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Photography Basics

Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A fall-off in brightness at the edges of an image - slide - or print. Can be caused by poor lens design - using a lens hood not matched to the lens - or attaching too many filters to the front of the lens. It can also be applied after the image is ta






2. Sometimes called camera raw - raw format - raw image format and raw. A digital image storage format that contains the most information possible from a camera's sensor. RAW data ( a RAW image file) is unprocessed. Some folks consider it to be the digi






3. Film speed or sensitivity is designated by a single - almost universally-accepted common system developed by the International Organization for Standardization which uses the initials 'ISO' before the film-speed number or digital camera's sensitivity






4. A lighting technique that is sometimes used in studio portrait photography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector - or two lights - and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a






5. Existing light surrounding a subject; the light that is illuminating a scene without any additional light supplied by the photographer. This is also called 'available light'.






6. Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Bokeh is different from sharpness. Sharpness is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh is what happens away from the point of best focus. Bokeh describes the appearance - or 'feel






7. A digital camera analyzes a scene using its white balance mode to determine areas that should be recorded as pure white. The camera adjusts the overall scene's color balance so that the areas meant to be reproduced as white in the picture will be whi






8. A lens aperture setting calibrated to an f-number






9. The primary colors of light (not of the inks used in printing) are red - green and blue - known by the acronym RGB.






10. A form of image compression when saving the image that discards data from it. Saving a picture as a JPEG uses lossy compression.






11. A million bytes - abbreviated as MB - Mb and sometimes Mbyte. Technically and more precisely - it refers to 1 -048 -576 bytes. Digital images are often referred to in terms of their 'size in Mb'.






12. Occurs when the photographer incrementally lights an otherwise darkened scene using a handheld flashlight or other small light source while the shutter remains open during a time exposure. The light is added to the scene in the manner of an artist us






13. A contract in which a model consents to the use of his or her images by the photographer or a third party. Sometimes referred to simply as a 'release.'






14. If you're hand holding your camera - your shutter speed should not be slower than the reciprocal of your effective focal length (but not lower than 1/50th of a second) in order to avoid 'camera shake -' i.e. the blur that results from any slight move






15. A contract in which a model consents to the use of his or her images by the photographer or a third party. Sometimes referred to simply as a 'release.'






16. Adding new pixels to a digital image between existing pixels. Interpolation software analyzes the adjacent pixels to create the new ones when enlarging an image file.






17. Technique that involves taking a picture while moving the camera at a relatively slow shutter speed. It is almost always used when tracking a moving object - such as a race car - as it travels across the film plane. When properly carried out - the ob






18. A function or shooting mode of a semi-automatic camera that permits the photographer to preset the aperture and leaves the camera to automatically determine the correct shutter speed. What does that mean? You select the aperture setting you want and






19. Any device used to reflect light onto a subject.






20. CMYK - An acronym for the ink colors Cyan (process blue) - Magenta (process red) - Yellow and Black used in four-color process printing.






21. Describes a mostly dark image - with few highlights.






22. Frames per second (fps) refers to the number of pictures that a camera is able to take in a second. A point-and-shoot camera typically shoots one or two pictures per second. Higher-end single lens reflex (SLR) cameras have much greater performance -






23. The time an hour or less before the sun goes down and around fifteen minutes after the sun has set. Sunlight is usually warmer and more complimentary to skin tones at this time - and the angle of the light can provide depth to portraits and landscape






24. Lens with a focal length approximately equal to the diagonal of the film format or of a digital camera's image sensor. A scene viewed through a normal lens appears to have the same perspective as if it was being viewed 'normally' without a lens - jus






25. Commonly abbreviated as 'TTL'. Refers to both exposure metering of the light passing through the lens (Through-the-lens metering - and TTL flash metering) and viewing a scene through the same lens that allows light to reach the sensor or the film (Th






26. A complementary color is one of a pair of primary or secondary colors that are in opposition to each other on a color wheel.






