Chapter 30 — Quiz

Twenty-five questions to check that the pipeline, the cull, keywording, 3-2-1, naming, and archiving are solid in your head — including a few "what's wrong with this workflow?" diagnostic questions, the back-of-the-room equivalent of the seeing questions you get for a photograph. Answer without scrolling back; the Answer Key with one-line explanations and a "review by question" map is at the end.

Part 1 — Multiple choice

Q1. At which moment is a shoot in the greatest danger of total loss? a) While you are developing the keepers b) The instant the full card leaves the camera, before ingest c) After the files are backed up to two drives d) While you are keywording the take

Q2. When ingesting from a card, you should always copy rather than move because: a) Copying is faster than moving b) Moving changes the file names c) Moving deletes the source as it goes, so a failure mid-transfer loses files from both ends d) Copying automatically adds keywords

Q3. The four moves of a good ingest, in order, are: a) Cull → rate → keyword → develop b) Copy → verify → rename → back up c) Back up → copy → develop → format d) Rename → move → cull → archive

Q4. In a two-pass cull, the first pass should: a) Carefully study each frame to find the best ones b) Apply detailed five-star ratings to everything c) Quickly reject only the technically dead and clearly redundant frames d) Add keywords to the whole take

Q5. "File by capture, find by keyword" means: a) Name files after the camera's automatic numbering b) Store each photo in one simple dated folder and use keywords to retrieve it by subject c) Put every photo in a folder for each subject it belongs to d) Keyword only the date a photo was taken

Q6. The 3-2-1 backup rule calls for: a) 3 drives, 2 computers, 1 phone b) 3 copies, on 2 different media, with 1 offsite c) 3 cloud accounts, 2 passwords, 1 backup per year d) 3 backups made once, then never again

Q7. Why is folder organization best done by date rather than by subject? a) Dates are shorter to type b) A single photo belongs to many subjects at once, but has exactly one shooting date; date folders sort themselves and stay uncrowded while keywords handle subject retrieval c) Subjects change but dates never do d) Cameras can only sort by date

Q8. The camera's default file names (e.g. IMG_4471.JPG) are a problem chiefly because: a) They are too long b) They collide (the number repeats across cards) and tell you nothing c) They cannot be opened on a phone d) They are always lowercase

Q9. A catalog in a non-destructive library primarily stores: a) The full-resolution master pixels of every photo b) Pointers to where each original lives, plus edit recipes, ratings, and keywords c) Only the deleted files d) A single flattened JPEG of each shoot

Q10. You should export a resized, sharpened copy for the web instead of uploading your master because: a) The master is illegal to upload b) Different destinations need different sizes, sharpening, and color spaces, and the master must stay untouched c) Web sites reject RAW files only d) Exporting deletes the original

Q11. Archiving a finished project differs from backing up your library in that archiving: a) Makes redundant copies of active work against failure b) Moves a completed project out of the active library into stable, self-contained long-term storage c) Deletes the project permanently d) Is the same thing as backup

Q12. Which leg of 3-2-1 specifically protects against a fire, flood, or theft that destroys everything in one building at once? a) The "3 copies" leg b) The "2 media" leg c) The "1 offsite" leg d) None of them

Part 2 — True / False (justify your answer in one sentence)

Q13. True or False: It is safe to reformat a memory card as soon as you see the thumbnails appear in your library on one computer.

Q14. True or False: Keeping every frame "just in case" is harmless because storage is cheap.

Q15. True or False: A backup you have never restored a file from can still be confidently called a backup.

Q16. True or False: If you drag your catalogued photo folders to a new drive in the file browser and they show as "missing," your photographs have been deleted.

Q17. True or False: The cloud, by itself, satisfies the entire 3-2-1 rule.

Q18. True or False: Keywords written only into your catalog (not into the file or a sidecar) will travel with the bare file when you send it to someone else.

Part 3 — Short answer

Q19. In two or three sentences, explain why a two-pass cull works better than studying every frame once — what two different mental jobs are being separated?

Q20. Name the four properties of a good file name and give a one-word reason for each.

Q21. A friend says, "My photos are totally safe — they're all on my laptop and I sync them to one cloud account." Using 3-2-1, name one realistic scenario in which they could still lose everything, and the one change that would prevent it.

Q22. Describe the highest-value keywording move for a fresh 600-frame take when you only have a few minutes, and why it covers most future searches.

Part 4 — "What's wrong with this workflow?" (diagnostic / seeing questions)

Q23. A photographer's process: "I shoot, I copy the card to my laptop, I see the photos are there, I format the card, and once a month I drag my whole photo folder to a backup drive when I remember." Identify the two most dangerous flaws and prescribe the fix for each.

Q24. A library's folder tree looks like this:

Photos/
├── Edited FINAL/
├── Edited FINAL v2/
├── use these/
├── New Folder/
├── New Folder (2)/
└── DCIM/

Diagnose what is wrong and rewrite the top of this tree in the chapter's scheme. What single principle from §30.3/§30.5 would have prevented this mess?

