Sunday, August 11, 2013

USTAB Digital Photography Test Questions (for class discussion)

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Simple to complex models 

Until the advent of digital technology, photography used photographic film to create  images which could be made visible by photographic processing. Digital images can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer. Digital photography is one of several forms of digital imaging. Digital images are also created by non-photographic equipment such as computer tomography scanners and radio telescopes. Digital images can also be made by scanning conventional photographic images.

Multi-functionality and connectivity: Digital memory device is usually used for storing images, which may then be transferred to a computer later. Digital cameras can take pictures, and may also record sound and video. Some can be used as webcams, some can be connected to a printer without using a computer, and some can display pictures directly on a television set. Similarly, many camcorders can take still photographs, and store them on videotapes or on flash memory cards with the same functionality as digital cameras.

Part 1. True or False

1. Of growing concern for both archivists and historians is the relative non-permanence or transitory nature of digital media. We may be losing digitalized information and create a void in history.

2. Lighting, optics, sensors, processing, storage, and display, with software weaving them together, are all advancing.

3. Digital photos are convenient, allow you to see the results instantly, don't require the costs of film and developing, and are suitable for software editing and uploading to the Internet.

4. The basic attribute of a digital camera that determines image quality is its megapixel rating. This number refers to the amount of information that the camera sensor can capture in a single photograph.

5. Exposure is the amount of light hitting the camera's sensor when you take a photo. Generally, you will want the exposure set so that the image captured by the camera's sensor closely matches what you see with your eyes.

6. A person in the foreground and the cars 20 feet behind her could all be in focus with a small enough aperture. A larger aperture results in a shallow depth of field, which you normally use for close-up shots and portraits.

7. You will need to bring your own camera, it doesn’t matter if it’s a basic point and shoot or an advanced DSLR, the fundamentals apply to them all.

8. Prime Lenses have fixed focal length, so there’s no need or provision of zooming in and out. For a prime lens you will get a single f number, whereas a zoom lens may give you a range of f numbers.

9. What makes a lens a good one is first, and most importantly, its optical quality. It produces better color in your images, and will reduce the chance of getting a nasty lens flare in your image. Also it is one that is able to focus on the subject quickly.

10. Always comply with the Rule of the Thirds - and position subject more off center and lower down. To include more or less the sky or grass is of secondary consideration.  

11. Sometimes it is better to find a larger focal point for the image - or make the image, say a tree, larger in the frame? But you still consider the Rule of the Thirds.

12. Aperture priority is key to depth of field to get the widest scene from foreground to background. But to capture the grass as sharp as possible, you need a fast enough shutter speed to avoid too much blur caused by the wind.

13. The quality of a digital image is the sum of various factors, many of which are similar to film cameras. Pixel count (typically listed in megapixels, millions of pixels) is only one of the major factors,

14.  Pixel count metrics were created by the marketing organizations of digital camera manufacturers because consumers can use it to easily compare camera capabilities. It is not, however, the major factor in evaluating a digital camera.

15. The processing system inside the camera that turns the raw data into a color-balanced and pleasing photograph is the most critical, which is why some 4+ megapixel cameras perform better than higher-end cameras.

16. Resolution provides an indication of the amount of detail that is captured in the photograph.

17. The resolutions of cameras are simply based on the number of pixels produced by the image sensor.

18. Highlights of the subject which are too bright will be rendered as white, with no detail; shadows which are too dark will be rendered as black. The loss of detail is not abrupt with film, or in dark shadows with digital sensors: some detail is retained as brightness moves out of the dynamic range.

19. "Highlight burn-out" of digital sensors, however, can be abrupt, and highlight detail may be lost. And as the sensor elements for different colors saturate in turn, there can be gross hue or saturation shift in burnt-out highlights.

20. Some commercial photographers, and some amateurs interested in artistic photography, have been resistant to using digital rather than film cameras because they believe that the image quality available from a digital camera is still inferior to that available from a film camera.

21. Digital photography has also been adopted by many amateur snapshots photographers, who take advantage of the convenience of the form when sending images by email, placing them on the www,  or displaying them in digital picture frames.

22. Digital cameras have also been integrated into many cell phones, although, because of the small, poor quality lenses and sensors in most of these phones, the quality of these pictures makes them unsuitable for making even moderate size prints.

23. Digital cameras also tend to be much more sensitive to moisture and extreme cold. For this reason, photographers who work in remote areas may favor film SLR cameras.

24. Digital photography was used in astronomy long before its use by the general public and had almost completely displaced photographic plates by the early 1980s.

25. CCDs are more sensitive to light than plates, and they have a much more uniform and predictable response, and the information can be downloaded onto a computer for data analysis.

26. The CCDs used in astronomy are similar to those used by the general public, but are generally monochrome and cooled with liquid nitrogen as to reduce the noise caused by heat.

27. Full-frame digital SLRs - those with sensor size matching a frame of 35mm film (or more),  include today’s models of Canon, Kodak, Contax, Mamiya, Hasselblad, Sony, Nikon, Pentax. Konica, Minolta, Olympus, and others.

28. Black and White photography has reached its end and will be sooner or later phased out completely in the mrket.

29. Through a process of collecting the light of the moon and stars in the dark the camera, assisted by the computer, can make intelligible images to the point of detailed clarity.

30. Images from outer space are created by the differential emission of varying temperatures, the nature of the gases and compounds of the object under study, and conversion of radio waves into visual images.  




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