Test

[MarkBarbieri]

Anyone want to test my quiz? My wife is still having trouble remembering some of the core settings of her camera, so I put together a quick quiz for her. The idea is that she'll not only pick an answer, but she'll be able to explain why it is the best answer. Where she can't pick the best answer, we'll have learning opportunities. I figured I'd test it here so that someone can tell me which questions are really bad.

1) You’re in a moderately lit room at a cocktail party. You want to take a picture of a person, but you want them isolated. You want everything behind them to be blurry, but you want them to be sharp. The person is moving around, but not very quickly. You are zoomed in to 100mm.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/30
b. ISO 800, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/120
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter Speed 1/30
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/15
e. ISO 1600, Aperture f/8, Shutter Speed 1/30

2) You’re taking a picture of a person with some beautiful scenery in the distance behind them. You want the person and the scenery to be in focus. The person is about 6 feet away from you and the scenery is miles away from you.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 1/60
b. ISO 100, Aperture f/4, Shutter Speed, 1/250
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/60
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/15

3) You’re taking a picture of a painting hanging on a wall about 10 feet away using a lens at 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm. Your camera is on a tripod. You want the sharpest possible shot.
a. ISO 400, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/8, 1/30
d. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/125

4) You are shooting someone standing at a lectern. The background behind them is indistinct and not very distracting. You look at your LCD and you see that the camera settings are ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/4000. You are using a 135mm f/2 lens. Which settings would work better?
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/15
b. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/60
c. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125
d. ISO 200, f/2, 1/500
e. ISO 3200, f/11, 1/250

5) You are taking a picture of someone riding a bike from one side of your frame to another. You want to make a sharp picture that freezes them and leaves the background out of focus. You are shooting at 200mm on a 70-200 f/2.8 image stabilized lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 3200, f/16, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/4, 1/500
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/2000
 
6) You are taking a picture of a group of people riding by bicycles. This time, you want a picture that shows the entire group reasonably sharp, but you want the background to show a motion blur. This group is closer, so you are zoomed out to 100mm on your 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/60
b. ISO 400, f/8, 1/250
c. ISO 1600, f/8, 1/1000
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000

7) You are taking a picture on the Universe of Energy ride in Epcot. You are shooting with a 135mm f/2 lens. It’s dark and you are struggling to get a shot. Which are your best settings?
a. ISO 6400, f/2, 1/60
b. ISO 3200, f/2, 1/30
c. ISO 3200, f/4, 1/8
d. ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/30

8) You want to take a picture that shows your subject (a person) and the environment that they are in. You want the background to be blurry but you want your subject to be sharp. You have a 24mm f/1.4 lens, a 24-105 f/4 IS lens, a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens, and a 135mm f/2 lens.
a. 24mm lens, ISO 100, f/2, 1/125
b. 24-105mm f/4 IS lens at 24mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/30
c. 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens at 200mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60
d. 135mm f/2 lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60

9) When you are taking a panning shot with an IS lens, the IS should be:
a. Turned off
b. Turned on, in Mode 1
c. Turned on, in Mode 2

10) If you are trying to make the background behind someone blurry, you should:
a. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them closer to the background.
b. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them away from the background.
c. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them closer to the background.
d. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them away from the background.

11) Zooming a zoom lens has the same effect as moving towards or away from your subject
a. Yes
b. No

12) Does the focal length of your lens make any difference to the shutter speed that you want to use to get a sharp picture?
a. No, you always want a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster for a sharp picture.
b. Yes, the shorter the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because the wider view of a shorter lens shows more motion.
c. Yes, the longer the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because longer lenses magnify everything (including camera movement) more.
 
13) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that isn’t moving and the light isn’t changing (such as the interior of a church), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

14) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that is moving fairly rapidly (such as a gymnast in a gymnasium), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

15) What advantage is there to shooting a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/11 compared with shooting a 17-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 lens zoomed to 50mm and also at f/11?
a. The f/1.4 lens lets you use a faster shutter speed at f/8 than the 17-55 lens because it is a faster lens.
b. The viewfinder will be brighter and it will be easier to see what is in focus using the f/1.4 lens.
c. The image from the 50mm f/1.4 lens will look much better because the image is much better for primes than it is for zooms.
d. There really isn’t any advantage. 50mm at f/11, is 50mm at f/11. At the same settings, you’ll get the same image.

16) You are taking a picture of a person on a dark stage. When you look at your LCD, you see lots of “blinkies” on the person, indicating that he is overexposed. To fix that problem, you could:
a. Switch spot metering mode and meter off of the person’s face.
b. Switch the camera to manual exposure mode and lower the shutter speed, raise the aperture, or lower the ISO until the person looks properly exposed.
c. Try dialing in negative exposure compensation until the person is properly exposed.
d. Zoom in tighter so that the person fills most of the frame and you don’t see much of the dark stage.

17) If your primary concern is making sure that you have shallow DOF as your subject quickly moves between different lighting situations, should you be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

18) If you are trying to take panning shots of subjects moving through rapidly changing light levels, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

19) If conditions are changing rapidly, you’ve got a lot of things to deal with, and you are really aren’t that concerned about shallow DOF, panning, or any of that stuff, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

20) If you are using an f/2.8 lens, which aperture will give you the sharpest picture:
a. Duh, f/2.8 – that’s what the lens is designed for.
b. f/5.6
c. f/22
d. f/1.4

 

[Marlton Mom]

I'll give your quiz a shot... tell me what do I WIN!!!

