Chapter 17 — Self-Check Quiz

Twenty-six questions to test what you took from this chapter — the seeing, the reactive setup, the ethics, and the edit. A few are seeing questions that ask you to diagnose a described frame or situation, just as you will have to on the street. Answer before checking the key; for the true/false items, you must justify your answer to get credit. The answer key, with one-line explanations and a topics-to-review map, is at the end.

Multiple choice

Q1. Street photography is best defined as: - (a) Photographing famous landmarks and architecture in cities. - (b) Making candid, unposed photographs of everyday life in public places to find meaning in the unscripted moment. - (c) Any photograph taken outdoors. - (d) Portraits of strangers who have signed a model release.

Q2. The three raw materials of the street photographer's eye are: - (a) Aperture, shutter, ISO. - (b) Foreground, midground, background. - (c) Light, gesture, juxtaposition. - (d) Color, contrast, sharpness.

Q3. Zone focusing means: - (a) Letting the camera autofocus on whatever zone you point at. - (b) Pre-setting focus to a fixed distance and using a small aperture so a whole range of distance is acceptably sharp, ready instantly. - (c) Focusing only on the center zone of the frame. - (d) Using face-detection autofocus in a crowd.

Q4. To make a wider zone of sharpness for zone focusing, you would: - (a) Open the aperture (lower f-number). - (b) Stop the aperture down (higher f-number). - (c) Use a longer focal length. - (d) Move closer to the subject.

Q5. On the street, the usual priority order for settings is: - (a) Lowest ISO first, then aperture, then shutter. - (b) A shutter fast enough to freeze a stride and enough depth of field to zone focus, letting ISO float. - (c) Widest aperture for shallow depth of field, then whatever shutter results. - (d) Whatever the camera chooses on full auto.

Q6. A candid photograph is one that: - (a) Is always shot with a long telephoto lens. - (b) Captures the subject posed and looking at the camera. - (c) Captures the subject unposed and usually unaware, as they naturally are. - (d) Has been heavily edited to look natural.

Q7. Documentary photography differs from street photography mainly in that it: - (a) Is always shot in black and white. - (b) Tells a true story about a subject across many frames over time, rather than hunting for single unrelated moments. - (c) Never includes people. - (d) Requires professional equipment.

Q8. A photo essay is: - (a) A written article illustrated with stock photos. - (b) A deliberately sequenced set of photographs that together tell a story or make an argument. - (c) A single photograph with a long caption. - (d) Any folder of your best images.

Q9. In many permissive jurisdictions, the general legal rule for photographing people in public hinges on: - (a) Whether the person is famous. - (b) Whether you used a professional camera. - (c) Whether the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. - (d) Whether you intend to sell the photo only.

Q10. Which act typically requires a signed model release (covered fully in Chapter 32)? - (a) Taking a candid photo in a public square for yourself. - (b) Posting a street photo to your personal portfolio as art. - (c) Using a recognizable person's image to advertise or sell a product (commercial use). - (d) Keeping the photo on your hard drive.

Q11. "Chimping" on the street refers to, and is a problem because: - (a) Shooting from the hip; it produces crooked frames. - (b) Checking the back screen after every frame; while you look down, better moments happen unseen. - (c) Using burst mode; it fills the card too fast. - (d) Asking too many strangers for portraits; it wastes time.

Q12. The most reliable way to make a strong juxtaposition frame is to: - (a) Chase interesting-looking people through the crowd. - (b) Find a strong fixed background with meaning first, then wait for a person to complete it. - (c) Shoot hundreds of random frames and hope. - (d) Use a very shallow depth of field.

Q13. From a 300-frame street session, a good day typically yields: - (a) Around 50 keepers. - (b) Around 20 keepers. - (c) Two or three keepers. - (d) Zero, always.

Q14. When you approach a stranger for a portrait, the most effective opener gives: - (a) A vague, generic request ("can I take your picture?"). - (b) A specific, genuine reason rooted in the picture ("the light on you," "your hat against that wall"). - (c) A long explanation of your artistic philosophy. - (d) Money, always.

True / False (justify your answer)

Q15. Because you legally can photograph someone in public, it follows that doing so is always ethical. True / False — justify.

Q16. A phone is a poor tool for street photography because it lacks a long lens and a big sensor. True / False — justify.

Q17. You should edit your street take the same night you shoot it, while the moments are fresh in your mind. True / False — justify.

Q18. The candid and the asked-for portrait are simply two routes to the same kind of photograph, so it doesn't matter which you use. True / False — justify.

Q19. Stopping the aperture down from f/8 to f/16 narrows your zone of focus. True / False — justify.

Q20. A weak photograph can be saved for your portfolio by the strength of the story behind it. True / False — justify.

Short answer

Q21. In two or three sentences, explain why "light first" — positioning yourself where good light falls and waiting — is smarter than chasing interesting subjects around the street.

Q22. List the five frame types in the anatomy of a photo essay (Figure 17.4), in order.

Q23. Give two concrete habits from §17.2 that let you work unobtrusively and lower both your profile and your nerves.

Q24. Name three of the five questions in the street-ethics gut-check (Figure 17.3).

