Which ISO value do I use?

Knowing is half the battle, and practicing is the perfection of the skill. With this, read on...
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Which ISO Setting Should I Use?
By Dr. Mark Clayson

What ISO setting should you use for everyday photography?

There is no simple answer, but have a look at the following responses to decide what is best for you:

"I usually use ISO 100, but if I realise I can't hold the camera still I increase the ISO or use a tripod"

"I most usually shoot at ISO 100, 200 and occasionally ISO 400. It annoys me that there is slight noise when I zoom on the PC. In reality you won't see it"

"I start at 100, and work up until I get a reasonable shutter speed that I feel I can cope with"

"I set the camera at 200 in good weather and 400 in bad"

"In bad light I don't go below 400"

"Inside, I start at 400, then go to 800 or more when needed. Outside I start at 100"

"If I tend to get camera shake I increase the ISO till everything is OK"

"In fully automatic mode my camera does this itself"

"I find I use 100 rarely. I prefer to go for a higher ISO to get faster shutter speeds"

So, you can see that the ISO setting is dependent upon the conditions and upon personal preferences. Experiment to find the settings that work best for you.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

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Which ISO Setting Should I Use?
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What is ISO?

This is one of the basics of photography. Before the complex matters come, we deal with the basics.

Read on...
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What Exactly Does ISO Mean?
By Can San

The ISO rating was originally a measure of film sensitivity. Films are rated for a certain ISO, this defines the sensitivity of the film to light. A film with a lower ISO number needs more light to make the same image than a film with a higher ISO number.

What does ISO mean in the digital world?

A digital sensor receives light and converts this to colour information for its pixels. It performs best when it receives a certain amount of light, let us call this the base ISO of the camera, for example ISO 100.

The same digital sensor can also work if it receives half the light. So if it operates at ISO 200, the camera will let the sensor have half the light, you can still take pictures, but the colour information coming from the sensor will not be as good. Theoretically there is no limit to how high you can take the ISO on a camera up to, the sensor will still give out image information. However, there are practical limits.

If you let a sensor give out information with less and less light, you are bound to have lower and lower image quality. What a manufacturer then does is to define the lowest acceptable image quality for the camera in question, and then cap the ISO setting at the matching level.

When the ISO is increased, you can take pictures with less light. But your pictures will not look as good as the pictures taken at low ISO's.

If you are shooting in low light at ISO 100, the shutter speed will usually be so low that it is not possible to get a handheld sharp picture. If on the other hand, if you increase the ISO to 800 or 1600, the resulting image quality will be lower, but you will be able to take a sharp handheld picture.

The ISO setting allows you to trade image quality for low light ability.

Visit http://www.notesonphotography.com for more articles like this one.

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What Exactly Does ISO Mean?
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Main use of Aperture Setting: Depth-of-Field Control

Image via Wikipedia

What I have learned from all my book readings and my experiment with my camera is that the main use and function of the aperture is to control the depth of field of your shots.

Having said that, do note, however, that the correct exposure, or should I say, the desired exposure of your subject, is still dependent on 3 settings in your camera:

1. aperture value
2. shutter speed
3. ISO

ISO can be set independently, while shutter speed is an inverse function of your aperture setting: the bigger aperture opening (smaller f value), the faster you shutter speed can be, and vice-versa.

Again, this is a beginner's knowledge, but a fundamental one, -- it is but a foundation of all the other skills that you will ever learn later on.

Leave your comments - they are most welcome.

Till then!

 

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A shot using aperture priority

In all the reading that I’m doing, there has to come a time for me to put my head knowledge to practice. And as much as I would be advocating that perfection in what you are doing, though hard it may be, is not impossible.

But what would make a practice a perfection?

The old adage says that ‘practice makes perfect’, to which one of my former choir director disagreed to. Why is that? Or rather, if she disagreed to that saying, which many has found to be true and correct, what is she advocating?

Precisely, what is her stand?

Simple. It draws from that same proverb, but she gives it quite a very clear and precise execution:

“Constant, correct practice makes perfect.”

Now doesn’t that make a whole world of difference? To me it does. And from that day on, I have already made it my own guide. And is she the only one who thinks that way? No, she isn’t.

My secondary teacher, who happens to be our class adviser as well, made the same re-direction to our boys scout team, he being also the head of that department. We were doing a model of our boys scout ladders, bridges, etc., etc. and we were doing well, until he saw one guy who didn’t quite adhere to the prescribed method of tying knots. What did he say? “We’ll take it as it is, since it is just an example. However, boys, do take note that when the example is wrong, so will those who follow it.”

It turned out to be a good philosophy, then, and now.

I’ve read many books, but, I’ve done very few shots. Less than a thousand.

But when I do get the chance to click the button, I make sure that I am doing what I have learned: correct practice. I am falling of the other adjective of constancy, but, I will catch up. I will.

So here is one shot I took just today morning using aperture priority.

Actually, what prompted me to take the shot is the two, small lights that passed through the figurine, and landed on the cabinet. I immediately pictured in my mind that this is one not grand, but practical, piece of practice work.


Aperture priority. No flash. On a tripod. Multi-segment metering. 62mm focal length. ISO 1600 (not modified from last photography session). 1/80 sec speed.

I initially used 55mm focal length, but it can’t get to focus correctly. I first focused on the glass part, and the camera had a hard time ‘settling’ on what is the correct focus, going in and out, in and out, till it stopped, but to something that I didn’t want. so I moved back a bit, and changed the focus to the ceramic base instead. That helped somehow.

One more thing that I did is to check on the picture’s correctness of focus using the zoom function. This really helps, in that while initially looking at the snapshot ‘deceives’ the naked eye, zooming in reveals the focus status. This is the third shot. The shadow plays its own part, with the light at its middle breaking the shadow’s perceived imposed darkness.

Till then.

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