Thanks for sharing the quiz though. It was well thought out and I'll be interested to see which ones I got wrong..

~Marlton Mom

Anyone want to test my quiz? My wife is still having trouble remembering some of the core settings of her camera, so I put together a quick quiz for her. The idea is that she'll not only pick an answer, but she'll be able to explain why it is the best answer. Where she can't pick the best answer, we'll have learning opportunities. I figured I'd test it here so that someone can tell me which questions are really bad.

1) You’re in a moderately lit room at a cocktail party. You want to take a picture of a person, but you want them isolated. You want everything behind them to be blurry, but you want them to be sharp. The person is moving around, but not very quickly. You are zoomed in to 100mm.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/30
b. ISO 800, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/120
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter Speed 1/30
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/15
e. ISO 1600, Aperture f/8, Shutter Speed 1/30

ANSWER b SHUTTER IS GOOD FOR FREEZING MOVEMENT iso 800 not too grainy (we hope) F2.8 = minimum Depth of field

2) You’re taking a picture of a person with some beautiful scenery in the distance behind them. You want the person and the scenery to be in focus. The person is about 6 feet away from you and the scenery is miles away from you.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 1/60
b. ISO 100, Aperture f/4, Shutter Speed, 1/250
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/60
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/15


answer A, ISO good for outdoors, F11 = good depth of field, SHUTTER 60 IS FAST ENOUGH TO FREEZE ACTIONS of a posing subject

3) You’re taking a picture of a painting hanging on a wall about 10 feet away using a lens at 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm. Your camera is on a tripod. You want the sharpest possible shot.
a. ISO 400, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/8, 1/30
d. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/125

Answer C, ISO 100 = minimum noise, F8 = decent depth of field at 10 feet for a flat subject and a tripod makes shutter of 1/30 doable

4) You are shooting someone standing at a lectern. The background behind them is indistinct and not very distracting. You look at your LCD and you see that the camera settings are ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/4000. You are using a 135mm f/2 lens. Which settings would work better?
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/15
b. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/60
c. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125
d. ISO 200, f/2, 1/500
e. ISO 3200, f/11, 1/250

Answer C, all settings are middle of the road for the scene with shutter 1/250 being key

5) You are taking a picture of someone riding a bike from one side of your frame to another. You want to make a sharp picture that freezes them and leaves the background out of focus. You are shooting at 200mm on a 70-200 f/2.8 image stabilized lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 3200, f/16, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/4, 1/500
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/2000

Answer D, but are we panning?, I think not for this example. This is harder with out knowing your distance from subject so I can't use a depth of field calculator (phone app)
 
6) You are taking a picture of a group of people riding by bicycles. This time, you want a picture that shows the entire group reasonably sharp, but you want the background to show a motion blur. This group is closer, so you are zoomed out to 100mm on your 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/60
b. ISO 400, f/8, 1/250
c. ISO 1600, f/8, 1/1000
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000

You're killing me here!! Motion blur would mean I choose A but how fast are they riding!!! ACK!

7) You are taking a picture on the Universe of Energy ride in Epcot. You are shooting with a 135mm f/2 lens. It’s dark and you are struggling to get a shot. Which are your best settings?
a. ISO 6400, f/2, 1/60
b. ISO 3200, f/2, 1/30
c. ISO 3200, f/4, 1/8
d. ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/30

OMG Answer A and deal with a ton of noise

8) You want to take a picture that shows your subject (a person) and the environment that they are in. You want the background to be blurry but you want your subject to be sharp. You have a 24mm f/1.4 lens, a 24-105 f/4 IS lens, a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens, and a 135mm f/2 lens.
a. 24mm lens, ISO 100, f/2, 1/125
b. 24-105mm f/4 IS lens at 24mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/30
c. 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens at 200mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60
d. 135mm f/2 lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60

I'd go with A for the answer but how much of the background do you want in the shot??

9) When you are taking a panning shot with an IS lens, the IS should be:
a. Turned off
b. Turned on, in Mode 1
c. Turned on, in Mode 2

Now see on a Canon I don't know the settings so what ever full IS turned on would be

10) If you are trying to make the background behind someone blurry, you should:
a. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them closer to the background.
b. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them away from the background.
c. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them closer to the background.
d. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them away from the background.

Answer D

11) Zooming a zoom lens has the same effect as moving towards or away from your subject
a. Yes
b. No

Answer A

12) Does the focal length of your lens make any difference to the shutter speed that you want to use to get a sharp picture?
a. No, you always want a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster for a sharp picture.
b. Yes, the shorter the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because the wider view of a shorter lens shows more motion.
c. Yes, the longer the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because longer lenses magnify everything (including camera movement) more.
 
Answer A

13) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that isn’t moving and the light isn’t changing (such as the interior of a church), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

Answer B

14) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that is moving fairly rapidly (such as a gymnast in a gymnasium), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

Now this depends how many stops faster IS would give me versus how many stops faster a fast lens is.... I'll go with Answer A but I'd really like a fast lens with image stabilization!

