Photo editing thesaurus
Short, clear explanations of the terms you meet when editing in Lightroom and Capture One. From exposure and tone curve to colour grading, masking and file formats.
Looking for terms about shooting itself? You will find those in the photography thesaurus.
1
1:1 previews are full-resolution previews Lightroom Classic builds so you can zoom to 100% without delay. They're stored in a separate previ…
A
ACES is a standardized color workflow that brings all sources into one common color space before you grade. So you work predictably, regardl…
An action records a series of editing steps that you can then replay with a single click. You record the operations once and Photoshop repea…
Adaptive presets in Lightroom contain an AI mask that automatically adapts to each photo, for example to the sky, the subject or the skin. I…
An adjustment layer applies a color or tone edit as a separate layer on top of your image, without changing the pixels beneath it. Think cur…
Adobe RGB is a color space with a wider range than sRGB, especially in the greens and cyans. It's often used for professional print work, be…
The Advanced tab of the Color Editor in Capture One gives you full control over a single colour range of your choosing. You decide how wide …
AI Denoise is Lightroom's noise reduction that uses machine learning to remove noise from your RAW while keeping detail. It works far better…
AI masks in Lightroom automatically select parts of your photo, like the subject, the sky, people or objects. You choose in the masking pane…
Apply Image blends a layer or channel with your image via a chosen blending mode, in a single calculation. It is an advanced command used a …
B
The Base Characteristics in Capture One decide how your RAW file is first translated into contrast and colour, before you adjust anything yo…
The Basic tab of the Color Editor in Capture One works with broad, predefined colour ranges. You pick a colour like red, green or blue and a…
The basic panel is the most important panel in the Develop module: here you handle white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, w…
With batch processing you automatically apply an action to a whole folder of photos at once. A droplet is the same action packaged as a tiny…
Batch processing is applying the same edit to a whole series of photos at once. That way you give a hundred photos from a shoot the same loo…
With the before/after view you compare your edited photo with the original in Lightroom. You can look side by side, top and bottom or in one…
Bit depth defines how many different tones and colors a file can hold. An 8-bit JPEG has 256 shades per channel, a 16-bit file has millions …
Bitrate is the amount of data per second in your video, usually measured in megabits per second. The higher the bitrate, the more detail and…
A black and white conversion removes the color from your photo, but lets you control how each color translates to a grey tone. You can make …
Blacks set the very darkest point of your photo, the true black. The blacks slider controls how deep your darkest tones go. A little real bl…
With Blend If you let a layer blend only based on the brightness of that layer or the layers below it. Two slider bars decide which tones do…
Blending modes determine how a layer mixes with the layers beneath it. Instead of just sitting on top, the layer can multiply, lighten or bo…
In the Book module you design photo books directly in Lightroom Classic, without separate software. You pick a size, drag photos into fixed …
A brush mask lets you point out by hand exactly where an adjustment does or doesn't go, by painting over it. It's the freest form of masking…
With the brush mask in Lightroom you paint a mask by hand exactly where you want to edit. You set size, feather and flow and brush over the …
C
The calibration panel in Lightroom adjusts the base colours of your RAW via the red, green and blue primaries. With hue and saturation slide…
The calibration panel in Lightroom controls the sliders for the red, green and blue primaries and the shadow tint, right at the bottom of th…
The Camera Raw filter brings the entire Camera Raw editing environment into Photoshop as a filter. You get the same sliders for exposure, co…
Capture Pilot is Capture One's app for viewing tethered shots wirelessly on a tablet or phone. Your computer shares the images over your net…
The catalog is the database file in which Lightroom Classic keeps track of everything: where your photos are, your edits, keywords, stars an…
With the Channel Mixer you build an output channel from a mix of the red, green and blue channels. You decide how much each channel contribu…
Channels are the separate color components your image is built from, usually red, green and blue. Each channel is a grayscale version showin…
Clarity adds contrast in the midtones, mostly around edges and textures. It makes your photo crisper and gives depth without hardening the w…
Clarity in Capture One adds depth to your photo by boosting contrast in the midtones. The tool lives in the Clarity panel and offers four me…
Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (Cloud) are two different Adobe programs. Classic is the comprehensive desktop version with a catalog and fo…
Clipping is the point where tones in your photo go so light or so dark that no detail remains: pure white or pure black. In the histogram yo…
A clipping mask shows an upper layer only within the shape or content of the layer below it. The bottom layer defines where the top one is v…
Cloning copies a piece of your photo exactly to another spot, without blending color or tone. You pick a source and paint it precisely over …
A Clone layer in Capture One copies an area of your photo exactly to another spot, including colour and brightness. Unlike the Healing layer…
The clone stamp copies pixels literally from one part of your image to another, without adjusting color or tone. Unlike the healing brush, i…
Cloud sync lets your photos, edits and collections move via Adobe's cloud between Lightroom on your computer, phone and tablet. What you do …
A codec is the way your video is packed and unpacked, so it can be stored and played back. It sets the balance between file size, quality an…
A collection is a virtual group of photos in Lightroom Classic, independent of where the files sit on your drive. You drag photos into it to…
Color balance controls the mix of colors in your photo's shadows, midtones and highlights. By placing warmth in the highlights and coolness …
The Color Balance tool in Capture One is its colour grading tool, letting you add colour separately to shadows, midtones and highlights. Col…
With Color Balance you shift colors separately in the shadows, midtones and highlights in Photoshop. Three sliders push toward cyan/red, mag…
Color correction makes your image technically correct first: white balance fixed, exposure balanced, every shot matched. Color grading comes…
The Color Editor is Capture One's colour tool for adjusting individual colours with precision. You pick a colour range and shift its hue, sa…
Color grading is the deliberate adding of color tints to your photo's shadows, midtones and highlights to create a certain mood. Unlike colo…
The color grading panel in Lightroom lets you add colour to the shadows, midtones and highlights of your photo. With three colour wheels you…
The Color Mixer is the modern name for the HSL panel in Lightroom: here you control hue, saturation and luminance per color. Some versions a…
The color mixer, also known as the HSL panel, lets you adjust hue, saturation and luminance per colour in Lightroom. So you can change just …
A color range mask selects parts of your photo based on color: you click a hue and the software grabs all similar colors. That way you adjus…
The Color readout in Capture One shows the exact colour values under your cursor, for example the RGB numbers of a skin tone or a white wall…
The eyedropper reads the exact color of a pixel, while the Color Sampler pins that value on your image so you can keep tracking it while edi…
A color space defines how many colors a file can hold and show, like sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB. When editing you often work internally…
A Color Space Transform accurately converts your image from one color space to another, for example from a log profile to Rec.709. Unlike a …
Color temperature decides whether your photo looks warm (yellow-orange) or cool (blue), measured in kelvin. When editing, you control this w…
Color wheels are round dials that let you pick a color per tonal region: shadows, midtones and highlights. You drag a point out from the cen…
Color wheels are the round color controls you use to add or remove color per tonal range. You drag the center of the wheel toward a color, a…
Compression reduces your photo's file size, with or without quality loss. JPEG uses lossy compression, which throws away data for a smaller …
Content-aware fill automatically fills a selected area with matching pixels from the surroundings, so an object disappears seamlessly. In Ph…
Contrast is the difference between the light and dark parts of your photo. More contrast makes the image punchier and deepens the shadows, l…
With the contrast slider you make the difference between dark and light bigger or smaller. The pivot sets the point around which that contra…
A creative grade is the color mood you deliberately lay over your film to strengthen atmosphere and feeling. Think of a warm golden look, a …
A creative LUT lays a color mood over your image in one go, a ready-made look. Unlike a technical LUT it doesn't correct but adds atmosphere…
Cropping is trimming your photo: you remove edges to strengthen the composition or choose a different aspect ratio. When editing, it's one o…
The Curve in Capture One is the software's most powerful contrast and colour tool. You bend a line running from shadows to highlights, decid…
With Curves you steer your image's brightness and color in Photoshop via a bendable line that maps the tones from black to white. Pull the l…