Q25. A photographer carefully keywords and rates 2,000 images inside their catalog, then "tidies up" by renaming and moving the underlying folders in the operating system's file manager. They reopen the library to find every photo marked "missing" and panic that their ratings and edits are gone. Explain exactly what happened, whether the edits and ratings are truly lost, and the correct recovery step (and the prevention for next time).

Answer Key

Q1 — b. Off the camera, before ingest, the shoot exists in exactly one place (the card); any loss is total. (§30.1)

Q2 — c. "Move" deletes the source as it copies; a failure mid-transfer can lose files from both source and destination, whereas "copy" always leaves the card as a fallback. (§30.1)

Q3 — b. Copy → verify → rename → back up. Only after a verified second copy exists is the card safe to format. (§30.1)

Q4 — c. Pass 1 is the fast reject pass — kill only the technically dead and redundant; rating comes in Pass 2. (§30.2)

Q5 — b. Folders store (one dated folder per shoot); keywords retrieve (by subject/who/where). A photo belongs to many categories, so retrieval is keywords' job, not folders'. (§30.3)

Q6 — b. 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite. (§30.4)

Q7 — b. One shooting date vs. many possible subjects; date folders self-sort and stay uncrowded while keywords handle subject lookup. (§30.5)

Q8 — b. Camera names repeat across cards (collision risk of overwriting) and carry no information. (§30.5)

Q9 — b. A catalog holds pointers to originals plus edit recipes, ratings, and keywords — not the master pixels themselves. (§30.5, recalling Ch.26)

Q10 — b. Each destination needs its own size/sharpening/color space, and the master must never be altered or overwritten — you export purpose-built copies. (§30.6)

Q11 — b. Archiving moves a finished project into stable, self-contained long-term storage; backup keeps redundant copies of active work. (§30.6)

Q12 — c. The offsite copy is what survives a site-wide disaster that destroys everything in one building. (§30.4)

Q13 — False. The files exist in only one place (that laptop); if its drive fails that night, the shoot is gone. Never format until a second verified copy exists. (§30.1)

Q14 — False. Disk space is cheap but attention is not: hoarded near-duplicates bloat backups, lengthen every search, and bury your good frames under mediocre ones. (§30.2)

Q15 — False. An untested backup is a hope; it may be silently broken. Verify by actually restoring a file a few times a year. (§30.4)

Q16 — False. The files are fine; you moved the territory outside the catalog, so its pointers dangle — fix with "locate/relocate," not re-import. (§30.5)

Q17 — False. The cloud is one copy and one kind of risk (lockout, shutdown, a synced deletion); it is the offsite leg, not the whole rule. (§30.4)

Q18 — False. Catalog-only metadata stays behind; only metadata written into the file or its sidecar travels with the bare file. (§30.3)

Q19. Rejecting is fast reflexive pattern-matching against failure; selecting is slow comparative judgment. Mixed, each poisons the other; split into passes, you do the cheap job at speed and reserve real attention for the few frames that earned it. (§30.2)

Q20. Unique (no collisions/overwrites), sortable (chronological order), informative (readable out of context), portable (works on every system and upload). (§30.5)

Q21. A synced deletion or a ransomware/corruption event propagates to the cloud, or the account is locked — both copies are really one logical copy plus a mirror of the same risk. Add a third copy on different media kept independently (e.g. an external drive that isn't live-syncing), and the failure becomes survivable. (§30.4)

Q22. Select the entire take and apply the four-or-five keywords true of all of it — location, broad subject, season/event, client — in one action; this covers the majority of future searches for almost no effort, leaving detailed tagging for only the rated keepers. (§30.3)

Q23. (1) Formatting the card after only one copy exists — fix: never format until a verified second copy is made (copy #2 before format). (2) A manual, "when I remember," whole-folder backup — fix: make the backup automatic, and add an offsite copy so it's truly 3-2-1. Bonus flaw: only ever one or two copies and one location. (§30.1, §30.4)

Q24. The folders are named by vague status and the camera's DCIM, with no dates and overlapping "final/use these" buckets — nothing sorts and nothing tells you when or what. Rewrite, e.g.:

Photos/
├── 2025/
│   ├── 2025-03-12 red-door-alley/
│   └── 2025-11-02 park-autumn/
└── 2026/
    └── 2026-10-14 park-maple-fog/

The preventing principle: folders are for storage (date-first, one shoot each); keywords are for retrieval — so you never create "use these / final v2" status folders at all. (§30.3, §30.5)

Q25. They moved/renamed the underlying files outside the catalog, so the catalog's stored pointers no longer find them — every photo shows "missing." The edits and ratings are not lost; they live in the catalog and reattach the moment the links are restored. Recovery: use the catalog's locate/relocate folder function to point it at the files' new location (never re-import, which makes duplicates and orphans the metadata). Prevention: do all moving and renaming inside the catalog application. (§30.5)

Review by question

If you scored below 18, re-read the Summary and Key Takeaways, then run one real shoot through the full pipeline (Exercise 30.27). Workflow sticks when you do it, not when you read it.