15) What advantage is there to shooting a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/11 compared with shooting a 17-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 lens zoomed to 50mm and also at f/11?
a. The f/1.4 lens lets you use a faster shutter speed at f/8 than the 17-55 lens because it is a faster lens.
b. The viewfinder will be brighter and it will be easier to see what is in focus using the f/1.4 lens.
c. The image from the 50mm f/1.4 lens will look much better because the image is much better for primes than it is for zooms.
d. There really isn’t any advantage. 50mm at f/11, is 50mm at f/11. At the same settings, you’ll get the same image.

Answer A

16) You are taking a picture of a person on a dark stage. When you look at your LCD, you see lots of “blinkies” on the person, indicating that he is overexposed. To fix that problem, you could:
a. Switch spot metering mode and meter off of the person’s face.
b. Switch the camera to manual exposure mode and lower the shutter speed, raise the aperture, or lower the ISO until the person looks properly exposed.
c. Try dialing in negative exposure compensation until the person is properly exposed.
d. Zoom in tighter so that the person fills most of the frame and you don’t see much of the dark stage.

Answer A

17) If your primary concern is making sure that you have shallow DOF as your subject quickly moves between different lighting situations, should you be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?


This Nikon shooter thinks the canon setting should be AV

18) If you are trying to take panning shots of subjects moving through rapidly changing light levels, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?


TV Shutter priority

19) If conditions are changing rapidly, you’ve got a lot of things to deal with, and you are really aren’t that concerned about shallow DOF, panning, or any of that stuff, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

Not sure about this one on a Canon but I think we are talking P mode

20) If you are using an f/2.8 lens, which aperture will give you the sharpest picture:
a. Duh, f/2.8 – that’s what the lens is designed for.
b. f/5.6
c. f/22
d. f/1.4

doesn't F22 lend itself to diffraction? I'm picking Answer B just to avoid tiny aperture diffraction

 

[campinggal]

Love it!!

I took it and had similar answers to Marlton Mom.

The one question that made me panic thinking there wasn't enough info and how could I possibly answer the question was #8. "A person in their environment"...what kind of environment? Office, outside how much space is there to move around in etc. As the question is worded now- I'd choose A, C, or D.

What about a question about returning ones camera back to its 'home state' so it is ready for the next shoot even if the next shoot is spontaneous. For example making sure the ISO is set back to 100 rather than at 3200 where it was last shot. I know I've been guilty of that and then been irked at myself when I realized what I just did.

Question 16 also had me wondering if there were two answers. I've recently been experimenting with taking pics in a dark theater which is way challenging with the lighting. Spot metering on the persons face is the way to go so answer A but I've also read that shooting theater slighly underexposed (-.3) is the way to go. I know you've taken great shots at your kids school shows so I'd be interested in your thoughts here.

Thanks Mark!

 

[NLD]

All right, I'm trying...

Answers in bold.

1) You’re in a moderately lit room at a cocktail party. You want to take a picture of a person, but you want them isolated. You want everything behind them to be blurry, but you want them to be sharp. The person is moving around, but not very quickly. You are zoomed in to 100mm.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/30
b. ISO 800, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/120
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter Speed 1/30
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/15
e. ISO 1600, Aperture f/8, Shutter Speed 1/30

2.8 gives me shallow depth of field, 1/120 ss gives me the sharpness I want at 100 mm.

2) You’re taking a picture of a person with some beautiful scenery in the distance behind them. You want the person and the scenery to be in focus. The person is about 6 feet away from you and the scenery is miles away from you.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 1/60
b. ISO 100, Aperture f/4, Shutter Speed, 1/250
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/60
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/15

No mention of lighting conditions, but I'm going with ISO 200, f 11, ss 1/60 as decent options if it's sunny... 1/60 should be fast enough for posed subject, f/11 gives decent DOF.

3) You’re taking a picture of a painting hanging on a wall about 10 feet away using a lens at 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm. Your camera is on a tripod. You want the sharpest possible shot.
a. ISO 400, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/8, 1/30
d. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/125

ISO 100 minimizes noise, f 8 gives good depth of field, 1/30 ss is okay on tripod.

4) You are shooting someone standing at a lectern. The background behind them is indistinct and not very distracting. You look at your LCD and you see that the camera settings are ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/4000. You are using a 135mm f/2 lens. Which settings would work better?
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/15
b. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/60
c. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125
d. ISO 200, f/2, 1/500
e. ISO 3200, f/11, 1/250

Assuming exposure at 3200, 2.8, 1/4000 was correct... 1/125 is five stops away (brighter) from 1/4000, ISO 400 is 3 stops away (darker) from 3200, and f/ 5.6 is 2 stops away (darker) from 2.8. So answer c gives you the same exposure with lower ISO (less noise) with a shutter speed that's still reasonable at 135mm. 5.6 shouldn't be an issue with the increased DOF since yo umentioned the background isn't distracting anyway.

5) You are taking a picture of someone riding a bike from one side of your frame to another. You want to make a sharp picture that freezes them and leaves the background out of focus. You are shooting at 200mm on a 70-200 f/2.8 image stabilized lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 3200, f/16, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/4, 1/500
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/2000

Panning or not? You didn't mention it so... I'm assuming 1/500 to freeze action, f/ 4 for shallow DOF, and ISO 100 for low noise.
 
