Mimimun Competencies in Photography

last updated 26 January 2002 at 8:30 am

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Any student who has had a college-level course in photography must have an understanding of each of the following concepts, principles and proceedures. Persons who do not demonstrate a grasp of each of these will not receive credit for a course in photography.

A list of the things that you absolutely must know:

The reciprocity rule of exposure

The effect of aperture on depth of focus

The relationship between film speeds and stops

The relationship between lens focal length and perspective

The Sunny 16 rule

How to bracket exposures

The relationship between focal length and slowest shutter speed for hand-held photography

Lens terminology: normal, wide angle, telephoto, fixed focal length, zoom.

The differences in types of film with respect to color balance

Push processing: when to use it, what it accomplishes, and the types of films applicable

How to expose film properly in high key and low key conditions

How to operate an electronic flash in manual mode

The general sequence of steps for developing black and white negative film

The general sequence of steps for making a positive print from a black and white negative

The main advantages and disadvantages for each format: 35 mm, medium format, large format, and digital.

The relationship between an reflected light meter and middle gray

How to use hyperfocal distance to maximize depth of focus

How panning affects an image

How to eliminate or minimize "red eye"

The main contributions of several historically significant photographers

Definitions and Terminology:

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