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Defringe removes the colored edges (purple, green or magenta) that sometimes appear along sharp contrast transitions, a form of chromatic ab…
Defringe in Lightroom removes the coloured fringes, usually purple or green, that can appear along high-contrast edges. You find it in the l…
Dehaze removes haze, mist and atmospheric veil from your photo, bringing back contrast and color. Slide it the other way and you add fog or …
Dehaze in Capture One removes haze, mist and atmospheric murk from your photo, bringing back contrast and colour. You'll find the slider in …
Destructive editing means your adjustments change the pixels of your file directly, so the original data is lost. Save such an edit and clos…
In the detail panel of Lightroom you handle sharpening and noise reduction. Here are the sliders for sharpening (amount, radius, detail, mas…
The Develop module is where you edit your photos in Lightroom Classic. This is where you'll find all the panels for exposure, colour, detail…
Display P3 is a color space used on modern Apple screens and many phones. It holds more saturated colors than sRGB, especially in red and gr…
DNG (Digital Negative) is Adobe's open RAW format, meant to replace the many proprietary RAW formats with one standard. It holds the same ri…
Dodge & burn is selectively lightening and darkening parts of your image to emphasize shape and depth. Dodging lightens, burning darkens. In…
Dodge & burn on 50% grey is the non-destructive way to sculpt light and shadow in Photoshop. You make a layer filled with neutral grey, set …
Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and lightest parts in which a file still holds detail. The greater the dynamic range, th…
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In the Lightroom app on your phone or tablet you edit photos with almost the same sliders and panels as on the desktop. You work with your f…
The effects panel in Lightroom holds the post-crop vignette and grain. With the vignette you darken or lighten the corners of your photo to …
An EIP file is Capture One's packaged file format, bundling the RAW, the edit settings and the metadata together in a single file. EIP stand…
Exporting is creating a new, shareable file from your edited photo, usually a JPEG for web or a TIFF for print. You set the size, color spac…
Exposure controls how light or dark your photo is overall. When editing, the exposure slider is often the first one you touch: it lifts the …
The Exposure warning in Capture One colours the parts of your photo that are too light or too dark, so you can see at a glance where detail …
F
False color is a tool that translates your image's brightness into fixed colors, so you read exposure at a glance. Each color stands for a b…
Film emulation mimics the look of classic film stocks in your digital image, including its color rendering, contrast and grain. So your foot…
Film grain deliberately adds a fine grain structure to your video for an analog, cinematic feel. It takes off the smooth, digital look and g…
Flags, stars and colour labels are the three ways to rate and sort photos in Lightroom. With flags you pick or reject a photo, with stars yo…
Merge combines several layers into one, while Flatten Image flattens all layers into a single background layer. After that the individual la…
The Focus mask in Capture One lays a coloured overlay over the sharp parts of your photo, so you can see at a glance what's truly in focus. …
Focus stacking combines several photos, each with a different point of focus, into one image that's sharp throughout. It's essential for mac…
With focus stacking in Photoshop you combine several shots at different focus points into one image that is sharp everywhere. Photoshop alig…
Frame rate is the number of images per second in your video, expressed in fps. 24 fps gives the familiar cinematic look, 25 or 30 fps is com…
Frequency separation splits your photo into two layers: a low frequency with color and tone, and a high frequency with the fine texture. Tha…
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Gamma describes how the midtones of an image are distributed between black and white. Adjusting gamma makes your midtones lighter or darker …
Gamma, technically the EOTF, describes how brightness values in your video file are translated into the light your screen shows. It determin…
Gamut is the full range of colors a device or color space can show. A vivid green or deep orange might fall within your screen's gamut but o…
Gaussian Blur softens your image with an even, natural blurriness. A single radius slider controls how strong the blur is. It is the most-us…
With Generative Expand you enlarge the canvas and let Photoshop fill the new empty space using AI. The program invents matching image conten…
Generative Fill uses AI to generate new image content inside a selection, based on a text prompt or the surroundings. You can add, replace o…
A gradient map links your image's tones to a color gradient: shadows get one color, highlights another. It is a powerful, fast tool for colo…