6) You are taking a picture of a group of people riding by bicycles. This time, you want a picture that shows the entire group reasonably sharp, but you want the background to show a motion blur. This group is closer, so you are zoomed out to 100mm on your 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/60
b. ISO 400, f/8, 1/250
c. ISO 1600, f/8, 1/1000
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000

Okay so now we are talking panning... which I can't do, but... 1/60 keeps the shutter open long enough to get some motion blur, f/8 gives decent DOF for getting the group in the plane of focus, ISO 100 keeps the noise low (and we need low ISO b/c of longer ss.)

7) You are taking a picture on the Universe of Energy ride in Epcot. You are shooting with a 135mm f/2 lens. It’s dark and you are struggling to get a shot. Which are your best settings?
a. ISO 6400, f/2, 1/60
b. ISO 3200, f/2, 1/30
c. ISO 3200, f/4, 1/8
d. ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/30

...and take a deep breath and pray! 1/60 ss is about as low as you can go on a moving dark ride without getting motion blur (or camera shake blur... might still be an issue with focal length, but have to try something.)

8) You want to take a picture that shows your subject (a person) and the environment that they are in. You want the background to be blurry but you want your subject to be sharp. You have a 24mm f/1.4 lens, a 24-105 f/4 IS lens, a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens, and a 135mm f/2 lens.
a. 24mm lens, ISO 100, f/2, 1/125
b. 24-105mm f/4 IS lens at 24mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/30
c. 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens at 200mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60
d. 135mm f/2 lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60

Options A & B both state 24mm. All other mm length options (200mm and 135mm) won't get the environment in the shot. 24mm at f/2 gives less DOF than 24mm at f/4.

9) When you are taking a panning shot with an IS lens, the IS should be:
a. Turned off
b. Turned on, in Mode 1
c. Turned on, in Mode 2

Okay I cheated and looked it up... mode 2 on a Canon lens is for panning.

10) If you are trying to make the background behind someone blurry, you should:
a. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them closer to the background.
b. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them away from the background.
c. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them closer to the background.
d. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them away from the background.

Smaller f-number = less depth of field. Moving the subject away from the background helps with getting the background outside the plane of focus. (Is that the right term? Plane of focus? Anyway it helps isolate the subject from the background if the subject is farther away from the background.)

11) Zooming a zoom lens has the same effect as moving towards or away from your subject
a. Yes
b. No

Nope, field of view isn't the same as perspective. Zooming does nothing to impact perspective, whereas changing my position in relation to the subject does impact perspective.

12) Does the focal length of your lens make any difference to the shutter speed that you want to use to get a sharp picture?
a. No, you always want a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster for a sharp picture.
b. Yes, the shorter the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because the wider view of a shorter lens shows more motion.
c. Yes, the longer the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because longer lenses magnify everything (including camera movement) more.

General rule of thumb (for non-stabilized / non-VR lens) is 1/focal length for shutter speed. People with rock-solid hands might get away with a shorter ss. (Wish I were one of those!)

13) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that isn’t moving and the light isn’t changing (such as the interior of a church), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

Tripod allows you to use longer ss while keeping ISO low. Longer ss okay for a non-moving object.

14) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that is moving fairly rapidly (such as a gymnast in a gymnasium), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

Depends on how many stops faster the lens is vs how many stops you're getting from Image Stabilization, but usually a faster lens would help more.

15) What advantage is there to shooting a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/11 compared with shooting a 17-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 lens zoomed to 50mm and also at f/11?
a. The f/1.4 lens lets you use a faster shutter speed at f/8 than the 17-55 lens because it is a faster lens.
b. The viewfinder will be brighter and it will be easier to see what is in focus using the f/1.4 lens.
c. The image from the 50mm f/1.4 lens will look much better because the image is much better for primes than it is for zooms.
d. There really isn’t any advantage. 50mm at f/11, is 50mm at f/11. At the same settings, you’ll get the same image.

This question is confusing to me. In regards to final image, exposure will be the same, DOF will be the same regardless of the lens used. However in taking the actual shot, you should get a brighter image in the viewfinder with the 1.4 lens.

16) You are taking a picture of a person on a dark stage. When you look at your LCD, you see lots of “blinkies” on the person, indicating that he is overexposed. To fix that problem, you could:
a. Switch spot metering mode and meter off of the person’s face.
b. Switch the camera to manual exposure mode and lower the shutter speed, raise the aperture, or lower the ISO until the person looks properly exposed.
c. Try dialing in negative exposure compensation until the person is properly exposed.
d. Zoom in tighter so that the person fills most of the frame and you don’t see much of the dark stage.

Eh, this is another one I'm not sure on... I'd try spot-metering myself, but it seems like exposure comp could work too? Maybe I'm missing something? Zooming in tighter to eliminate the dark stage (which is what's presumably throwing the camera metering off) could be an option too but not if you don't actually want a tighter-framed shot...

17) If your primary concern is making sure that you have shallow DOF as your subject quickly moves between different lighting situations, should you be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

Av--you keep the aperture open and let the camera adjust ss to get proper exposure.

18) If you are trying to take panning shots of subjects moving through rapidly changing light levels, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

Tv--you choose the appropriate ss for getting background motion blur and let the camera adjust aperture to get proper exposure.

