Aha Trivia Stuff Everyone Should Know

Free practice tests · Kids & Youth

Stuff Every Photography Scout Should Know: free practice in 30-second cards

Stuff Every Photography Scout Should Know

Practice facts for the Photography merit badge. Not an official Scouting America credential.

Start Stuff Every Photography Scout Should Know ⚡ Today's sprint 🎙️ Voice mode

🔗 Put this game on your site

Free. It plays the first 50 cards; players subscribe at Aha Trivia for the rest. Every embed code

📖 Read the study guide

Free to start, no sign-up. 89 cards so far. One Knowledge Score and day streak across all your courses.

Questions people ask

Is this practice test free?

Yes. The first 50 cards are free for everyone with no sign-up, each with the answer, why it is right and its sources. Aha Trivia members get all 89 cards and timed practice exams.

How many practice questions are there?

89 practice questions so far. Each one is a 3-choice card that takes about 30 seconds, and the course grows as new cards pass our source checks.

Where do the answers come from?

Every card lists the sources it was checked against, and each answer explains why it is right. If you think an answer is wrong, tap "Challenge this answer" in the game and it gets reviewed.

Can I study in the car?

Yes. Voice mode reads the questions out loud and you answer by voice.

Try 3 cards

  1. What does the word photography mean, based on its Greek roots?
    Show the answer

    Drawing with light. The Greek roots mean light and representation by lines, so photography means drawing with light.

  2. Which device is a dark chamber that projects an image through a small hole?
    Show the answer

    A camera obscura. Camera obscura is Latin for dark chamber and projects an inverted image through a small opening.

  3. Who gave the first correct analysis of the camera obscura?
    Show the answer

    Ibn al-Haytham. Ibn al-Haytham gave the first correct analysis, including geometric descriptions, and used a screen in a dark room.

All 89 practice questions

The first 50 are free, with the answer, why it's right and the official sources. The other 39 (🔒) open with a membership (every test). Or play them as a game and track what you've learned.

Show all 89 questions
  1. What does the word photography mean, based on its Greek roots?
  2. Which device is a dark chamber that projects an image through a small hole?
  3. Who gave the first correct analysis of the camera obscura?
  4. What did Johann Heinrich Schulze use to capture images of cut-out letters?
  5. What was the earliest surviving photograph from nature, made by Nicephore Niepce?
  6. Why did Daguerre's early photograph of a Paris street show only one person?
  7. What did Talbot's calotype process create that daguerreotypes could not?
  8. What did John Herschel invent that became known as the blueprint?
  9. What does the cyanotype process produce in an image?
  10. What did James Clerk Maxwell's three-color-separation idea use?
  11. What made Autochrome plates able to record color?
  12. What did Kodachrome capture in its multi-layer emulsion?
  13. What did Sony's 1981 Mavica use for imaging instead of film?
  14. What does a digital camera use to record an image as electronic data?
  15. What is a lens used for during a timed exposure?
  16. What is a person who operates a camera to take photographs called?
  17. What is a photograph traditionally called when printed on paper from a negative?
  18. What did early photographers do with film to produce negatives or slides?
  19. What does a movie camera take that a still camera does not?
  20. What creates the illusion of motion when movie frames are played back?
  21. What does stereoscopic photography use to create a 3D effect?
  22. What does layering in composition manipulate to tell a story?
  23. What can light field photography let you select after the photo is captured?
  24. What are photograms made without using?
  25. What is amateur photography done for?
  26. What does architectural photography focus on capturing?
  27. What does wildlife photography often require besides skill and equipment?
  28. What does photojournalism use images to do?
  29. What are crime scene photos usually taken from?
  30. What did Francis Ronalds invent in 1845 for observatories?
  31. What is the Pictorialism movement known for using?
  32. What did Group f/64 advocate in photography?
  33. What does conceptual photography turn into a photograph?
  34. What does digital imaging allow that is comparatively difficult with film?
  35. In the United States, what can anyone photograph in public spaces?
  36. What did Thomas Wedgwood use to try capturing images in a camera obscura?
  37. What did Frederick Scott Archer publish in 1851?
  38. What did Gabriel Lippmann introduce in 1891 for color photographs?
  39. What did George Eastman's company market in 1885?
  40. Which light is already present in a scene without a flash?
  41. What does ISO describe in a camera?
  42. What does depth of field describe?
  43. What is the decisive moment in photography?
  44. What happens at each pixel when an electronic sensor is exposed?
  45. What is a latent image on film?
  46. What did Renaissance painters use the camera obscura for?
  47. What does a digital camera store an image as?
  48. What can in-camera processing add to detect tampering?
  49. What does a larger f-number do to the aperture opening?
  50. How does a smaller aperture affect depth of field?
  51. What happens to depth of field when you move closer to your subject? 🔒
  52. What is the circle of confusion used to define? 🔒
  53. What does focus stacking combine to change apparent depth of field? 🔒
  54. What does diffraction cause at very high f-numbers? 🔒
  55. What is exposure measured in? 🔒
  56. What three things determine exposure? 🔒
  57. What is a single shutter cycle called? 🔒
  58. What is a photo called when bright areas are washed out to white? 🔒
  59. What is a photo called when dark areas lose detail? 🔒
  60. What does exposure compensation let a photographer do? 🔒
  61. What does a +1 exposure compensation setting do? 🔒
  62. What does the sunny 16 rule estimate? 🔒
  63. What does the principle of reciprocity let a photographer trade? 🔒
  64. What does a camera's built-in light meter help determine? 🔒
  65. What is latitude in exposure? 🔒
  66. Which film type typically records a wider brightness range? 🔒
  67. What is a long exposure used for? 🔒
  68. What does a multiple exposure involve? 🔒
  69. In manual mode, what can a photographer adjust to set exposure? 🔒
  70. What does opening the aperture do besides increase exposure? 🔒
  71. What does aperture priority mode let the photographer control? 🔒
  72. What does shutter priority mode let the photographer control? 🔒
  73. What does a higher ISO rating mean for film? 🔒
  74. What does a slower shutter speed increase besides exposure? 🔒
  75. What is exposure bracketing used for? 🔒
  76. What does fill lighting do in a harshly lit scene? 🔒
  77. What does a graduated neutral-density filter do? 🔒
  78. What can raw image format help correct to some degree? 🔒
  79. What are areas of lost detail from extreme darkness called? 🔒
  80. What does digital capture tend to tolerate better than negative print film? 🔒
  81. What does the Zone System help a photographer achieve? 🔒
  82. What does a light meter estimate to set exposure? 🔒
  83. What does a larger aperture do to the cones of light reaching the image plane? 🔒
  84. What does the near:far distribution say about depth of field beyond the subject? 🔒
  85. What do lens DOF scales indicate? 🔒
  86. What does a depth map help reconstruct from multiple photographs? 🔒
  87. What does light scanning photomacrography scan across a subject? 🔒
  88. What does wavefront coding add to an optical system to improve focus later? 🔒
  89. What does color apodization give each color channel? 🔒