Welcome to the Life after Photoshop photo-editing A-Z. It’s very easy to use – just click a heading to expand a definition of that term. There are links to specific programs and many of the entries link to a tag which will show related articles. I hope you find it useful.
British vs American spellings
This A-Z uses British rather than American spellings, e.g. ‘colour’ rather than ‘color’. Apologies if this is confusing. This link may prove helpful.
I
- iCloudApple’s cloud-based storage service, integrated into its desktop and iOS (iPhone and iPad) operating systems. You can use it to make your photos available on all your devices via iCloud Photos and the Photos app, though as with other cloud services, once you’ve used up your initial free allocation, further storage has to be paid for on a subscription basis.
- Image editorAny program which can edit, enhance or manipulate digital images is technically an image editor, though usually this term is reserved for more advanced, technical programs like Photoshop rather than simpler everyday photo management tools like Apple Photos or Google Photos.
- ImportWith some programs you can’t just open an image straight away, you have to import it into the software’s catalog first. This is how database-driven cataloguing programs like Lightroom, Capture One and Aperture work.
- Infra redA branch of photography that uses parts of the light spectrum not normally visible to the naked eye but which can still be captured on film or digitally using black and white or colour film made sensitive to infra red or a digital camera modified to remove the infra red filter that normally covers the sensor.
- Inpainting brush (Serif)An automatic object removal tool in Serif Affinity Photo. You brush over the object or blemish that you want to remove and the Inpainting Brush automatically fills in the area with pixels and patterns from surrounding regions. It’s quick and often very effective and comparable to Adobe’s ‘content aware’ retouching tools.
- InstagramPopular photo sharing and lifestyle app owned by Facebook. Instagram is often used by influencers to promote lifestyles and products and by individuals as an image-based social network alternative to Facebook.
- InterpolationUsing mathematical analysis to fill in the gaps in data. The photosites on sensors only capture red, green or blue light, so interpolation is used to examine surrounding pixels and calculate full colour values from those. When you increase the size (in pixels) of a photo, the software interpolates new pixels from the existing ones.
- ISOThis setting increases the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. Each ISO step doubles the sensitivity, so it’s easy to use ISO as another exposure control alongside shutter speed and lens aperture. The more you increase the ISO, though, the more the image quality degrades.
- ISO expansionRegular ISO settings conform to strict technical standards regarding exposure, but many makers offer ‘expanded’ settings beyond these which may produce noticeably poorer image quality but do allow shooting in a wider range of conditions.