Video editing glossary

0-9

• Shooting settings 24 fps The frame rate of cinema, 24 frames per second. Combined with natural motion blur, it gives the classic film look many creators aim for.
• Shooting settings 180-degree shutter rule A filmmaking guideline: set shutter speed to about double the frame rate, such as 1/50 s at 25 fps, for natural motion blur the eye reads as smooth.

A

• Shooting settings Aperture The opening inside a lens that lets light through, written as an f-number. It controls brightness and depth of field. Most action cameras have it fixed.
• Shooting settings Autofocus A system that moves lens elements to keep a subject sharp automatically. Phones, pocket gimbals and some newer action cameras use it instead of fixed focus.

B

• Shooting settings Backlight Light coming from behind the subject toward the camera. It creates glowing outlines and dramatic silhouettes, but often leaves faces dark.
• Shooting settings Blue hour The twilight period just before sunrise or after sunset when the sun is below the horizon and the sky turns deep blue, ideal for calm, moody shots.
• Shooting settings Burst mode A photo mode that fires a rapid series of still images in a short time, so you can pick the perfect frame of a jump, splash or trick.

C

• Shooting settings Close-up shot A tight shot of a face, hands or object that shows detail and emotion. In action edits, close-ups give rhythm and break up long wide POV clips.
• Shooting settings Crushed blacks Shadows so dark that their detail merges into flat black. It can come from underexposure, a strong contrast curve or heavy grading after shooting.

D

• Shooting settings D-Log M DJI's Log color profile for its compact drones and Osmo cameras. It records flat 10-bit footage with extra dynamic range for grading in post.
• Shooting settings Depth of field The range of distance in a shot that looks sharp. Action cameras have a deep depth of field, so almost everything from near to far stays in focus.
• Shooting settings Dutch angle A shot with the camera deliberately tilted so the horizon is slanted. It adds tension or energy, but used by accident it just looks crooked.

E

• Shooting settings Establishing shot A wide shot that shows where a scene takes place, such as a mountain, a beach or a town, before the edit moves closer to the action.
• Shooting settings Exposure How much light reaches the sensor for each frame, set by aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Correct exposure keeps detail in both highlights and shadows.
• Shooting settings Exposure compensation (EV) A setting that tells an automatic camera to make the image brighter or darker than it would choose, in steps of EV, without switching to full manual.
• Shooting settings Exposure lock Freezing the exposure the camera has chosen so it stops adjusting during a shot, keeping brightness steady even when the light or the scene changes.

F

• Shooting settings Fixed focus A lens set permanently at one focus distance, as on most action cameras. Thanks to the wide lens, everything from close range to infinity looks sharp.
• Shooting settings Flat color profile A low-contrast, low-saturation camera profile that keeps more highlight and shadow detail for grading, though footage looks dull until it is edited.
• Shooting settings Frame grab A still image pulled from a single frame of video. High-resolution recording makes frame grabs sharp enough for social posts and even prints.
• Shooting settings Frame rate (fps) The number of still images a camera records for each second of video, measured in fps. It sets how smooth motion looks and how far a clip can be slowed.

G

• Shooting settings Golden hour The period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low, giving warm, soft, directional light that flatters landscapes, riders and faces.

H

• Shooting settings HDR video HDR video captures and displays a wider range of brightness and color than standard video, keeping detail in bright skies and dark shadows at once.
• Shooting settings High frame rate (HFR) Recording far more frames per second than normal playback, such as 120 or 240 fps, so footage can be slowed down smoothly or show very fluid motion.
• Shooting settings Highlight clipping When the brightest parts of an image exceed what the sensor can record and turn into flat white with no detail. Clipped areas cannot be recovered later.
• Shooting settings HindSight A GoPro feature that buffers the last 15 or 30 seconds before you press record, so a clip includes the moment that made you reach for the button.
• Shooting settings Histogram A graph that shows how many pixels fall at each brightness level, from black on the left to white on the right, giving an objective view of exposure.
• Shooting settings Hyperlapse A time-lapse in which the camera travels a long distance during capture, creating fast, sweeping movement through a scene. Drones do it especially well.