19) If conditions are changing rapidly, you’ve got a lot of things to deal with, and you are really aren’t that concerned about shallow DOF, panning, or any of that stuff, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

P--let the camera do the work of choosing both ss and aperture.

20) If you are using an f/2.8 lens, which aperture will give you the sharpest picture:
a. Duh, f/2.8 – that’s what the lens is designed for.
b. f/5.6
c. f/22
d. f/1.4

A lens' "sweet spot" is usually a couple stops down from wide open. 2.8 will probably be a little soft... 22 introduces the possibility of diffraction. And a 2.8 lens doesn't have 1.4 as an option!
__________________


All right, Mark, how'd we do?

I think it's a good test, just a couple that either I didn't quite understand or I just have more to learn... not sure which...

 

[Spinning]

This is a great quiz....And an excellent way learn!

 

[photo_chick]

This is way too much like my technical final from photo 1. Throw in some more equivalent exposure value conversions and a glossary section and you're there. LOL

Seriously though, it's good. There's a couple that seem a little subjective, especially number 19, but it sounds like you're looking to see if she understands. And if she can explain why and back it up with technical understanding then that's what you want, right?

My answers would be similar to what's been said. The major differences are #15. I'd go with C, since primes tend to be sharper and have better clarity than zooms your IQ is better. #16.. there are a number of ways to approach it and all of your answers could work. Personally I'd pull out my trusty gray card as well. And then on #19 I'd say whatever mode you're most comfortable shooting in as the given situation dictates. For me its Tv. But everyone is different here.

 

[mabas9395]

My wife would kill me if I tried to teach her something by giving her a test.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Thanks for the responses. They were helpful. I'll come back and explain "my" answers to each of the questions soon.

 

[thomas998]

Here is a quiz for you.... What is your wife likely to do when you give this to her?

A take it and smile when you grade it.
B move to her parents that very night
C determine how far she can put the camera up you backside
D calmly take it, smile when you grade, and quietly plan how to drain all the back accounts before you receive the divorce documents.

I know your hoping for A but I would put my money on any of the other answers.

 

[Marlton Mom]

As a spouse, namely a wife, I personally would love it if my husband took the time to help me with something that could benefit me, especially something that he was really good with and I was working on to improve.

I commend Mark for doing this. As he stated, it's to provide learning opportunities! By being able to identify areas of confusion he is helping his wife. By sharing this quiz he is helping us!

Thanks Mark!

~Marlton Mom

 

[krb2g]

Great quiz! I found the ones with lists of settings a little harder to deal with than the ones that asked which mode/technique. I'm looking forward to seeing what your answers are!

 

[photo_chick]

As a spouse, namely a wife, I personally would love it if my husband took the time to help me with something that could benefit me, especially something that he was really good with and I was working on to improve.

I commend Mark for doing this. As he stated, it's to provide learning opportunities! By being able to identify areas of confusion he is helping his wife. By sharing this quiz he is helping us!

Thanks Mark!

~Marlton Mom

Agreed. My husband used to be a graphic designer (he makes video games now) and he's my photoshop guru. He's spent countless hours helping me learn things, and I appreciate all the time he's spent doing it. Even if he did growl in frustration at me when he tried to explain file resolution.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Don't worry about my wife. She's pretty unique and likes it when I teach her things. We actually met when she was taking a class I was teaching. Besides, this won't be a formal, proctored test. Think of it more in the line of a guided discussion. I want to understand what her thought process is for each of the questions so that I can better understand where she needs more information.

Here are my responses to the questions. Keep in mind, some answers are better than others, but there are definitely different approaches to these situations that would work. Also keep in mind that I am basing my answers on some assumptions that I probably didn't detail very well, the foremost being that I am assuming the use of a Canon 5D Mark II full frame camera.

1) You’re in a moderately lit room at a cocktail party. You want to take a picture of a person, but you want them isolated. You want everything behind them to be blurry, but you want them to be sharp. The person is moving around, but not very quickly. You are zoomed in to 100mm.

a. ISO 200, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/30
b. ISO 800, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/120
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/5.6, Shutter Speed 1/30
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/15
e. ISO 1600, Aperture f/8, Shutter Speed 1/30

b. Only “B” has a shutter speed fast enough to get reasonably sharp pictures. You might be able to get away with 1/30s shots with image stabilization and shooting when the subject was still, but it would be better to use a faster shutter speed. Having the wider aperture will also help blur the background.

2) You’re taking a picture of a person with some beautiful scenery in the distance behind them. You want the person and the scenery to be in focus. The person is about 6 feet away from you and the scenery is miles away from you.
a. ISO 200, Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 1/60
b. ISO 100, Aperture f/4, Shutter Speed, 1/250
c. ISO 800, Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/60
d. ISO 100, Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/15

a. I left off the focal length, but I had 24mm in mind when I wrote this. At that focal length, f/11 is a small enough aperture for the DOF you need. Anything smaller will start to cost you sharpness from diffraction. It’s not a rule that you shouldn’t go over f/11 (f/8 on an APS-C camera), but doing so comes with a cost. Don’t do it unless you expect to gain something for paying that cost. You could trade down an ISO stop to 100 and give up half your shutter speed. That gets you to 1/30, which is acceptable for a 24mm lens. You don’t gain much going from ISO 200 to 100, so I’d rather have the extra shutter speed.

