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.
V
- Variants (Capture One Pro)Used in Capture One Pro to create different versions of a photo without physically duplicating the image file on your hard disk. Capture One Pro’s adjustment are non-destructive, which means they consist of processing instructions rather than direct adjustments to image files. Lightroom has a similar feature called ‘Virtual Copies’.
- Vector toolsTools used for drawing shapes rather than editing the pixels in photos. Vector shapes are described mathematically, so you can scale them up to any size without quality loss, edit them after they’ve been created and combine them in different ways. In photo editing, they’re most likely to be used for making a very precise ‘path’ for cutouts and object selection.
- VelviaVelvia is the name of a color slide (transparency) film made by Fujifilm. It's famous for its dense, saturated colors and strong contrast. Fujifilm's digital cameras have a Velvia Film Simulation (amongst others) to recreate the look of Velvia film digitally.
- Versions (Lightroom)
- VibranceA more sophisticated version of the regular saturation adjustment which targets the weakest colours rather than applying a constant saturation increase across the whole range. It’s less likely to produce solid, ‘clipped’ colours and can give a more natural, more controllable colour boost.
- VideoJust about all cameras and smartphones now shoot video. The key specifications to look for are resolution (4K, Full HD, HD) and frame rate (30/25fps are the typical standards for normal speed playback).
- ViewPoint (DxO)DxO Viewpoint is a software tool that corrects distortion using lens correction profiles, fixes volume deformation created by wideangle lenses and offers perspective correction tools for fixing converging verticals and more. Works as a standalone app or as a plug-in and also integrates with DxO PhotoLab.
- VignetteVignette effects can be very useful, both as an aid to composition and as a way of adding a vintage, 'analog' look. A vignette can help focus attention on the main subject and tone down a distracting background. It can also act as a kind of framing device so that the picture feels properly enclosed and your eyes don't drift out of the frame.
- VignettingVignetting is sometimes also called 'corner shading'. It's where a picture is darker at the edges than at the center. It's a lens aberration which you tend to see mostly in older and cheaper lenses and it can be corrected in software. Sometimes vignetting is used as a creative tool to product a vintage look or to improve the picture's composition.
- Vintage effectAny effect which gives the look of an old photo, including sepia toning, photo borders, paper patterns and textures and anything else which gives a distressed, ‘aged’ look.
- Virtual Copy (Lightroom)Because Lightroom uses non-destructive editing, its adjustments are stored as metadata (processing instructions) rather than new image files. This means it can create any number of Virtual Copies of the same image for trying out different effects, without having to duplicate the image itself on your hard disk.
- VivezaViveza is a software plug in which offers localised adjustments for photos via ‘control’ points. It’s part of the Nik Collection. You can use it to apply dodging and burning effects to enhance colour images in just the same way you would in black and white.
- Volume deformation or anamorphosisA special type of distortion correction once built into DxO Optics Pro but now built into the separate DxO ViewPoint application. It fixes the distortion usually seen with wideangle lenses where objects near the edge of the frame appear disproportionately wide – it’s most obvious with human figures.