Which sentence says you never use the built-in flash?

No uso nunca no el flash integrado.

Nunca no uso el flash integrado.

Spanish for photography: the camera, the light, the shot

Short answer

Photography Spanish is built on verb-and-noun pairs: *enfocar* gives *el enfoque*, *disparar* gives *el disparador*, *revelar* gives *el revelado*. Learn the verb and the noun comes free. The settings cluster too — *el diafragma*, *el obturador* and *la sensibilidad ISO* are the three things you trade against each other.

CEFR B1 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-12

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

The three things you trade against each other

A photographer does not talk about el diafragma in isolation. These three come out in one breath, because changing one forces a change in another:

el diafragma — the aperture. Abrir and cerrar el diafragma
el obturador — the shutter. La velocidad de obturación is shutter speed
la sensibilidad ISO — ISO. Usually shortened to just el ISO

And the thing they add up to:

la exposición — the exposure. Una foto sobreexpuesta is blown out, subexpuesta is too dark
el ruido — noise, the grain you get from a high ISO. El ruido en las fotografías indica niveles altos de ISO is the sentence straight out of Jhoslyn’s deck
la luz — light. La luz tenue is dim light, the condition that starts all of these arguments

The body of the camera

la cámara analógica / la cámara digital
el objetivo, or el lente — the lens. Both are used in Peru; el objetivo is the more technical
el visor — the viewfinder
el disparador — the shutter release, the button
el flash — the flash. El flash integrado is the pop-up one
el trípode — the tripod
el fotómetro — the light meter
el filtro — the filter
la tarjeta de memoria — the memory card
el equipo fotográfico — the kit, all of it together

Analogue, and the words that only exist there

la película fotográfica — film
el rollo fotográfico, el carrete de fotos — the roll. In Peru you will hear el rollo far more often than el carrete
el negativo — the negative
el cuarto oscuro — the darkroom
el revelado — developing. Revelar is the verb
la cámara oscura — the camera obscura, the thing the whole medium came out of

Digital, and the words that only exist there

la imagen digital · el archivo digital — the file
el pixel · la resolución
el sensor — the sensor
la saturación — saturation
el blanco y negro — black and white. Note the order: Spanish says it the other way round from English

What the picture looks like

el enfoque — focus · el desenfoque — the out-of-focus part
la distancia focal — focal length · el plano focal — the focal plane
la profundidad de campo — depth of field
el encuadre — the framing
la composición — composition
la nitidez — sharpness
el brillo — brightness · el contraste — contrast
la iluminación — lighting
el ángulo — the angle
el panorama — the panoramic shot
el zoom — zoom

The genres, all feminine because they agree with la fotografía

la fotografía artística — the one made to provoke a feeling
la fotografía documental — documentary
la fotografía publicitaria — advertising
la fotografía gastronómica — food photography
la fotografía deportiva — sports
la fotografía paisajística — landscape
la fotografía nocturna — night
la fotografía aérea — aerial, a vista de pájaro
la fotografía subacuática — underwater
la fotografía astronómica, or la astrofotografía
la fotografía científica, with la fotomicrografía and la fotomacrografía

And the person: el fotógrafo / la fotógrafa. El retrato is a portrait — the single most common genre and the one Jhoslyn’s deck defines as la imagen del rostro de una persona.

The pattern that builds half this vocabulary

Learn the verb and the noun arrives free. This is not a coincidence — it is the most productive pattern in technical Spanish:

Verb	Noun	What it means
enfocar	el enfoque	to focus → focus
desenfocar	el desenfoque	to blur → the blur
disparar	el disparador	to shoot → the shutter release
revelar	el revelado	to develop → developing
exponer	la exposición	to expose → exposure
ampliar	la ampliación	to enlarge → the enlargement
encuadrar	el encuadre	to frame → the framing
iluminar	la iluminación	to light → lighting

Notice the three shapes. A bare verb stem gives a masculine noun (el enfoque, el encuadre). An -ador ending gives the tool that does it (el disparador, el borrador, el revelador). An -ción ending gives the process, and it is always feminine (la exposición, la iluminación, la ampliación) — no exceptions worth worrying about.

That means you can guess. If you know fijar (to fix), el fijador is plausibly the fixer, and it is. If you know ampliar, la ampliadora is the enlarger, and it is.

How often you do it: the frequency adverbs

Her photography deck asks students to write about shooting using frequency adverbs, and the reason is that talking about technique is talking about habits. The three positions that matter:

siempre, casi siempre, normalmente, a veces, casi nunca, nunca
Most of them sit before the verb or at the start: Siempre uso trípode de noche. A veces disparo en manual.
Nunca is the one with a rule. Before the verb it stands alone: Nunca uso el flash integrado. After the verb it needs no as well: No uso nunca el flash integrado. Both are correct; the double negative is not a mistake in Spanish

One frequency phrase that sounds specifically Peruvian: cada vez que — cada vez que hay poca luz, subo el ISO.

→ Frequency adverbs has the full set.

Try it

Say what each one is:

The button you press
The part that controls how much light gets in
The room where film is developed
Out-of-focus blur
Shutter speed

→ 1 el disparador · 2 el diafragma · 3 el cuarto oscuro · 4 el desenfoque · 5 la velocidad de obturación.

Topics Art and craft

Aperture, shutter, ISO

Seven questions on camera vocabulary and on the verb-to-noun pattern that lets you guess half of it.

1Which one controls how much light reaches the sensor?
Answer

el diafragma — *El diafragma* is the aperture. *El obturador* controls how long the light comes in for, and between them plus *la sensibilidad ISO* you have the exposure.
2You know the verb *enfocar*. What is the noun?
Answer

el enfoque — A bare stem plus *-e* gives a masculine noun: *enfocar* → *el enfoque*, *encuadrar* → *el encuadre*. The *-ción* pattern exists too but not for this verb.
3*El ruido* in a photograph is:
Answer

the grain from a high ISO — *El ruido* is noise — the speckling you get at high ISO. It is the same word Spanish uses for sound, borrowed straight across to the image.
4Which sentence says you never use the built-in flash?
Answer

Nunca uso el flash integrado. — *Nunca* before the verb stands on its own. After the verb it needs *no* as well — *no uso nunca* — but you cannot have both *no* and a pre-verbal *nunca*.
5A Peruvian photographer asks for *un rollo*. What do they want?
Answer

a roll of film — *El rollo fotográfico* is the film, and *rollo* alone is what people say in Peru. *El carrete* means the same thing but is heard far less here.
6Which genre photographs food?
Answer

la fotografía gastronómica — *Gastronómica*, from *la gastronomía*. *Publicitaria* is advertising — which often includes food, but the genre name is about the purpose, not the subject.
7*El cuarto oscuro* is:
Answer

the darkroom — *El cuarto oscuro* is the darkroom where film is developed. *La cámara oscura* is the older invention the camera itself descends from — different thing, similar name.