PHOTOGRAPHY GLOSSARY "B"

B & W . Abbreviation for Black and White.
x
Back Lit. Meaning the subject is lit from behind which can cause underexposing. Is also used for portrait photography for special effects and bringing catchlights to the hair.
x
Backlight. The illumination for a color LCD display on digital cameras or phones.
x
Banding. An artefact of color gradation in computer imaging. When graduated colors break into larger blocks of a single color, the smooth look of a proper gradation is reduced.
x
Barrel Distortion. A common geometric lens distortion causing an aquired image to pucker towards the centre and be rounded along the outer edges.
x
Bit. The smallest unit of memory. The word comes from binary and digit or 1 and 0. Also sometimes known as on and offs.
x
Bit Depth. Refers to the color or grey scale of each individual pixel. For example a pixel with 8 bits per color (red, green and blue), gives a 24 bit image. 24 bit resolution is 16.7 million colors.
x
Bitmap. The method of storing information that actually maps an image pixel bit by bit. Formats include; .bmp, .pcx, .pict, .tif, .tiff, .gif. Most picture files are bit-mapped.
x
Blooming. An effect caused by overexposing a CCD or sensor to too much light. This can cause distortions of the subject and/or color.
x
BMP. Bitmapped graphics file format which is popular with Windows PC's. It is an uncompressed file format like a TIFF.
x
Borderless. Quite simply, this means a printed photograph with no border around it.

Bracketing. Can apply to flash or exposure. It is used to create usually 3 photographs. One photo is exposed by the cameras meter automatically, one under exposed and one overexposed by a predetermined number of stops. Also "exposure bracketing".
x
Brightness. Value of a pixel in a digital image giving its value of lightness from black to white, with o being black and 255 being white.
x
Buffer. Temporary storage areas held in your camera or computers RAM. This acts as a temporary holding area for data that will be manipulated by the CPU before saving it to another device. For example if you are shooting in continuous mode, when the RAM buffer on your digital camera is full it will slow to a much slower rate while the buffer empties to your compact flash card or other device.
x
Bulb. Term used for a long exposure setting normally more than 30 seconds. The start of the exposure is made by pressing the shutter, only ending when the shutter button is released. Excellent for night photography and a remote release is recommended to prevent camera shake as you press the shutter button.

Burst Mode. Also know as continuous mode or "Auto wind" on older SLR's. However, today's Digital SLR's have bust modes of up to 8 frames per second. Great for sports and action shots.

Byte. A collection of 8-bits of memory in a computer. I.e. 8 bits is a Byte, 1000 bytes is a Kilobyte (KB) or 8000 bytes, 1000Kb is a Megabyte (MB) or 8,000,000 bytes and so on.