| PAL: |
A European video out standard to display images on a TV screen. |
| Panning: |
A photography technique in which the camera follows a moving subject. Done correctly, the subject is sharp and clear, while the background is blurred, giving a sense of motion to the photo. |
| Panorama: |
A picture presenting a continuous view of the landscape, produced either by using a panoramic camera or from a composite of several images. |
| Papa: |
Stands for the letter P in the phonetic alphabet. |
| Parallel port: |
A port on the computer that is faster than a serial port but slower than SCSI, USB, or IEEE 1394 ports. Often used by printers and flash card readers. |
| Parallel runways: |
Runways that are the same distance apart from each other at all points. |
| Parasitic drag: |
Resistance to a forward aeroplane movement caused by any non-lifting components of the aeroplane. The fixed undercarriage on most aircraft is one of the main causes of unwanted drag. Rectractable undercarriage will reduce area of drag to virtually zero. |
| Partly cloudy: |
Sky condition when between 3/10 and 7/10 of the sky is covered by cloud. |
| Passenger: |
A person travelling in a vehicle who is not also operating the flight. |
| Payload: |
Anything that a flight vehicle carries beyond what is required for its operation during flight. |
| PC card: |
A card, in the case of cameras usually a storage device, that plugs into a slot in a notebook or hand-held computer. Originally called PCMCIA cards. |
| Perspective: |
The relationship of size and shape of three-dimensional objects represented in two-dimensional space. |
| Photography: |
From the Greek Photos and Graphos, light writing or writing with light. The mix of art and science for the creation of images on a light sensitive surface.First suggested by Sir John Herschel to William Fox Talbot in 1839. |
| Photon: |
A particle of light energy. It is the smallest quantity of radiant energy that can be transmitted between two systems. |
| Photoshop: |
An image editing software. The most popular. |
| Photosite: |
A small area on the surface of an image sensor that captures the brightness for a single pixel in the image. There is one photosite for every pixel in the image. |
| PICT: |
A Macintosh graphic imaging file format using a pct extension (*.pct). |
| Pitch: |
A rotational motion in which an airplane turns about its lateral axis. Pushing forward on the control stick will lower the elevators, which forces the tail upward. The pilot will then see the nose of the aircraft fall or pitch. |
| Pixel: |
Contraction of Picture and Element. Any of the small discrete elements that together constitute an image (as on a computer or television screen), or any of the detecting elements of a charge-coupled device used as an optical sensor in a digital camera. Ea |
| Pixelization: |
An effect seen when you enlarge a digital image too much and the pixels become obvious.
|
| Polarizing Filter: |
A filter used in photography to polarize the light entering a lens. A polarizer allows light in from one direction as opposed to multiple directions caused by reflection and/or glare
|
| Port: |
An electrical connection on the computer into which a cable can be plugged so the computer can communicate with another device such as a printer or modem. |
| Portrait mode: |
Turning the camera to take a vertically oriented photograph. |
| Positive: |
In photography, the production of prints or transparencies in which light and dark correspond to the tonal range of the original subject. |
| Precipitation: |
Liquid or solid water(ice or snow) that falls from the atmosphere and reaches the ground. |
| Preflight: |
The check and preparation of the aircraft before takeoff. |
| Pressure: |
The force exerted by the interaction of the atmosphere and gravity. Also known as atmospheric pressure. |
| pressure altimeter: |
An aneroid barometer calibrated to indicate altitude in feet instead of units of pressure. It is read accurately only in a standard atmosphere and when the correct altimeter setting is used. |
| Pressure altitude: |
The altitude in standard atmosphere at which a given pressure will be observed. It is the indicated altitude of a pressure altimeter at an altitude setting of 29.92 inches of mercury, and is therefore the indicated altitude above the 29.92 constant pressu |
| Pressure gradient: |
The rate of decrease of pressure with distance at a fixed level.
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| Prevailing winds: |
Direction from which the wind blows most frequently during a given period in a specific area or region. |
| Preview screen: |
A small LCD display screen on the back of the camera used to compose or look at photographs. |
| Print: |
In photography is an image, normally positive, which has been produced by the action of light on paper or similar material coated with a light sensitive emulsion. |
| Printing: |
A process employed to make one or a number of images on paper or similar material. |
| Projected flight path: |
The predetermined line of movement that a flight vehicle makes or follows in the air or in space. |
| Propeller: |
A device on an aircraft, consisting typically of two or more blades twisted to describe a helical path as they rotate with the hub in which they are mounted, and serving to propel the aircraft by the backward thrust of air. The amount of thrust can be con |
| Pulling: |
The method of underrating the normal ISO speed of a film to produce an overexposed latent image. |
| Pushing: |
The method of overrating the normal ISO speed of a film to produce an underexposed latent image. Used to increase the working speed of a film. |
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