A is for aperture. Measured in f-stops, its basically how big your lens is open. The bigger the number, the smaller the opening is. Smaller opening = less light = greater depth of field (lots of stuff are in focus).
B is for blur. Created or caused by the subject or the camera moving while the picture was taken. A common occurrence in pictures taken at slower shutter (1/25 and below) in low light conditions. Sometimes blur is intentionally captured to create a sense of movement in the final image.
C is for cropping. The art of cutting things out which apparently is too hard for most people these days.
D is for depth of field(DOF). A direct result of a combination of A and F.
E is for exposure. Derived from the old days when films were exposed to light, it is basically how long your sensor is left open. An overexposed image has too much light.
F is for focal length.Measured in mm, it is basically the coverage area of your lens. 14mm - really wide which lets you see almost everything in front of you while a 400mm is really zoomed in, much like viewing through a telescope.The wider it is, the more distortion as the lens cramps everything visible onto the sensor. The longer it is, the shallower the DOF.
G is for graduated filters, where one half of the filter is covered with colour, reducing its density towards the center of the filter. Very useful when you only need to filter half of a frame. Used mainly in photographing landscapes.
H is for highlights. These are the brightest parts of an image. Shadows are the darkest parts.
I is for ISO. Sensitivity of the sensor towards light. ISO 200 means the sensor records 2 times as much light at the same settings compared to ISO 100. Increased sensitivity also means increased noise,artifacts and generally crappier pictures.
J is for jpeg. Another industry standard in image compression. Most point and shoot cameras record images in the jpeg format to save space.
K is for Kelvin, as scale used to measure colour temperature. Higher color temperatures (5,000 K or more) are called cool colors (blueish white); lower color temperatures (2,700–3,000 K) are called warm colors (yellowish white through red).
L is for lenses. The barrel full of pieces of glass you put in front of your sensor. Without it, the camera has no idea what it's looking at. Range starts from dirt cheap plastic ones to more-expensive-than-a-house ones.Best coverage+best quality optics = a 10-22, a 24-70L and a 70-300L (all canon). The canon L lenses are lenses with the best quality optics that it is possible for them to manufacture.
M is for memory card. Comes in a whole range of formats namely SD,MicroSd,CF etc with the industry standard being CF(compact flash).
N is for Neutral density(ND) filters. Used to limit the amount of light entering the camera, used especially under ultra sunny days when there's just too much light.
O is for out-of-focus. This refers to areas in the image that are not in focus and appear blurred out. Especially apparent with a low depth of field which are bloody amazing. It also refers to moments when the camera is unable to focus on the desired subject.
P is for Photoshop, the industry standard in image manipulation. Photoshop is excellent only if you intend to create works of art by carefully editing your pictures as many photographers used to do back then with their negatives. If you're merely interested in managing and editing your pictures well enough to be presented then Adobe Lightroom is the answer. Please bear in mind that Photoshop is not a miracle software. While it can make a great image slightly better, it will never be able to make a bad image good.
Q is the letter after P and before R. 10 points in Scrabble.
R is for raw. There seems to be a never ending debate of jpeg vs raw. This is one of the dumbest and most pointless debates in photography today. Raw files are not images. They are chunks of information taken directly from the sensor, without any compression or processing whatsoever. Raw files are exceptionally useful when you intend to do heavy post-production work later on as the file carries all the information needed and therefore enables you to edit it without quality degradation. In comparison, each time you open, edit and save a jpeg file, it is recompressed.
S is for shutter speed measured in fractions of a second (1/10, 1/50). Imagine the water tap in your kitchen. Now imagine opening it and closing it really fast. Now do it again really slowly. That is almost exactly how the shutter works. A faster shutter lets less light in but captures motion quicker than a slower shutter.
T is for tripod. Absolute essential when taking pictures in low light conditions, long exposures and other situations where the camera has to be absolutely still. Ranges from dirt cheap shitty ones to ultra expensive carbon fibre ones. Investing in a moderately priced and sturdy tripod is highly recommended.
U is for unnecessary editing. This is when the photographer feels obliged to edit every single image by adding preset effects and filters in any particular software without any need for actually doing so. Popular crimes are adding the sepia and black and white effect for a pseudo-emotional/sentimental effect.
V is for vignetting. This is the dark region around the edge of a picture caused by poor quality optics. Especially apparent when the lens is wide open. Or sometimes added into images to create a desired effect.
W is for white balance. Different lighting environment confuses the camera in capturing colours correctly. Adjusting the white balance is basically you telling the camera what the correct lighting conditions are (sunny,cloudy, fluorescent etc). Manual white balance on the other hand is telling the camera (with a reference picture) what is considered white under the present lighting conditions.
X is for x-sync speed, which is the fastest shutter speed the camera can use with flash. Any faster and it will only capture a 'partial' flash. X sync speeds are generally between 1/150 and 1/250 for average cameras with mechanical shutters.
Y is for why? A question generally posed when looking at people doing stupid things such as(and not limited to): people who go to historical sites, climb over thousand year old monuments and pose with the victory sign as if they've just discovered it.
Z is for zoom. Zoom lenses cover a range of focal lengths in a single build; 18-200, 70-300 etc. This is much more flexible in terms of practicality and coverage as compared to a prime lens which is fixed at a certain focal length.
