Photo Editing Glossary

52 terms defined plainly — with examples, tool comparisons, and cross-links. Start anywhere; every entry leads somewhere useful.

Colour

Colour

LUT (Look-Up Table)

A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a pre-baked colour grade you apply in one click. Common in video colour grading; increasingly used in photo editing for cinematic looks.

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Editing operations

Editing operations

Layer mask

A layer mask hides parts of a layer without deleting them. Paint black to hide, white to reveal. The hidden pixels are still there — reversible at any time.

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Non-destructive editing

Non-destructive editing means every change is stored as an instruction, not baked into the pixels. The original file is never altered — adjustments are reversible at any point.

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Smart Object

A Smart Object is Photoshop's non-destructive layer container. Wrap any layer in a Smart Object and every filter applied to it becomes editable and reversible.

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File formats

File formats

RAW format

RAW is unprocessed sensor data from your camera — every photon captured, before the camera applies sharpening, noise reduction, or colour adjustment. Editing RAW gives you maximum quality and flexibility.

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