COMM 242: Advanced News Photography (Photojournalism)
Instructor: Ross Collins

Midterm exam review 2012

The exam will comprise about 35 multiple choice questions.

Material covered: textbook (Langford) chapters 1-2, 5-8, 10, 14 and Appendix F.
Photoshop exercises 1-4.
All lectures, class discussions and class Blackboard linked resources.

Particular things to consider:

• Operation of lenses, including physical principles, focal length, focal plane, depth of field, and characteristics of telephoto, wide angle and zoom.
• operation of cameras, including metering, f/stops and shutter speeds, ISO, and how they're related.
• characteristics of light, including quality, intensity and direction, soft and hard, texture, flash, daylight, color balance, and formal lighting arrangements.
• styles of photography, careers, photojournalism compared with other photographic purposes.
• composition principles, the visual toolbox, common rules and common mistakes.
  
  Review questions for midterm: these are not the actual questions (for the most part), but cover aspects you may need to know for the exam.

1. The primary purpose of photojournalism, as so-called “non-fiction photography” is...?

2. While the majority of photojournalists work for newspapers, name two other media-related careers regularly employing photojournalists.

3. While most cameras have glass lenses, you can take a photo with a pinhole camera. Why does it work?

4. If physics dictates that an image formed on a film from a camera lens or pinhole is upside-down, why do we see the view right-side up in most camera viewfinders?

5. How is refraction of light different from reflection of light?

6. The focal length of a lens is measured in millimeters from the focal plane, that is, the film, to the center of the lens. (A zoom lens is variable focal length.) What is the difference, and why would a photographer choose one over another?

7. Which focal length would a photojournalist likely choose to produce a blurred background, that is, shorter depth of field, a 28mm or a 135mm?

8. What is depth of field?

9. What is ISO, and how is it related to f/stops and shutter speeds?

10. If you wish to increase depth of field, you could change to a shorter, or wide-angle lens. What’s another way?

11. How are f-stops and shutter speeds related?

12. We speak of lens aperture: what is that?

13. Let’s say my light meter showed proper exposure of a scene to be f/2.8 at 1/125 of a second. However, I hope to increase the depth of field. Name a possible f/stop-shutter speed combination that would do that.

14. What would be a drawback of that change?

15. My meter shows a combination of f/5.6 at 1/60 of a second. However, I’m at a basketball game and need to stop action. What combination might a choose allowing me to do that?

16. Which ISO setting would work best taking available light photos in a dim auditorium, ISO 100, 400 or 1000?

17. What is a disadvantage of using the setting you chose above?

18. What is meant by “quality” of light? Intensity?

19. Why is flash-on-camera considered a poor choice for lighting in most situations?

20. If someone asks for high-key lighting, what does he expect to see?

21. If you chose strong side lighting to illuminate a scene, what would you most likely want to emphasize?

22. You’re shooting in a living room lit by incandescent light (lightbulbs), using digital white balance setting for daylight. How will this affect your photos?

23. In photo composition, what is the “Rule of Thirds?”

24. In photo composition, what is foreground framing?

25. Why would a photographer choose to shoot in Camera RAW format? What is a disadvantage of that?

26. You’ve scanned a picture, but it seems not as sharp as it might be in Photoshop. What can you do?

27. Your photo of your home office comes up with a orangish cast in Photoshop. What can you do?

28. Explain two rules for writing news-based cutlines.

29. What are exposure meters used for?

30. Why do photojournalists like to get identifications of their subjects?

31. Considering a sunny summer day, what will probably be your worst choice for lighting: morning, noon, or late afternoon?

32. When we talk about getting “detail” into a shadow or highlight area, what do we mean?