Ah, so it is called that. I always just called it an inline conditional expression.
Ternary is also a name for a base 3 number system, just as binary refers to base 2.
Check your loop carefully. A small error in the loop expression could prevent the loop code from running at all. You may want to temporarily add a serial print or blink your pin 13 led within the loop, just to verify that it is running the expected number of times. If that fails, try uploading a different sketch to simply blink the leds to verify that they can even achieve the desired brightness the way they are wired.
Also, if you post your code, I can take a look for you.