B is no good because f/4 won’t give you the DOF you need. D is no good because the shutter speed is too low. C is no good because you are starting to take a small hit with the ISO at 800 and your aperture is significantly smaller than necessary, resulting in diffraction issues.

3) You’re taking a picture of a painting hanging on a wall about 10 feet away using a lens at 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm. Your camera is on a tripod. You want the sharpest possible shot.
a. ISO 400, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/8, 1/30
d. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/125

c. Shutter speed doesn’t matter because you are on a tripod and your subject isn’t moving. Lower ISO is better. An f/2.8 lens will be sharpest around f/5.6 or f/8. Most lenses are sharpest about 2 stops down from wide open. In addition to those settings, I’d use live view for two benefits. First, it lifts the mirror, so mirror motion won’t have any effect. Second, it would allow me to precisely focus using manual focus and 10x magnification. I would also trigger the shot either using a remote release or the 2 second timer.

4) You are shooting someone standing at a lectern. The background behind them is indistinct and not very distracting. You look at your LCD and you see that the camera settings are ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/4000. You are using a 135mm f/2 lens. Which settings would work better?
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/15
b. ISO 1600, f/16, 1/60
c. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125
d. ISO 200, f/2, 1/500
e. ISO 3200, f/11, 1/250

C. With a 135mm lens, I want a shutter speed around 1/135 or better, so that counts out A and B. C is marginal in the shutter speed category. I don’t want E because it has me using a much smaller aperture than necessary and has me using a pretty nasty ISO. D would be workable. The shutter speed is definitely nicer than C, but f/2 has two drawbacks – the DOF is unforgivably narrow and the lens won’t be at its best wide open. Maybe a better compromise (all settings are compromises) would be C, but dropping the aperture one stop to f/4 in return for a better shutter speed.

5) You are taking a picture of someone riding a bike from one side of your frame to another. You want to make a sharp picture that freezes them and leaves the background out of focus. You are shooting at 200mm on a 70-200 f/2.8 image stabilized lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/125
b. ISO 3200, f/16, 1/500
c. ISO 100, f/4, 1/500
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/2000

C. I was assuming that this would be a non-panning shot. Panning is the next question. In this case, I want a shutter speed at least 2x of my focal length to freeze motion across the frame, so that leaves out A. I want the background blurred, so I definitely don’t want B and its f/16 aperture. Either C or D will work, but I don’t think you gain as much from the improved shutter speed as you lose going from ISO 100 to 400. I could definitely be persuaded that the opposite is true, particularly if the bikers and moving really fast.

6) You are taking a picture of a group of people riding by bicycles. This time, you want a picture that shows the entire group reasonably sharp, but you want the background to show a motion blur. This group is closer, so you are zoomed out to 100mm on your 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.
a. ISO 100, f/8, 1/60
b. ISO 400, f/8, 1/250
c. ISO 1600, f/8, 1/1000
d. ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000

A. for panning, you need a relatively low shutter speed. I find that 1/60 is a good starting place for smooth motion like a biker. If possible, I’d try a range of shutter speeds centered around 1/60. You’ll get some blur at 1/250, but it will be more in the nature of “gee, that’s not very sharp” rather than “cool pan”.

7) You are taking a picture on the Universe of Energy ride in Epcot. You are shooting with a 135mm f/2 lens. It’s dark and you are struggling to get a shot. Which are your best settings?
a. ISO 6400, f/2, 1/60
b. ISO 3200, f/2, 1/30
c. ISO 3200, f/4, 1/8
d. ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/30

A. Yes, ISO 6400 ain’t pretty. Yes, f/2 gives you little DOF. Still, blurry is ugly. You have to do what it takes to not be blurry. Shooting in a slowly moving vehicle shooting at half your focal length (1/60 vs 135mm), you aren’t likely to get wonderful pictures, but it is better than having a slower shutter speed. Using a monopod or bracing against seatbacks or something will help.

In theory, I could put the camera in ISO 12,800 mode, but that’s a “fake” ISO. It just shoots at ISO 6400, underexposes by 1 stop, and then increases the exposure in software to compensate. If I really wanted to shoot at ISO 12,800, I’d set the camera to ISO 6400 and dial in -1 exposure compensation. That lets me do the exposure increase under my control rather than the cameras. I’d consider doing it in these circumstances. The extra shutter speed would be helpful but the noise would be awful. Noise reduction would help, but it would destroy fine detail. If I could only take one shot, I would probably go with the exposure compensation. Because the ride moves slowly, I’d go with the slower shutter speed and hope that one of them would be reasonably sharp. That’s the sort of logic that causes me to use a full 32gb card in one day.

8) You want to take a picture that shows your subject (a person) and the environment that they are in. You want the background to be blurry but you want your subject to be sharp. You have a 24mm f/1.4 lens, a 24-105 f/4 IS lens, a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens, and a 135mm f/2 lens.
a. 24mm lens, ISO 100, f/2, 1/125
b. 24-105mm f/4 IS lens at 24mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/30
c. 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens at 200mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60
d. 135mm f/2 lens, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/60

A. Showing your environment usually requires a wide field of view, so you want a fairly low focal length. That rules out options C and D. Because you want the background blurry and you are shooting at a wide angle, you need a really wide aperture like f/2.

