Week 4 - ISO

ISO....most cameras if you can adjust your camera to manual you can most likely adjust your ISO.  ISO is what you used to have to use for film you would have your 100 for day light and then 200 - 800 for various other times when it wasn't quite as nice and it was dark.  I remember having my film camera.....a cute little point and shoot film camera.  I never understood what ISO did for my pictures when I had my film camera.  I would have some pictures that were usually just dark and didn't have enough light for them to really be recognizable.  I really didn't understand how ISO helped my pictures and what effect it had on my pictures until I was reading my owners manual and started reading books about the subject -- Bryan Peterson wrote an excellent book Understanding Exposure.  Which helped me understand what ISO did and how it helped with photography.

ISO  basically is how much light is let into the sensor (if you still use film -- then film).  Now you can only go so high with your ISO before you introduce noise.....which is basically graininess (film) and noise (digital film).  This is usually when it's nice to have a nicer camera -- the more expensive the camera the more equipped it is to handle the noise.  Which is why...probably in three years I hopefully will be able to go up to a full framed camera. 

My advice to everyone is to play with your ISO.  See if you like the noise....maybe you won't notice it at the higher ISO.  I usually notice and can tell when I take pictures with ISO 1600 and the picture it's really grainy. Here is my rule of thumb....try it out!

My rule is as long as I have light......and can keep my shutter speed where I want it to be I keep my ISO at 100.  That doesn't always work and isn't always helpful because you don't always have the beautiful sunny days and the brightly light rooms.  So if you don't have a lot of light...say it's a cloudy day and you are in the shade.....try having your ISO at 200 or 400.  If it's night time and you are inside and don't have a lot of lights turned on.....turn your ISO to 800 or beyond.  It's gonna get a bit trickier because you will be dealing with the noise but it will work out!! 

This weeks challenge.  Play with your camera's ISO...experiment with your white balance and your ISO.  Also see if you can notice the noise at the higher ISO ranges?  Do you like it?  Can you use it creatively?  Good luck!!