an image, and affect the file size of an image. e.g. 1 bit, grayscale, RGB. |
| Color Mode | For (a given image size) you need 256 times the number of pixels to represent a (8 Bit) grayscale image compared to a (1 Bit) B&W image! |
| Color Management | The process of managing color throughout the digital workflow. |
| Color Halftone | Simulates the effect of using an enlarged halftone screen on each channel of the image. For each channel, the filter divides the image into rectangles and replaces each rectangle with a circle. The circle size is proportional to the brightness of the rectangle. |
| Color Gamut | The range of colors provided by a hardware device, or a set of pigments |
| Color Calibration | This is the process of adjusting your monitor to compensate for factors that affect both the onscreen image and its conversion to printed output. |
| CMYK | Cyan, Magenta, yellow, Black. The inks used in fourcolor process printing. |
| CMY | Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. The 'subtractive' primary colors. Colorspace representation used in conventional print photography. |
| CMP | This is the LEAD CMP compressed format for grayscale and color images. This format results in smaller files and better image quality than industry-standard formats. |
| CMOS | Abbreviation of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. [Pronounced seemoss,] CMOS is a widely used type of semiconductor chip for digital cameras. |
| close-up | Photography of smaller subjects (larger than macro) shot close, typically six inches from the lens reproducing greater than 1:3 |
| Clone | a selection moved to another part of the bitmap. Usually this is chosen to blend in e.g. so that you can hide a blemish |
| clipping group | In a clipping group, the bottommost layer, or base layer, acts as a mask for the entire group. For example, you might have a shape on one layer, a texture on the overlying layer, and some text on the topmost layer. If you define all three layers as a clipping group, the texture and the text appear only through the shape on the base layer, and take on the opacity of the base layer. |
| Clipboard | The temporary storage of something that has been cut or copied. |
| Clam shell | A housing that splits longitudinally down the middle |
| Chrome | Treats the image as if it were a polished chrome surface. Highlights are high points and shadows are low points in the reflecting surface. After applying the filter, use the Levels dialog box to add more contrast to the image. |
| Chroma | (chrominance) The colour portion of a video signal |
| Charcoal | Redraws an image to create a posterized, smudged effect. Major edges are boldly drawn, while midtones are sketched using a diagonal stroke. Charcoal is the foreground color, and the paper is the background color. |
| Character Generator | An accessory that allows the generation of letters and numbers |
| Channels | Channels are grayscale images that store different types of information: Color information channels are created automatically when you open a new image. You use alpha channels to create and store masks, which let you manipulate, isolate, and protect specific parts of an image. |
| Chalk & Charcoal | Redraws an image's highlights and midtones with a solid midtone gray back-ground drawn in coarse chalk. Shadow areas are replaced with black diagonal charcoal lines. The charcoal is drawn in the foreground color, the chalk in background color. |
| CFWA | Close Focus Wide Angle - shots taken with a wide angle or fisheye lens with a dominant close subject (usually strobe-lit) and wide angle background |
| Center Weighted | Metering system that places importance on an area of the image below the center (in landscape format). This corresponds to the best portion to meter in an average shot of land and sky. |
| CCITT | A family of lossless compression techniques for black-and-white images; supported by the PDF and PostScript language file formats. (CCITT is an abbreviation for the French spelling of International Telegraph and Telekeyed Consultive Committee.) |
| CCD | Charge Coupled Device. An integrated circuit (microchip) consisting of a group of charge storage cells (tiny capacitors) with the ability to pass charge from one to the next, in a line, like firefighters passing buckets from one to the next. |
| Cast Aluminum | It is robust, so will generally go deeper, accept accessories better, and has excellent heat sink properties, which precludes internal misting in humid climates." |
| Card Reader | Card readers are devices you can plug media cards into to store their data. They are a good alternative to carrying around your laptop! |
| Canvas | The Canvas Size command lets you add or remove work space around an existing image. You can crop an image by decreasing the canvas area. Added canvas appears in the same color or transparency as the background. |
| Camera Type | The type of camera e.g. digital, SLR, Compact etc. |
| Camcorder | A video camera |
| Calibration | Brings a device like a monitor, scanner, or printer to an absolute standard that ensures consistency across devices. Calibrating is especially necessary when files are being passed from one person to another; what a client sees on their computer, compared to what you see on your computer, compared to what the service bureau sees on their computer can differ outrageously |
| Cache | Temporary storage. An area of the hard drive where information is stored about the thumbnails, metadata, and ranking information in your images. |
| Cable Release | Usually an SLR or DSLR feature that allows you to fire the shutter via an electronic or conventional cable release. |
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