This is, at for me, a pretty uncommon shot. Usually, if I’m shooting wide, I want a lot of DOF, not a blurry background. There are cases, though, where you want to give an impression of the setting but not have it distract from the subject. A recent example for me was shooting at a cocktail party. I wanted to show the scene, but I wanted the viewer to be very clear which person I wanted them to look at. Using a wide angle to include the background but blurring it a bit met both needs.

9) When you are taking a panning shot with an IS lens, the IS should be:
a. Turned off
b. Turned on, in Mode 1
c. Turned on, in Mode 2

C – This is different between Canon and Nikon. With Canon IS lenses (at least those with a mode switch), Mode 1 means that you want both stabilization axis (up/down and left/right) to be active regardless of camera movement. If you do this while panning, the IS will fight you and try to stabilize the panning motion and screw you up. In mode 2, it will turn off any axis that has too much motion. Assuming that you are panning smoothly, it will stabilize motion perpendicular to the panning motion but not parallel to the panning motion. Option A wouldn’t be too bad, but you’d lose the perpendicular stabilization. If you can’t remember which mode is which, just turn it off.

10) If you are trying to make the background behind someone blurry, you should:
a. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them closer to the background.
b. Use a bigger f-number (f/16 instead of f/4) and move them away from the background.
c. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them closer to the background.
d. Use a smaller f-number (f/4 instead of f/16) and move them away from the background.

D – The smaller the f-number, the shallower the depth of field, which means the background is blurrier. Also, the further your subject is from the background, the further the background is from the focal plane, so it will be blurrier.

11) Zooming a zoom lens has the same effect as moving towards or away from your subject
a. Yes
b. No

B – When you zoom a lens, you are essentially just cropping and magnifying the picture. You aren’t changing the perspective. In fact, if you stand in one place and take a shot using a 24mm lens and a 200mm lens, you’ll see that they are identical for the area covered by both lenses. If you move, perspective changes. The difference is particularly important when shooting video. A zoom looks completely different than moving towards your subject.

12) Does the focal length of your lens make any difference to the shutter speed that you want to use to get a sharp picture?
a. No, you always want a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster for a sharp picture.
b. Yes, the shorter the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because the wider view of a shorter lens shows more motion.
c. Yes, the longer the lens, the faster your shutter speed needs to be because longer lenses magnify everything (including camera movement) more.

C – The longer your lens, the more it will magnify everything, including camera shake. The old rule of thumb is that you want a shutter speed at least 1/focal length. So for a 50mm lens, you want at least a 1/50 shutter speed. For a 200mm lens, you want at least a 1/200 shutter speed. Following this rule, someone using an APS-C sensor camera would want 1/(1.5 * focal length), so you would want a 1/75 shutter speed for a 50mm lens. It depends on how big you want to print and how many shots you’ll get. The bigger you print, the more you’ll magnify the blur caused by camera movement. The more shots you take, the more chances you’ll have to get lucky and have one with minimal blur.

In my experience, I see gains in sharpness at 2-3 times the focal length. In other words, while 1/50 may be acceptable for a 50mm lens, 1/100 or even 1/150 will be noticeably better. You have to decide how much that improvement is worth compared with having a smaller aperture or a lower ISO.

13) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that isn’t moving and the light isn’t changing (such as the interior of a church), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

B – A tripod would definitely be the best. You’d need more information to decide between whether image stabilization or a fast lens would be better.

14) If you are shooting something in relatively low light that is moving fairly rapidly (such as a gymnast in a gymnasium), which would help you the most:
a. Image Stabilization
b. A tripod
c. A fast lens

C - The tripod and the image stabilizer wont’ help you with subject motion. A fast lens will.

Things that prevent camera movement (tripod, monopod, image stabilizer, a rock, or even your assistance head) are great when your subject isn’t moving (or you want to capture its motion with a long shutter speed), but they don’t help you when subject motion is the problem. In that case, your tools are a wider aperture or a higher ISO. If you are trying to stabilize your camera, a tripod is your best bet. Following that, a monopod is the second best. An image stabilizer is the third best option. Don’t discount having your assistant crouch down and using the top of their head as a stabilizer.

15) What advantage is there to shooting a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/11 compared with shooting a 17-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 lens zoomed to 50mm and also at f/11?
a. The f/1.4 lens lets you use a faster shutter speed at f/8 than the 17-55 lens because it is a faster lens.
b. The viewfinder will be brighter and it will be easier to see what is in focus using the f/1.4 lens.
c. The image from the 50mm f/1.4 lens will look much better because the image is much better for primes than it is for zooms.
d. There really isn’t any advantage. 50mm at f/11, is 50mm at f/11. At the same settings, you’ll get the same image.

B – When you look through a lens, it is generally at its widest aperture. That gives you a brighter viewfinder. It also gives you shallower DOF, so it is easier to see what is in and not in focus.

A is wrong because, while the f/1.4 lens is faster at f/1.4, when you stop it down to f/11, it works just the same as the zoom lens.

C is an OK answer, but the truth is that most halfway decent lenses look really good between f/8 and f/11. You’ll see some difference between the lenses, but it won’t be that much of a difference.

D is also an OK answer is that the images won’t look all that different, but that ignores the advantages you get in the viewfinder.

