Glossary: Thirty Terms You Will Meet in Photo and Video Work

A short reference to the words that keep coming up in this field. Definitions are given in their working sense, without academic rigour.

Generation

Diffusion — a method of creating an image by gradually removing noise
Prompt — the text description of what should come out
Negative prompt — a list of what should not appear in the frame
Seed — the number that sets the starting noise; with the same seed and settings the result repeats
Steps — how many cleaning cycles an image passes through
LoRA — a small addition to a model that teaches it one face or style
Checkpoint — the file containing the base model
Inpainting — regenerating a selected region of an image
Upscaling — enlargement with detail built in

Deepfake — face replacement on video by means of deep learning
Reference — the source material that defines the likeness
Landmarks — the coordinates of facial features used for alignment
Blend mask — the region through which a new face is fitted into the frame
Temporal smoothing — processing with reference to neighbouring frames, against flicker
Photo animation — turning a still into a short video
Loop — a clip whose end matches its beginning

H.264 — the most widely compatible video codec
Faststart — the service block moved to the front of a file so video starts at once
Poster — the image shown before a clip has loaded
Lazy loading — loading media only as it approaches the screen
Metadata — service information inside a file
Watermark — a visible or hidden mark of ownership

Model release — written consent to the use of an image
NCII — non-consensual intimate imagery; a criminal offence
RTA — a site label for parental control software
Age verification — confirming a visitor is an adult
Hash database — a set of fingerprints of prohibited files for automatic blocking
Processing — the company handling payments; often sets rules stricter than the law
Affiliate link — a tagged link by which referred traffic is counted