27. Occurs when an image editing program is used to change an image's size. Increasing an image's size requires the addition of new pixels and decreasing size removes pixels.






28. CMYK - An acronym for the ink colors Cyan (process blue) - Magenta (process red) - Yellow and Black used in four-color process printing.






29. Existing light surrounding a subject; the light that is illuminating a scene without any additional light supplied by the photographer. This is also called 'available light'.






30. Occurs when saving a digital image file in a format that does not result in a loss of data. A TIFF and PSD documents are examples of lossless image formats






31. A lens with the ability to focus from infinity to extremely closely - allowing it to capture images of tiny objects in frame-filling - larger-than-life sizes.






32. A lighting technique that is sometimes used in studio portrait photography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector - or two lights - and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a






33. Frames per second (fps) refers to the number of pictures that a camera is able to take in a second. A point-and-shoot camera typically shoots one or two pictures per second. Higher-end single lens reflex (SLR) cameras have much greater performance -






34. (Graphics Interchange Format) is a small image file format that supports transparency and is constrained to a maximum of 256 colors - generally making it a poor choice for your digital images. When it was created - most computer video cards were able






35. When the lens is focused on infinity - the nearest point to the camera that is considered acceptably sharp is the Hyperfocal point. By focusing on the hyperfocal point - everything beyond it to infinity remains in acceptable focus - and objects halfw






36. Graininess occurs when clumps of individual grains are large and irregularly spaced out in the negative. They are visible to the naked eye in the finished print - particularly enlargements - as sand-like particles. When this occurs - the picture appe






37. A composition rule that divides the screen into thirds horizontally and vertically - like a tic-tac toe grid placed over the picture on a television set. Almost all of the important information included in every shot is located at one of the four int






38. Exchangeable Image File Format. Data produced by a digital camera that becomes attached to each image made by the camera - including make & model of camera - date & time - image format (e.g. jpeg - tiff - etc.)and dimensions - color & exposure modes






39. When the lens is focused on infinity - the nearest point to the camera that is considered acceptably sharp is the Hyperfocal point. By focusing on the hyperfocal point - everything beyond it to infinity remains in acceptable focus - and objects halfw






40. An accessory that attaches as a collar to the front of a lens to prevent stray light from striking the surface of the lens - causing flare






41. Exchangeable Image File Format. Data produced by a digital camera that becomes attached to each image made by the camera - including make & model of camera - date & time - image format (e.g. jpeg - tiff - etc.)and dimensions - color & exposure modes






42. Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Bokeh is different from sharpness. Sharpness is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh is what happens away from the point of best focus. Bokeh describes the appearance - or 'feel






43. A lens in which focal length is variable. Elements inside a zoom lens shift their positions - enabling the lens to change its focal length - in effect - providing one lens that has many focal lengths. (Also called a 'Variable focus lens.')






44. The range of distance in a scene that appears to be in focus and will be reproduced as being acceptably sharp in an image. Depth of field is controlled by the lens aperture - and extends for a distance in front of and behind the point on which the le






45. Technique that involves taking a picture while moving the camera at a relatively slow shutter speed. It is almost always used when tracking a moving object - such as a race car - as it travels across the film plane. When properly carried out - the ob






46. Occurs when the photographer incrementally lights an otherwise darkened scene using a handheld flashlight or other small light source while the shutter remains open during a time exposure. The light is added to the scene in the manner of an artist us






47. In a studio - the main light is placed fairly high - directly in front of the face - aimed at the center of the nose. It casts a shadow shaped like a butterfly beneath the nose.






48. A fall-off in brightness at the edges of an image - slide - or print. Can be caused by poor lens design - using a lens hood not matched to the lens - or attaching too many filters to the front of the lens. It can also be applied after the image is ta






49. A lens aperture setting calibrated to an f-number






50. A clear - neutral filter that absorbs ultraviolet radiation - with no effect on visible colors. The skylight filter is a UV filter with a pale rose tinge to it.