A gradient mask lets an adjustment fade gradually from full effect to none, along a straight line. The classic use is a darker sky: you drag…
Grain is the fine, filmic texture you lay over a photo to make it look more analog. It mimics the structure of photographic film, which came…
H
H.264 is the most-used codec for delivering video on web and social media. It compresses your image small while keeping reasonable quality, …
H.265, also called HEVC, is the more modern successor to H.264 that achieves the same quality at a smaller file size. It's especially useful…
HDR merge combines several photos of the same scene at different exposures into one file with a much larger dynamic range. That way you keep…
With HDR merge you combine several photos of the same scene at different exposures into one image with more dynamic range in Lightroom. You …
HDR video shows a much larger range between dark and light and brighter colors than regular video. The two common standards are PQ (mainly f…
Healing removes spots and blemishes by having the software borrow a nearby patch and blend it in seamlessly. Unlike cloning, healing automat…
The healing tool in Lightroom removes spots and distracting elements by replacing them with another piece of your photo. You have the modes …
The healing brush removes blemishes by replacing them with texture from a source area, while taking on the color and brightness of the surro…
A Healing layer in Capture One removes spots and blemishes by borrowing texture from a surrounding area and blending it in seamlessly. The s…
The High Pass filter isolates the fine edges and detail in your image and turns the rest grey. Combined with a blending mode like Overlay, t…
Highlights are the brightest parts of your photo: the sky, a white shirt, reflections. The highlights slider darkens or brightens exactly th…
The histogram is the graph that shows how the tones in your photo are spread, from black on the left to white on the right. When editing, it…
The histogram in video shows the spread of dark to light tones as a graph from left to right. Shadows sit on the left, highlights on the rig…
The histogram panel in Photoshop shows the distribution of tones in your image, from black on the left to white on the right. It reveals whe…
With the history brush you paint an earlier state of your image back onto a specific spot. You pick a point in the editing history and bring…
The history panel shows in Lightroom Classic every editing step you've made on a photo, from top (most recent) to bottom (first). You can cl…
HSL stands for Hue, Saturation and Luminance. The HSL panel lets you control each color separately, so you can adjust just the blue of the s…
With Hue/Saturation you shift your image's hue, saturation and lightness in Photoshop, for all colors at once or per color channel. That let…
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An ICC profile describes exactly how a device shows or captures colors, so colors match between screen, printer and file. It's the foundatio…
An ICC profile in Capture One tells the software how your camera model's colours should be rendered correctly. Capture One is known for its …
Import is the first step in Lightroom Classic: you add your photos to the catalog so you can work with them. You choose the source (your car…
Interlacing is an older way of building an image, where each frame consists of two half-images that alternately show the odd and even lines.…
J
JPEG is the most-used photo format for web and sharing: small, universal and openable everywhere. It reaches that small file size with lossy…
K
Keyframes lock a value at a specific moment, so an effect or grade can change over time. Set two keyframes with different values, and the so…
Keystone correction in Capture One straightens converging or leaning lines, for example buildings that appear to fall away. You drag the cor…
L
The lasso is the tool with which you draw a selection by hand around a subject. There are three versions: the freehand lasso, the polygonal …
A layer group is a folder where you bundle related layers to stay organized. You can move, hide or mask the whole group at once. In big file…
A layer mask controls which parts of a layer are visible and which are hidden. Black hides, white reveals, and grey gives a partial blend. Y…
Layer nodes stack edits like layers in Photoshop, where the top node overrides the one below. Order decides what you see, because the top la…
A layer style adds effects like drop shadow, glow, stroke or gradient to a layer, separate from its content. The effects stay fully editable…
Layers are the building blocks of Photoshop: separate sheets you stack on top of each other, so text, retouching and color adjustments each …
Layers in Capture One let you apply adjustments locally to part of your photo, independent of the rest. Each layer carries a mask that defin…
Lens Blur adds realistic background blur in Lightroom after the fact, as if you'd shot with a wide aperture. The AI estimates the depth in y…
