Final Exam Study Guide

Completed study guides are worth 100 points. Due at the latest on the day of your exam.

Name_____________________________ Period ____ Directions: The following represents the content on the final exam. Answer all questions to the best of your ability. You will be given credit for completing this study guide.

1.      How do photographers represent their identities?

2.      Do our identities change in different contexts?

3. What roles does Photography play in the development of Identity?

4. What has been the role of photo journalism in history and social change?

5. What photography style is best used in photo journalism?

6. Does Photoshop have a place in photo journalism?

7. What is the photographer’s role in recording history?

Definitions for each photographic attribute: make sure you know and understand these

Light: Light is the defining element of photography. Light literally brings the photograph to life, and the type and quality of light have the strongest effect on the resulting image. Often, photographers are inspired to create a photograph because the light is so lovely, casting on the subject a quality uniquely rendered by film.

Focus: The word focus means center of attention. This uniquely photographic attribute is created by both the focus and the aperture controls on the camera.

The focus control centers on a part of the image, and when in focus the area is clear, sharp, and detailed, with distinctions between forms. When out of focus, the area is cloudy, indistinct, and vague, with blurriness between forms.

The aperture control creates depth of field, the area that is in focus. Aperture measures the distance from the end of the focus area to the focal center (imagine the perimeter of a circle and its center). A shallow depth of field is in focus only to a small degree around the focal center.

Time: Photography has a unique relationship to time, in part because the image is created by the interaction among light, a lens, and light-sensitive film during a particular moment. Light rays refracting through the lens trace the image onto film; this happens in an instant and reflects the instant in which the image was created. A drawing or painting may describe a particular time and place, but it can be rendered over time through the artist’s perception or memory. In contrast, a photographer and camera need to be there, responding to the world, in order to create the image. Photographs have the quality of capturing a moment in time, of “being there.”

Motion: In a photograph, motion can appear frozen in time and space or be described through blur. These effects are achieved mainly through the shutter control and the aperture. The shutter, triggered by your finger when you take the picture, opens and shuts like a blinking eye, letting in light. The aperture affects how much light comes into the camera; it works like the iris of an eye, widening in the dark to let in more light and narrowing in the bright sun to let in less light. In order to achieve a correct exposure—the right amount of light to make the picture, the aperture and shutter speed must have the right relationship. When there is a lot of light, the shutter speed is fast; and when there is little light, the shutter speed is slow. The faster the shutter, the more able the camera is to freeze motion, such that someone jumping could be forever suspended in mid-air. A slow shutter speed creates blur when figures are in motion. You can also create a sense of motion by moving the camera when you take the picture, called “panning” the camera, resulting in blur.

Vantage point or point of view: is the photographer’s stance, both in terms of how the photographer is positioned when he or she takes the picture and what the photographer’s attitude is toward the subject. How the photographer perceives the subject influences how the photographer chooses to position himself or herself in relation to the subject. This is similar to how your opinion about something affects the tone of your voice and the language you use to communicate.

Point of view is one of the most important concepts to convey to young people because it shows that they have the creative control and power to reveal their perspective through the camera. An understanding of point of view also encourages image makers to move around the subject and determine the most interesting and revealing approach.

Framing: Whenever photographers create a photograph, they are selecting a slice of the world as described through a frame. In terms of content, framing is like point of view: It presents the photographer’s frame of reference with regard to the subject. Graphically, framing affects composition, because your eye follows the visual movement created by lines, shapes, and angles in the picture. In addition, the information that is included in the frame determines how we read the picture, just like how clues lead to the solution of a mystery.

Cropping: Sometimes when photographers frame a photograph, they crop or exclude from the frame a portion of the subject, foreground, or background. The frame may cut off the man’s hat, an arm, half of the chair. To make sense of the image, viewers don’t need to see the whole person or object because there is enough information to imagine the rest beyond the frame. Cropping calls attention to the fact that you are looking at an artist’s selection of a scene (as opposed to an unadulterated view of reality).

Used effectively, cropping can add dynamism to the composition or make the photographic statement more concise. Used ineffectively, we may wonder what’s missing, why the image looks awkward, its message unclear.

Technique: When photography was first invented, photographers carried a large-format camera, tripod, black drape, glass plates, and bottles of chemistry in a covered wagon that served as a darkroom to process the wet plates. Now photographers carry studio strobes, tripods, lighting stands, Hasselblad cameras, 35mm SLR cameras, digital cameras, and even disposable cardboard cameras, which they can tuck into their vest pocket. Images are processed in labs or downloaded to a computer. The choice of camera, film, lighting source, and other techniques greatly affect the look of the resulting images. (See the bibliography for resources on technique and consult the manuals that come with your equipment for more technical information.)

Find a photo online, or use one of your own to describe each attribute in the photo. Use the space below to describe your photo first, then describe how each attribute is used in the photo. If an attribute is not applicable, just say that.