Test your knowledge of the basics: a quiz for you today. Select the best answer. Tomorrow, the answers.

 

1. You are shooting a hockey game. Your autofocus should probably be:

❏  In AI Servo/AF-C focus mode

❏  On manual focus

❏  In One Shot/AF-S focus mode

❏  Out of focus

 

2. At f/5.6, your picture is too dark. You can try going to:

❏  f/8

❏  f/4

❏  f/11

❏  1/60 second

 

3. If I move a light three times farther away from the subject it is lighting up, the subject now gets:

❏  Twice as much light

❏  Half as much light

❏  One third as much light

❏  One ninth as much light

 

4. For a blurrier background, you can go to a lower f-number. You can also:

❏  Step closer to your foreground object

❏  Use a longer lens

❏  Zoom in on your foreground object

❏  All of the above

 

5. For a “panning” picture of, say, a bicycle, you could try the following as a starting shutter speed:

❏  1/100 sec

❏  1/1000 sec

❏  2 seconds

❏  1/15 sec

 

6. A 50mm lens is normally called a “standard” lens on a film camera. On a crop camera with a crop factor of 1.5 or 1.6 you could use this for the same effect:

❏  a 50mm lens

❏  a 135mm lens

❏  a zoom lens

❏  a 35mm lens

 

7. The “rule of thirds” says that an object would look good if it were:

❏  Exactly in the centre

❏  One third from the top or bottom, and one third from either side

❏  Anywhere

❏  The square root of 2 away from the centre

 

8. Going from f/2.8 to f/11 gives you:

❏  Three stops more light

❏  8.2 stops less light

❏  Four stops less light

❏  One stop more light

 

9. The larger the f-number, the…

❏  …larger the opening in the lens

❏  …sharper the picture

❏  …smaller the opening in the lens

❏  …more the colour goes toward red

 

10. In exposure terms, 1/500th second and f/4 is equivalent to 1/30th second and:

❏  f/1.2

❏  f/1.6

❏  f/4.85

❏  f/16

 

11. Going from f/2.8 to f/11 gives you:

❏  Three stops more light

❏  8.2 stops less light

❏  Four stops less light

❏  One stop more light

 

12. Going from 1/30 sec to 1/250 sec gives:

❏  Three stops more light

❏  Three stops less light

❏  Four stops less light

❏  220 times less light

 

13. For a high-key photo, I want my light meter to indicate:

❏  In the middle (“0”)

❏  On the minus (“–“) side

❏  On the plus (“+”) side

❏  Alternating between plus and minus