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The FPI exam has 100 questions and runs 2 hours.
These 10 free FPI questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Forensic Photography & Imaging Certification blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
A shoe impression lies 8 mm below the surrounding soil. For a comparison close-up, the camera sensor is parallel to the bottom of the impression, but the metric scale rests on the upper soil surface. Both are sharply focused. What must change to remove the remaining scale-related measurement error?
Correct answer: C - Place the scale beside the impression at its bottom plane without disturbing detail.
At a secured night scene, a tripod-mounted camera is set to 1/60 second, f/8, and ISO 200. Fixed-output flash correctly exposes the foreground evidence, where ambient light contributes negligibly. A distant building receives no useful flash illumination and is two stops too dark. Which single change gives the building the needed exposure while retaining the foreground flash exposure?
Correct answer: A - Lengthen the shutter time to 1/15 second.
Under 450 nm blue illumination, a dye-treated latent print produces yellow-green fluorescence that is clear through yellow viewing goggles. Photographs through an unfiltered camera lens are instead dominated by reflected blue light. The image is not overexposed. The missing optical control is:
Correct answer: D - A lens barrier filter that blocks the excitation light while transmitting the fluorescence.
Before leaving a burglary scene, a photographer reviews doorway-wide views and frame-filling photographs of a pry mark. The mark cannot be resolved in the wide views, and the close-ups show neither the latch nor a recognizable part of the doorframe. Which additional photograph supplies the missing spatial relationship?
Correct answer: A - A mid-range view containing the pry mark, latch, and identifiable doorframe features.
A perpendicular, scaled photograph shows an isolated elliptical bloodstain on a smooth, nonporous surface. Its intact elliptical body is 4.0 mm wide and 8.0 mm long; a narrow tail brings the overall length to 12.0 mm. Using the conventional elliptical-stain method, the estimated impact angle measured from the target surface is closest to:
Correct answer: C - 30 degrees.
While photographing an electric vehicle after a collision, a photographer hears hissing from the damaged underbody and develops throat irritation. The occupants have been removed. The 12-volt battery is disconnected, but isolation of the high-voltage system has not been confirmed. What takes priority over completing the close-ups?
Correct answer: D - Move clear, warn others nearby, and alert the fire-service incident commander.
A distortion-controlled evidence photograph is 4,800 pixels wide. A 50.8 mm (2.00-inch) segment of the scale, photographed in the evidence plane, spans 1,200 pixels. The printer is advertised as 2,400 dpi. With resampling and automatic page fitting disabled, which image setting produces life-size geometry before the printed scale is checked with a ruler?
Correct answer: B - 600 ppi, producing an 8-inch-wide image.
Faint bruising on an adult's darkly pigmented forearm is photographed under both window light and a warm examination lamp. A neutral-gray reference beside the injury appears bluish at one end and orange at the other. A single global white-balance adjustment cannot neutralize both ends. The patient is still available and has consented to repeat photography. What is the soundest way to obtain a reliable color record?
Correct answer: B - Rephotograph under one controlled light source with a neutral reference for white balance.
During a documented transfer, an evidence system changes a photograph's filename from DSC_1842.NEF to Case24_Item6.NEF. SHA-256 hashes calculated over the complete file before and after transfer match. The transfer log records both names. How should the custodian interpret that result?
Correct answer: D - The hashes support unchanged file contents despite the documented filename change.
Checks against a synchronized reference establish that a camera clock ran four minutes fast throughout a scene examination. The original photographs and their embedded capture times have already been preserved. Investigators need to correlate the photographs with dispatch records. Which treatment best preserves the evidence while allowing that comparison?
Correct answer: B - Preserve the originals; record the verified four-minute offset in the case documentation.
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