I

• Shooting settings In-camera noise reduction Processing the camera applies to smooth grain from high ISO or dim light. A little helps; too much turns faces waxy and fine textures into smudges.
• Shooting settings ISO ISO sets how much a camera amplifies its sensor signal. Higher ISO brightens dark scenes but adds visible noise, especially on small action-camera sensors.

L

• Shooting settings Leading lines Lines in a scene, such as roads, trails, rivers or ridges, that guide the viewer eye toward the subject and add depth to a shot.
• Shooting settings Lens flare Streaks, circles or haze caused by bright light bouncing inside the lens. It can add drama, but often lowers contrast and hides detail in action footage.
• Shooting settings Log profile A flat-looking picture profile that records more dynamic range using a logarithmic curve. It needs color correction or a LUT before it looks normal.
• Shooting settings Loop recording A mode where the camera records continuously and overwrites the oldest footage when the card fills up, keeping only a recent window, like a dashcam.

M

• Shooting settings Metering How a camera measures the light in a scene to decide exposure, by averaging the whole frame, weighting the center or reading a single spot.
• Shooting settings Motion blur The streaking of moving objects inside a single video frame, caused by movement during the exposure. A little reads as smooth motion; too much looks smeared.

N

• Shooting settings ND filter A neutral density filter is tinted glass that cuts light evenly without changing color, so the camera can use slower shutter speeds in bright light.
• Shooting settings Night lapse A time-lapse mode for dark scenes that uses long exposures per frame to capture stars, city lights and light trails, compressed into a short clip.

O

• Shooting settings Overexposure An image that received too much light, so it looks too bright and loses detail in highlights. Clipped skies and white snow without texture are typical signs.

P

• Shooting settings Polarizing filter (CPL) A rotating filter that cuts reflections from water and glass and deepens blue skies. Popular on drones and for water sports, it also darkens the image.
• Shooting settings Pro mode A camera setting that unlocks manual control over shutter speed, ISO, white balance, color profile and sharpness instead of leaving them on automatic.
• Shooting settings Protune GoPro advanced settings menu with manual control over bitrate, color profile, white balance, ISO, shutter, sharpness and audio for a more editable image.

R

• Shooting settings Rolling shutter A distortion caused by a sensor reading the frame line by line, so fast motion or vibration makes straight lines lean, wobble or look like jelly.
• Shooting settings Rule of thirds A composition guideline that divides the frame into a 3 by 3 grid and places key subjects or the horizon along those lines for a balanced, dynamic shot.

S

• Shooting settings Sharpness setting A camera option that controls how much artificial edge contrast is added to the image. High sharpness looks crisp on phones but can create halos and noise.
• Shooting settings Shutter angle A way of describing exposure time relative to frame rate, borrowed from film cameras. 180 degrees means each frame is exposed for half its duration.
• Shooting settings Shutter speed How long each video frame is exposed to light, written as a fraction such as 1/120 s. It controls brightness and how much motion blur every frame carries.
• Shooting settings Slow motion Footage that plays back slower than real time, usually made by recording at a high frame rate such as 120 or 240 fps and playing it at 24, 30 or 60 fps.
• Shooting settings Spot metering A metering mode that measures light from a small point in the frame, so exposure is set for exactly that subject regardless of the rest of the scene.
• Shooting settings Star trails Curved lines of stars that appear when many long exposures of the night sky are combined, showing the rotation of the earth over time.

T

• Shooting settings Time-lapse Video made by capturing frames at long intervals and playing them at normal speed, so hours of slow change like clouds or crowds compress into a short clip.
• Shooting settings TimeWarp GoPro's stabilized moving time-lapse mode. It speeds up footage shot while walking, riding or driving and keeps it smooth with HyperSmooth stabilization.

U

• Shooting settings Underexposure An image that received too little light, so it looks dark and muddy. Brightening it later reveals noise, banding and dull colors in the shadows.

V

• Shooting settings Variable ND filter A neutral density filter you can twist to adjust how much light it blocks, so you keep a natural shutter speed as the light changes without swapping filters.

W

• Shooting settings White balance The camera setting that makes white objects look white under different kinds of light, measured in kelvin. It shifts the whole image warmer or cooler.

Z

• Shooting settings Zebras Striped overlays on a camera preview that mark areas brighter than a set level, warning you where highlights are close to clipping while you film.