Muki.Dorifuto.com Photography talk with random tangents into the unknown

The basics: ISO

I'm going to be starting a short series on the basics of photography in (hopefully) just a few short paragraphs.

So to kick things off, one of the things I often hear questions asked about is ISO.

ISO is a way of measuring how sensitive your digital sensor in your camera is. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to light. However, this also means it is more sensitive to noise.

If you're getting a lot of blur in your low light photos, try increasing your ISO so that you (or your camera) can use a faster shutter speed.

On the other hand, if your photos have a lot of noise in them, try lowering it and holding your camera steady.

As a general rule I like to follow, if in doubt, go for the higher ISO than risking camera shake. There are plenty of tools out there for removing noise, but it's much harder to fix a blurry picture.

Have a go next time you're out in the evening and don't want to use a flash. You'll soon get the feel for how far you can push your ISO before the noise becomes noticeable.