Lens correction fixes the optical flaws your lens introduces: distortion, dark corners (vignetting) and color fringing. Based on a lens prof…
The lens corrections panel in Lightroom automatically corrects the typical flaws of your lens: distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberrati…
Levels is a tool that lets you move the black point, white point and midtone of your photo under the histogram. You drag the sliders inward …
The Levels tool in Capture One sets the black point, white point and midtones of your photo in the right place. You drag the sliders under t…
With Levels you set your image's black point, white point and midtones in Photoshop via three sliders under the histogram. Move black and wh…
The Library module is the heart of your management in Lightroom Classic: this is where you import, sort, rate and search your photos. You se…
Lift, Gamma and Gain are the three main controls of your image: Lift for shadows, Gamma for midtones and Gain for highlights. With these thr…
The linear gradient in Lightroom lays an adjustment that fades out gradually across a straight area of your photo. You drag it over the imag…
With Liquify you push, pull and distort pixels as if the image were soft clay. It is widely used for subtle retouching of body lines, clothi…
Local contrast is the contrast between neighboring areas in your photo, rather than between the lightest and darkest point of the whole imag…
Log is a recording profile that captures as much detail as possible in shadows and highlights, at the cost of a good-looking image straight …
A luminosity mask selects parts of your photo based on their brightness, like only the highlights or only the shadows. That way you adjust e…
Luminosity masks are selections based on your image's brightness: the lighter a pixel, the stronger it sits in the mask. That lets you apply…
A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a ready-made color translation that lays a certain look over your image in one go. You'll find LUTs mostly in video…
M
The Magic Brush is Capture One's smart masking brush that automatically sticks to the edges of your subject. You paint roughly over an area …
The magic wand selects, in one click, all adjacent pixels of a similar color or tone. The higher the tolerance, the more different shades it…
The Map module shows your photos on a world map based on their GPS location. Photos with location data appear automatically as pins; photos …
The marquee tool makes rectangular or elliptical selections with a simple drag. It is the simplest selection tool in Photoshop. Ideal for cl…
Masking is limiting an adjustment to part of your photo, so the rest stays untouched. With a mask you can darken just the sky or brighten ju…
With Merge to HDR Pro, Photoshop combines several shots at different exposures into one image with a large dynamic range. That keeps detail …
Metadata is the information stored in or alongside your photo file: camera settings, date, location, keywords, author name and copyright. Pa…
Monitor calibration aligns your screen with a known standard, so the colors and brightness you see are actually correct. Without calibration…
Multiply is the blending mode that darkens your image by multiplying the layer's colors with those below it. White disappears completely, da…
N
Neural Filters are AI filters in Photoshop that perform complex edits with a couple of sliders. Think smoothing skin, adjusting a facial exp…
A node is a separate editing step in DaVinci Resolve, a block in your grade where you do one thing. You chain nodes together, and each node …
Noise reduction removes the grainy, colorful specks you get at high ISO or in dark scenes. It works on two fronts: luminance noise (the grey…
Noise reduction removes grainy noise from your video, especially handy with low-light footage or a high ISO. It makes your image cleaner and…
Non-destructive editing means your adjustments are stored separately from your original file, so your original pixels never change. Lightroo…
Normalize in Capture One matches the exposure and colour of one photo to another. You pick a reference point in a good shot and apply the sa…
O
With the object mask in Lightroom you select a specific object by roughly brushing over it or drawing a box around it. The AI then works out…
Offset shifts the entire image at once, shadows, midtones and highlights together. It's like moving the foundation of your tonal range rathe…
Opacity controls how transparent the whole layer is, including any layer styles. Fill does almost the same, but leaves layer styles like dro…
Output sharpening is the final sharpening you apply at export, matched to the destination: screen, matte paper or glossy paper. It's a separ…
Overlay combines Multiply and Screen in one: dark areas get darker, light areas lighter, which raises contrast. Neutral grey (50%) becomes i…
P
With panorama merge Lightroom automatically stitches several overlapping photos into one wide image. You select the series, choose Merge Pho…
