Skip to main content

Choosing the Right ISO for Digital Photography


ISO stands for International Standard Organization, a term which is popular among photographers, young and old. In order to be able to take great pictures, it is important to know about ISO and how choosing the right ISO is important to help click some great pictures. ISO, to put it simply, is the measurement of the sensitivity of film to light. Now that traditional cameras have been replaced with digital cameras, this definition has been slightly modified to mean the measurement of sensitivity of the sensor towards the light. This is especially important if you are trying to get a picture clicked where there is a lot of movement or there is a lack of light which you do not want to impact the pictures.

The purpose of using ISO, as mentioned earlier, is to allow light to filter into the sensor when capturing images which are moving or which have been placed in shade. The higher the ISO, the higher light captured. However, this does not always mean that a higher ISO is a good thing. Normally, it is considered preferable to maintain a lower ISO as with increase in ISO, the noise or graininess of the picture increases which subsequently reduces the clarity and thereby quality of the picture.

As mentioned, ISO is a good option to capture an image which is moving and does not have adequate lighting. However, this might bring up a question as to how this helps as compared to reducing the shutter speed. The problem here lays in the fact that a lower shutter speed requires that the picture is taken using a tripod in order to achieve the optimum result. And if this is not an option, a higher ISO might be the only option available.

Similarly, if you prefer a picture which would be an impressive piece of art with the grained look which higher ISO would provide, then you can go ahead and try that and the outcome could be a picture which is quite different and unique as opposed to the clean, neat pictures that are traditionally taken.
Also, another question to ask while deciding on the ISO setting for you digital camera is whether you would have a secondary device which will be able to provide artificial lighting like a flash. If you have a flash available at your disposal, then it would be better to use it rather than depend on your ISO to get you some good shots.

And most importantly, the one factor that needs to be considered while setting the ISO is the purpose of the picture as well as the factors that require emphasizing in the picture. The best way to capture an image with the right ISO setting will be to play around and experiment your digital camera so that you can understand the impact of each setting separately. Also, in case you decide to change the ISO setting, it would be a good idea to change it back once you are done clicking the pictures so that you don’t end up clicking pictures with the incorrect ISO setting without realizing it.

Popular posts from this blog

ISO: Knowing the Use of the Digital Image

Learning what is ISO is a fairly advanced step towards learning more about the digital files that may fill your computer. It’s not uncommon to think that it’s hard to get into these things, and in fact, it’s a really intimidating task set before you. But with new technology, comes new forms of storage. One of these days, simply knowing how to insert a disc won’t work anymore. So here’s a quick rundown on what you should know about ISOs. What is ISO: The basics An ISO, or an ISO image is basically what is on your disc before it is burned onto a disc. Everything that a disc has, whether a few video files separated by menus, or full installers of software, was originally in an ISO format. It’s basically an archived file, containing all the date that was supposed to go on the disc itself. It’s also in it’s digital format, which means that it is free to be manipulated an altered rather than when it is in it’s permanent state. Why learn what is ISO? Now that you understand w...
Read More »

ISO Settings in Digital Photography

If you are someone who considers digital photography a form of art rather than a mere clicking of still images, then there are a lot of things that you need to keep yourself informed about before deciding to pursue it. A few of the things you need to keep yourself informed about are the shutter speed, aperture as well as ISO settings which are the more technical aspects of photography as opposed to foreground and background as well as lighting. Because, it is these basics that help enable a photographer to click pictures which are unique and spellbinding irrespective of the camera used. Originally, ISO settings referred to the sensitivity of the camera film to light and how much light could be accommodated without burning or blurring the picture. In order to be able to be measured easily, ISO was traditionally measured in numbers with lower ISO settings being around 100 with higher ISO settings being anywhere around 400 to 800. However, with the advent of time, the traditio...
Read More »

Macro Photography and ISO

Macro photography is the art of clicking the picture of an object at a very close range which gives the object a larger than real life look. This form of photography is considered an art form particularly because of the focus placed on the object which is photographed so closely that it would be difficult to identify the object in the picture. Though this is not a very complicated method of photographing, a lot of photographers do not attempt it, primarily because of the lack of knowledge about how to get the right kind of picture using this technique. In order to be able to be successful at microphotography, it is essential to have the right equipment as well as awareness of the settings of the camera and how it can be manipulated to provide the best results. While trying a hand at macro photography, it is necessary that the user develop awareness about the camera settings which will help in getting the best result possible. While trying to get pictures shot using macro mode, i...
Read More »