B (Bulb)

Setting for (long) time exposures beyond the normal shutter speeds. Under this setting the shutter will remain open for as long as the shutter release button is depressed.

Backdrop

The background in a studio, usually made of cloth or paper.

Background

The area behind a subject.

Backlighting

Light coming from behind the photo subject. Can cause underexposure of the main subject with auto exposure systems. Situation lending itself to the use of fill-flash and/or spot metering.

Bellows

Accordion-like device mounted on cameras that allows the lens to move towards or away from the film/sensor-plane for greater magnification than with the lens alone. Usually employed for close-up or macro work. Nikon bellows are the PB-3, PB-4, PB-5 and the latest model PB-6 which can be extended further for higher magnification with the PB-6E extension bellows.

Bitmap

An array of binary data representing a pixel by pixel (bit-mapped) image or display; also the image or display itself.

Bounce Light

Light bounced into a reflective surface (a wall, a ceiling, a studio umbrella, a card) to illuminate a subject with softer light, reducing harsh shadows. The color of the reflective surface will determine the color of the light bounced into the subject.

Boke

Japanese term, pronounced BO-KEH in English, used to describe the out of focus quality of a lens. Noun derived from the active verb "bokasu" which means to befog, to gradate, to render opaque, to smudge or render out of focus. It is usually the out of focus portions of the picture which distinguish the "look and feel" or "signature" of different types of lenses. The ideal boke for portraiture is a soft edged rounded blur with the brighter part towards the center of the blur disk. Classic boke is that of legendary lenses like the 105mm f/2.5 and 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor.

Blur Unsharp.

Caused by excessive movement of the camera, a zoom lens or the subject. Also, excessive UV (ultra-violet) light that causes a bluish haze and loss of definition on distance objects, especially on B&W film. Blur is often intentional in creative photography to convey the feeling of motion.

Bracket

Device that attaches to the camera tripod socket for accessories or to separate a speedlight from the camera, out of the hot shoe. Most useful for shadow control and red-eye elimination as it increases the angle between that of the flash beam axis and that of the lens.

Bracketing

Practice of making additional images varying exposure to insure accurate exposure of a given subject; e.g., additionally exposing "one stop under" and "one stop over." Automated feature in recent camera models.

Brightness

(1) The amount of light reflected by a surface. (2) The intensity or amount of light emitted by a light source. (3) The luminance of a color.

Buffer

Temporary memory area that stores data before it is written into a permanent area. In digital cameras, the memory where images are stored before they are written to the memory card.

Bulb

Shutter speed setting where the shutter stays open as long as the shutter release is depressed. Usually indicated by a B on the shutter speed selector.

Burning

Selectively darkening part of areas in a photo while in traditional printing or with an image editing program.

BS

No, it does not refer to the advertising of other camera brands. It refers to the British System developed by the British Institute of Standards, for photographic film speed or sensitivity; using the same scale as the ASA system, now both replaced by the ISO.