Panorama stitching joins several overlapping photos into one wide or tall image. That way you capture a sweeping landscape or a tall facade …
Parallel nodes edit the same image independently and are then combined. They all see the same source, rather than each other's result. Handy…
The parametric curve lets you control the tone curve with sliders instead of loose points: highlights, lights, darks and shadows. You can't …
With the patch tool you select an area and drag it onto a clean part of the image, after which Photoshop borrows the texture and blends it i…
Paths are vector lines you draw with the pen tool, separate from your image's pixels. You use them for clean, precise selections and cutouts…
The people mask in Lightroom automatically recognises people in your photo and lets you select parts per person: facial skin, body skin, eye…
Perspective correction straightens converging lines, like buildings that seem to lean back because you shot upward. The software rotates and…
With Perspective Warp you adjust the perspective of an element in your photo separately, as if you were shifting the viewpoint. You draw pla…
Photomerge automatically combines several photos into one panorama. Photoshop aligns the shots, blends the overlaps and corrects the perspec…
Point Color is a feature in Lightroom's color mixer that lets you pick an exact colour from your photo with an eyedropper and adjust it very…
The point curve is the tone curve variant where you place and drag your own points on the line. Each point is a tone you pin or shift. It gi…
A vignette darkens (or lightens) the corners of your photo to draw the eye to the center. When editing, you add this deliberately as an effe…
Power Windows are shapes, like a circle or rectangle, that mark off an area of your image so you grade only there. You can light up a face, …
The presence sliders sit at the bottom of the basic panel and give your photo more punch and colour. They are texture, clarity, dehaze, vibr…
A preset applies a set of slider settings to your photo in one click: exposure, contrast, colour and more, which you can still fine-tune aft…
A preset in Capture One stores the settings of a single tool, for example just the Curve or just the Color Editor. That's what sets a preset…
A preset in Lightroom is a saved set of editing settings you apply to a photo in one click. You choose a look and Lightroom moves the slider…
Primary correction sets the whole image right at once: exposure, contrast and color across the full frame. You balance shadows, midtones and…
In the Print module you prepare photos for printing or export a print-ready file in Lightroom Classic. You choose paper size, layout, margin…
A Process Recipe in Capture One is a saved export setting: file format, size, colour space, sharpening and destination folder in one package…
The profile browser is the window in Lightroom where you choose your photo's profile, the base translation of your RAW into an image. It hol…
ProPhoto RGB is a very large color space that holds more colors than any screen or printer can show. Lightroom uses it internally to preserv…
ProRes is a codec from Apple that combines high quality with smooth playback during editing. The files are fairly large, but your computer h…
Proxies are light, lower-resolution copies of your video files that let you edit smoothly. You work with those light versions, and on export…
PSD is Photoshop's native file format, which keeps all your layers, masks, smart objects and text. It's your working file: as long as you sa…
With publish services you export and sync photos to a folder or online service in Lightroom Classic, and keep that collection up to date. If…
With Puppet Warp you place points on a subject and bend it as if it were a puppet. You set anchor points that stay put and drag other points…
Q
A qualifier isolates part of your image based on color, so you can adjust only that area. You pick out a specific skin tone or a blue sky an…
With quick selection you paint over an area and Photoshop automatically expands the selection to similar tones and edges. It recognizes tran…
R
The radial gradient in Lightroom lays a round or oval adjustment on your photo, with a soft fade toward the edge. You drag an ellipse over p…
A radial mask limits an adjustment to an oval or round shape you draw over your photo. You use it to brighten a subject, create a local vign…
A range mask refines an existing mask in Lightroom based on colour, luminance or depth. So you limit a gradient to just the blue sky, for ex…
A RAW file contains all the uncompressed image data your sensor captured, without the camera applying any edits yet. That gives you enormous…
RAW video records the unprocessed sensor data instead of a finished image, just like a RAW photo. You get maximum freedom in white balance, …
Rec.709 is the standard color space for regular HD video, as shown on most screens and on the web. It defines which colors and what contrast…
With the reference view you place another photo next to the one you're editing in Lightroom, as a benchmark. So you match the exposure, whit…
