| Dynamic Range | Dynamic range is the ratio between the whitest whites (DMin) and the blackest blacks (DMax). It may not be possible to capture the entire range of a scene photographically due to the limitations of the technology used. |
| Dyes | Types of pigment |
| Dye sublimation print | A high-quality print created using thermal dyes |
| DX coding | Pattern printed on the side of a 35mm film cassette, which is used by the camera to sense the required ISO/ASA filmspeed setting. The film speed is sensed by means of electrical contacts pressing against the canister, so dirt can cause miss sensing. |
| DVE | Digital Video Effects Special effects eg. Page turning, patterns etc. |
| DV | Digital Video |
| Dust & Scratches | Reduces noise by changing dissimilar pixels. To achieve a balance between sharpening the image and hiding defects, try various combinations of radius and threshold settings. Or apply the filter on selected areas in the image. |
| Dub | (Dubbing) recording or replacing voices |
| DSLR | Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera. A camera that uses a mirror to redirect the image projected onto the film into the viewfinder. The mirror flips out of the way when the button is pressed to take the picture. |
| Dropout | Occurs when a portion of oxide is missing on the videotape causing a small spot of light passing across the screen |
| droplet | A droplet is a small application that applies an action to one or more images that you drag onto |
| Drop Shadow | Adds a shadow that falls behind the contents on the layer. |
| Driver | A special type of software that Windows uses to control a specific piece of hardware. |
| DRAM Buffer | All digicams have a certain amount of fixed memory in them to facilitate image processing before the finished picture is stored to the flash memory card. Cameras that have a burst mode have much larger DRAM buffers, often 32MB or larger. This also makes them more expensive |
| DPOF | DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) [deepuff ] is a system that allows digital cameras to specify images for printing. This allows consumers to easily get prints from (compatible) photo labs and stores information about number of copies, print size etc. |
| DPI | Dots per inch. Usually used in context of monitors but can also be a printing terms. |
| Dot gain | the inherent “growth” of a halftone dot when printed on paper, vellum, or film. A small dot can grow as much as 50 percent or more when printed. Dot gain can also occur when the ink is printed on the shirt. |
| Dome port | Lens port constructed as part of a sphere of uniform thickness for wide-angle underwater photography. |
| Dodge tool | Used to darken areas of an image or print. The Dodge tool’s name comes from the traditional photographer’s method of reducing the amount of light made available when exposing the film to get the picture. |
| Docking | The Palette Well offers a place to dock palettes that you don’t want on the screen but you still want to have access to without having to use the Window menu. To dock a palette, simply drag it from its place in the workspace to the Palette Well. |
| DNR | Digital Noise Reduction. Cleanup process used when transferring analog video signals into the digital domain. |
| DNG | Adobe’s Digital Negative format |
| Dither | Reduces visible banding related to gradients when using the Gradient tool. |
| Dissolve | Fading from one image to another |
| Display Resolution | (for your monitor) is usually 72 dpi so there is no point in having large files if they will only ever be displayed on a computer screen. Working backwards, for example, a 3 x 3 image needs 216 x 216 pixels. |
| Diopter | A unit used to express the power of magnifying glasses. Also used as a name for screwin magnifying lenses, which can be fitted to the front of a camera lens. |
| DIN | Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN; in English, the German Institute for Standardization) is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body |
| Digital Zoom | Digital zoom is a feature that is more marketing ploy than anything else! Unlike Optical zoom, which is produced by the lens system physically changing focal length, digital zoom merely crops the image progressively. |
| Digital Negative format | Adobe’s open source Raw file format |
| Digimarc | The Digimarc filters embed a digital watermark into an image to store copyright information. |
| Diffuser | A device that increases the effective area of a lightsource, i.e. makes it less pointlike. This is usually a piece of opal or translucent plastic that can be fitted to the front of a light source. |
| Diffuse | Shuffles pixels in a selection to make the selection look less focused according to the selected option: Normal moves pixels randomly, ignoring color values; Darken Only replaces light pixels with darker pixels; and Lighten Only replaces dark pixels with lighter pixels. Anisotropic shuffles pixels in the direction of the least change in color. |
| Diffraction | bending of light rays |
| DIB | Windows Device Independent Bitmap. This is an alternative bitmap extension (to BMP) used by Microsoft Windows Bitmaps. This format is used extensively by computer operating systems for operations in memory. However, this is not a common format for general use. |
| Diameter | (Greek letter 'phi'), abbreviation for 'diameter' (used because it consists of a line drawn across a circle). |
| Dew | A built in warning signal that appears in the viewfinder or a switch that automatically switches the camcorder off on detection of moisture on the tape or electronics |
| Device independent | Not dependent on a particular item of hardware. For example, a color result that can be replicated on any hardware device |
| Device dependent | Dependent on a particular item of hardware. For example, referring to a color result unique to a particular printer |
| Despeckle | Detects the edges in an image (areas where significant color changes occur) and blurs all of the selection except those edges. This blur-ring removes noise while preserving detail. |
| Descreen | The removal of half-tone lines or patterns during scanning |
| Desaturate | this command converts a color image to a grayscale image in the same color mode. For example, it assigns equal red, green, and blue values to each pixel in an RGB image to make it appear grayscale. The lightness value of each pixel does not change. |
| Depth Rating | The depth you can take underwater photo equipment to before it floods! |
| Depth Of Field Preview | A useful feature for SLR and DSLR cameras that allows you to preview the zone in your picture that will be in focus. |
| Depth Of Field | The zone in your picture that is in focus. |
| Density | The measure of opacity of tone on a negative |
| Delrin | Acetal Homopolymer. Engineering plastic with sufficient hardness and dimensional stability for the manufacture of precision components (e.g. screw threads). |
| Delete Editing | Editing by deleting scenes |
| DeInterlace | Smoothes moving images captured on video by removing either the odd or even interlaced lines in a video image. You can choose to replace the discarded lines by duplication or interpolation. |
| Defringe | replaces the color of any fringe pixels with the colors of nearby pixels containing pure colors (those without background color). |
| DCX | This is a multipage PCX format that enables a file to contain more than one image. It is handled the same as a regular PCX file, except for the multipage feature. |
| DCS | Desktop Color Separations format is a version of the standard EPS format that lets you save not only the file or image but also its CMYK or multichannel color separations you see in the Channels palette. DCS 2.0 allows you to save spot channels too. These files can then be exported to various other graphics programs, and their separations can be printed on PostScript printers. |
| DC | Direct current (as opposed to AC) an electrical current that does not change with time, such as might flow when a light bulb is connected to a battery. |
| DAT | Digital Audio Tape. Tape format used to store computer data |
| D8 | Digital 8 Digital video recording system using 8mm tape cassette. |
|