Seeing questions (diagnose the described situation)

Q25. What's wrong with this approach? A photographer at a busy market sees a vendor laughing warmly in beautiful side light three metres away. They raise the camera, but the autofocus hunts back and forth for nearly a second in the dim stall; by the time it locks, the vendor has stopped laughing and is looking away. Name the two setup mistakes and prescribe the fix.

Describe the scene to yourself, then write your diagnosis before checking the key.

Q26. Legal, ethical, kind — which fail? A photographer takes a tight, technically flawless candid of a visibly distressed person sitting on the sidewalk in crisis, framed to emphasize their disarray, and posts it captioned for laughs. Assume the photo was legal to take. Evaluate it on ethics and kindness separately, naming which gut-check items it fails and what a more humane alternative would look like.

Describe the scene to yourself, then write your evaluation before checking the key.

Answer Key

Q1 — (b). Street photography is candid, unposed everyday life in public, made to find meaning in the unscripted moment. (§17.1)

Q2 — (c). Light, gesture, and juxtaposition. (§17.1)

Q3 — (b). Pre-set focus + small aperture → a whole zone of distance is sharp and ready instantly, with no autofocus delay. (§17.2)

Q4 — (b). A smaller aperture (higher f-number) deepens depth of field and widens the zone. (§17.2; depth of field from Ch.4)

Q5 — (b). Fast enough shutter to freeze a stride + enough depth of field to zone focus, with Auto ISO absorbing the light. Noise is cheaper than blur or a missed moment. (§17.2)

Q6 — (c). A candid captures the subject unposed and usually unaware — the unguarded self. (§17.5)

Q7 — (b). Documentary tells a true story across many frames over time; street hunts single unrelated moments. (§17.4)

Q8 — (b). A photo essay is a deliberately sequenced set that together tells a story — structure, not a gallery of best shots. (§17.4; full treatment Ch.38)

Q9 — (c). The hinge is a reasonable expectation of privacy; a person in genuinely public space has little. (§17.3)

Q10 — (c). Commercial use — using a recognizable person to advertise/sell — typically needs a model release. (§17.3; Ch.32)

Q11 — (b). Chimping = checking the screen after every frame; the cost is the moments you miss while looking down. (§17.2)

Q12 — (b). Find the strong, meaningful background first; wait for a person to complete it — the background is the half you can control. (§17.1)

Q13 — (c). Two or three keepers from 300 frames is a good day; the small number is expected. (§17.6)

Q14 — (b). A specific, genuine reason rooted in the picture answers the stranger's silent "why me?" and feels flattering, not threatening. (§17.5)

Q15 — False. Legal is the floor, not the goal; a legal photo can still be cruel (it can punch down, violate dignity, exploit vulnerability). "I had the right" ≠ "I was right." Run the gut-check. (§17.3)

Q16 — False. A phone is one of the best street tools precisely because it is small, quiet, and invisible; its wide lens gives huge depth of field (zone focusing for free), and the genre rewards unobtrusiveness over reach. (§17.2)

Q17 — False. Edit after it cools (a day or more); shooting night you are still in love with the moments, not the photographs, and you'll keep frames a stranger would reject. (§17.6)

Q18 — False. They produce different photographs: the candid catches the unguarded self; the asked-for portrait records a consented, eye-contact encounter. You choose by what you want to say. (§17.5)

Q19 — False. Stopping down from f/8 to f/16 deepens depth of field and widens the zone (more is in focus), not narrower. (§17.2; Ch.4)

Q20 — False. The viewer wasn't there and sees only the rectangle; if the frame doesn't work alone, the story can't rescue it. Judge every frame as a stranger would. (§17.6)

Q21. Because the background and light are the half of the photograph you can control; positioning yourself in good light and waiting lets you solve composition and exposure once, then only nail the human timing — far more efficient than trying to solve everything while chasing a moving subject. (§17.1)

Q22. Establishing shot → portrait → detail/object → interaction → the moment → closer. (Five core types plus the closer; §17.4, Figure 17.4)

Q23. Any two of: pre-set everything so lifting and shooting is one motion; shoot from waist/chest level sometimes; use a small, quiet rig (or phone); keep moving and look like you belong; smile/nod if noticed. (§17.2)

Q24. Any three of: punching up or down? dignity (would they be okay seeing it)? vulnerability (can they object)? truth (does it/the caption tell the truth)? would I trade places? (§17.3, Figure 17.3)

Q25. Mistake one: the camera was left on autofocus in dim light, so it hunted for the length of the decisive moment. Mistake two: nothing was pre-set for readiness. Fix: use zone focusing — pre-set manual focus to ~3 m at f/8 (or, on a phone, long-press to lock focus/exposure on that distance), keep Auto ISO high enough for a 1/250–1/500 s shutter, and raise the already-focused camera in one motion so the laugh is captured at its peak. (§17.2)

Q26. Ethically it fails badly: it punches down (mocking distress), violates dignity (the person would be horrified to see it and its caption), exploits vulnerability (a person in crisis cannot object or consent), and fails would-I-trade-places. Unkind in the plainest sense — it treats a suffering human as a punchline. A humane alternative documents hardship with respect: honest soft light, eye level (meeting them as an equal, like Lange's Migrant Mother), framed to preserve dignity, captioned truthfully — or, better with a vulnerable person, engaging and asking rather than grabbing. Same difficulty, opposite ethics. (§17.3)

Topics to review by question