Rendering or exporting is calculating your finished edit into a single playable video file. The program combines your clips, grade and effec…
RGB curves are tone curves per color channel: a separate curve for red, green and blue. Lifting or lowering a channel adds color to the ligh…
The RGB parade shows the red, green and blue channels side by side as three separate waveforms. So you can see per color how strong it sits …
S
Saturation controls how intense the colors in your photo are. The saturation slider strengthens or weakens all colors evenly, from dull past…
Scopes are measuring tools that show how your image really stands technically, regardless of what your screen suggests. They display brightn…
Screen is the counterpart of Multiply and instead lightens your image. Black disappears completely, light tones stay and stack up, making th…
Secondary correction works on part of the image instead of everything at once. You isolate a skin tone, a sky or a single object and adjust …
Select and Mask is a separate workspace in Photoshop for refining selections, especially tricky edges like hair and fur. With the Refine Edg…
Select sky is an AI mask in Lightroom that automatically selects the sky in your photo. In one click you get an accurate mask around the sky…
Select Sky uses AI to automatically recognize the sky in your photo and turn it into a selection in one click. Photoshop neatly separates th…
Select subject is an AI mask in Lightroom that automatically picks out the main subject of your photo, separate from the background. One cli…
Select Subject lets Photoshop use AI to automatically recognize and select the main subject in your photo. One click and the program finds t…
A selection defines the area your edit applies to, so the rest of the image stays untouched. The marching ants show what you have selected. …
With Selective Color you adjust one color family specifically in Photoshop by mixing in cyan, magenta, yellow or black. You work per color l…
Serial nodes sit one after another in a straight chain: the output of one node feeds into the next. Each node builds on the result of the pr…
Capture One lets you organise your work as a Session or a Catalog. A Session is a self-contained folder holding your photos and settings, pe…
Shadows are the dark parts of your photo. The shadows slider brightens or darkens them without touching the rest. Lifting shadows is one of …
Sharpening strengthens the edges in your photo so it looks sharper. It doesn't make your image truly sharper than the lens captured, but acc…
Sharpening makes the edges in your video clearer, so your image looks crisper and sharper. A little sharpening adds definition, but too much…
Shot matching is aligning separate shots so they match in brightness, color and contrast. Without matching, your edit jumps restlessly from …
The Skin Tone tab of the Color Editor in Capture One is built to make skin tones even and natural. You pick the skin colour and the tool pul…
With Sky Replacement Photoshop automatically replaces the sky in your photo with another, including recoloring the foreground. The AI recogn…
With the Slideshow module in Lightroom Classic you create a slideshow of your photos, with music, transitions and text. You can play it on y…
A smart collection fills itself based on rules you set, for example all five-star photos from this year with a certain keyword. If a photo m…
A smart filter is a filter you apply to a smart object that stays editable afterward. You can change its settings, toggle it off temporarily…
A smart object is a layer that preserves its source data, so you can scale, rotate and edit it without quality loss. Filters you apply becom…
Smart previews are light, compact copies of your RAW files that Lightroom Classic can create. They let you edit photos while the originals a…
Smart Sharpen is Photoshop's more modern sharpening filter, with more control and less risk of ugly fringes. You set strength and radius, an…
A snapshot captures a particular state of your edit in Lightroom Classic. You can later jump back to that point with one click, even if you'…
Soft Light works like Overlay but much more subtly: it boosts contrast and color with a gentle hand. Dark gets slightly darker, light slight…
Soft proofing is a preview mode that simulates on your screen how your photo will look when printed on a certain paper and printer. It shows…
Soft proofing simulates in Lightroom how your photo will look printed, based on the colour profile of your printer or paper. You see in adva…
Speed Edit is the feature in Capture One that lets you adjust settings with your keyboard, without first grabbing the slider with your mouse…
Split toning lays one color over the highlights and another over the shadows of your photo. It's the classic forerunner of the modern color …
The spot healing brush removes small blemishes with a single click, without you having to set a source area. Photoshop automatically picks m…
Spot removal is taking out dust spots, sensor specks and small distractions from your photo. With the spot removal tool you point to the spo…