One odd thing that I’ve noticed is that viewfinders seem to be tuned to something like f/2.4. There is a button that you can use called the DOF preview button that will close the aperture down to whatever you have it set at. So if you are set at f/11 and looking through that f/1.4 lens, which is normally wide open until you press the shutter button, it will stop down to f/11 when you press the DOF field button. What I’ve noticed is that the image in the viewfinder doesn’t appear to change when I’m using an aperture wider than f/2.4. I read an explanation of why, but I didn’t understand it. I just assume that it is magic.

16) You are taking a picture of a person on a dark stage. When you look at your LCD, you see lots of “blinkies” on the person, indicating that he is overexposed. To fix that problem, you could:
a. Switch spot metering mode and meter off of the person’s face.
b. Switch the camera to manual exposure mode and lower the shutter speed, raise the aperture, or lower the ISO until the person looks properly exposed.
c. Try dialing in negative exposure compensation until the person is properly exposed.
d. Zoom in tighter so that the person fills most of the frame and you don’t see much of the dark stage.

All of these techniques will work. I’ve used them all at various times. Most textbooks will tell you to use “A”, but I have two problems with it. First, I get inconsistent results because it is hard to keep the spot exactly where I want it. The second is that I’ll forget to set it back and then wonder why the heck my exposures are so erratic the next day.

17) If your primary concern is making sure that you have shallow DOF as your subject quickly moves between different lighting situations, should you be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?
In theory, you can use any of these modes (P = auto, Av = aperture priority, Tv = shutter priority, M = manual), but I think Av makes the most sense. Dial in an aperture that gets you the DOF you want and let the camera worry about the rest.

18) If you are trying to take panning shots of subjects moving through rapidly changing light levels, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?
Once again, you can make it work with any mode, but in this case I’d use Tv. For panning, it is the shutter speed that is important, so control the shutter speed and let the camera worry about the rest.

19) If conditions are changing rapidly, you’ve got a lot of things to deal with, and you are really aren’t that concerned about shallow DOF, panning, or any of that stuff, you should be shooting in P, Av, Tv, or M mode?

I’d use P. As in the problem before, control the thing (or things) that are important to you in the situation and let the camera worry about the other details. Sometimes that means that P is the right mode. It won’t make you less of a photographer to shoot in auto mode. You can still adjust it when you want. The nice thing that P will do is use the camera’s brain to trade off things like lens sharpness and the shutter speed needed for reasonable hand holding.

Overall, I have to admit that I almost always use Av. I only switch to one of the other modes when I have a need that isn’t well met by using Av. Most often, that’s because I’m using flash, which changes everything. In that case, I use M.

20) If you are using an f/2.8 lens, which aperture will give you the sharpest picture:
a. Duh, f/2.8 – that’s what the lens is designed for.
b. f/5.6
c. f/22
d. f/1.4

You’ll get the sharpest at f/5.6. Lenses are generally at their sharpest a couple of stops down from wide open. That’s what the textbooks say. Personally, I find that they usually have a sweet spot between two stops from wide open and the start of diffraction (f/11 on full frame, f/8 on APS-C).
F/2.8 is wide open. Your lens won’t be as sharp. It will also tend to vignette (dark corners) more. F/22 is well beyond the point at which diffraction rears its ugly head. This shouldn’t be interpreted to say that you shouldn’t use those apertures. If you want the really shallow or really deep depth of field those apertures provide, use them. Just understand that you are trading off image quality in other ways to get that DOF control. If DOF isn’t important and you don’t have any shutter speed or ISO constraints, stay in the sweet spot. Outside the studio, I’m usually more concerned about other variables and I don’t really worry about the sweet spot.

If you suggested f/1.4 despite the fact that the lens was describe as an f/2.8 lens, you might need to do a little extra reading about f-numbers and lenses.

 

[steelek_29]

 

[NLD]

Thanks for coming back with the answers, Mark!

So... what do we win if we did well on the test? A trip to Disney?

Or maybe just a dancing banana....

 

[DoleWhipDVC]

Oh yes, thanks so much Mark. Now I am convinced that I know absolutely nothing about photography and all my shots that I do mangage to get are a matter of luck rather than skill. (I knew this already of course, but your test and the supplied answers reminded me). Perhaps you could give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it for me as well? I have so much to learn.....

 

[ThurlFan]

Cool quiz!

Here's where I differed from you:

Question 5) I went with D, because I tend to have a bias for faster shutter speeds, though I agree that 1/500 would be sufficient and the lower ISO would be a nice trade-off. I think if I could truly only have one shot at it I would still go with the 1/2000 because it would be close to my comfort zone.

Question 6) I chose B, revealing that same bias (and the fact I have very little experience with panning). I would definitely take this recommendation to heart and try it out if I get the opportunity.

Question 8) I went with B because I was interpreted the question as wanting the background to be recognizable (so you could see it was their workplace, living room, backyard or what have you), just not sharply focused. Honestly, I would prefer to use the f/1.4 lens but would likely stop down to 2.8 in my interpretation. I will also note that in using the f/4 lens I'd have to make sure to put some distance between them and the background if possible.

Question 16) I put both A and D, as I've used both in this type of scenario. I've not tried B or C as I haven't had enough opportunity to fiddle with those settings - when I've needed to shoot under those conditions I needed to be sure I got decent shots without much time to experiment.