sRGB is the standard color space for the web, social media and most screens. It holds a slightly smaller color range than Adobe RGB, but it'…
With stacks you group several photos in Lightroom Classic under one top image, like a little pile of prints. Handy for keeping bracketing se…
Straightening is leveling a crooked photo, usually by fixing a tilted horizon or wall. A straight horizon instantly makes a photo look calme…
Structure is the slider in Capture One that boosts or softens the very finest detail in your photo. Where Clarity tackles broader midtone co…
Styles are Capture One's presets: a saved set of settings you apply to your photo in one click. They handle colour, contrast and tone at onc…
Super Resolution enlarges your photo's resolution in Lightroom with AI, up to roughly double the number of pixels in width and height. It co…
Syncing settings is transferring the edit of one photo to several others in a single action. You edit a reference photo and copy those slide…
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A technical LUT converts your image from one color format to another, for example from log to Rec.709. It adds no look but makes your image …
Shooting tethered in Capture One means your camera is connected to your computer by cable, so photos appear on your screen instantly. With L…
With tethered capture you connect your camera to Lightroom Classic by cable or wirelessly, so photos appear in your catalog right after you …
Texture strengthens or softens the fine detail in your photo, like skin, fabric, leaves or stone. Unlike clarity, texture works on smaller d…
TIFF is a lossless file format that can hold a lot of image data and layers. It's used for archive, print and as an intermediate step betwee…
The timeline is the work area in your video program where you place clips, sound and effects in order. Time runs from left to right, and in …
Tint is the second white balance slider, alongside temperature: it controls the balance between green and magenta. You use it to remove a gr…
The tone curve is a graph that lets you control your photo's brightness per tonal region: shadows, midtones and highlights separately. Dragg…
Tone mapping is bringing a very large tonal range (from an HDR merge, for instance) back to what a screen or print can show. It distributes …
Tracking makes a mask or power window move along with a subject in your image. The software follows the motion automatically, so your select…
Transcoding is converting your video files to another codec or format, for example to edit more smoothly. Unlike a final export you usually …
The transform panel with Upright corrects skewed lines and perspective distortion in Lightroom, such as leaning buildings. Upright analyses …
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The Unsharp Mask is Photoshop's classic sharpening filter, which accentuates edges by raising the contrast around them. The name comes from …
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With Vanishing Point you edit in a plane that follows your photo's perspective, so retouching and copying stay neatly in that perspective. Y…
A variant is an editable version of your photo in Capture One that leaves the original file untouched. You can create several variants of th…
The vectorscope shows color as a round graph: direction is the hue and distance from the center is saturation. The further a point sits outw…
Vibrance boosts the less saturated colors in your photo while leaving the already strong ones alone. That makes your image more colorful wit…
A virtual copy is a second version of a photo in Lightroom Classic without an actual file being duplicated. You can apply a different edit t…
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A watermark is a name, logo or text you lay over your photo to brand your work or guard against unwanted use. You usually add it at export, …
The waveform monitor shows the brightness of your image from dark at the bottom to light at the top, spread across the width of your frame. …
White balance decides whether the colors in your photo look warm or cool. When editing, you set it so that white actually becomes white, usi…
White balance in video makes sure white is actually white, instead of yellow under lamplight or blue in the shade. You set it so colors look…
The white balance eyedropper is the tool you use to click on a neutral grey or white point in your photo to set white balance automatically.…
Whites control the very brightest point of your photo, the true white. Where highlights affect a broader band of light tones, the whites sli…
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An XMP sidecar is a small text file next to your RAW in which edits and metadata can be stored. Lightroom Classic normally keeps edits in th…
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Zebra lays diagonal stripes over the parts of your image that are getting too bright, so you spot blown-out highlights instantly. It's an ex…