Cracking the ISO Code: Understanding Your Camera's Sensitivity to Light - The Know Your Camera Series
This episode is just the tool you need to understand the power of ISO in your photography . Join us as we shed light on the third pillar of the exposure triangle - ISO.
Are your photos not quite hitting the mark in low-light situations? Frustrated with unwanted noise in your images? This episode is just the tool you need to understand the power of ISO in your photography . In this episode, we shed light on the third pillar of the exposure triangle - ISO. We'll dig deep into what a native ISO is and expose the secret of how bumping up your ISO can lead to better image exposure. You'll walk away with a clear and solid understanding of ISO, ready to experiment and optimize your camera settings for a variety of lighting situations.
Maximize your camera's potential by understanding its maximum ISO sensitivity and learn how tweaking this can substantially reduce noise in your photographs. I'll guide you on this journey of discovery and experimentation, illustrating how an increase in ISO is the secret sauce to capturing crisp images when shooting in low light. However, increased ISO isn't without its trade-offs. Let’s explore the delicate balance between ISO and the introduction of noise into your photos. This conversation is a must-listen for both budding photographers and seasoned professionals looking to sharpen their skills. So, get ready to crack the ISO code with me on Clued Up with Maria B.
Here are some highlights from this episode:
Let's start with the fact that every camera has what's called a native ISO. In most cameras that's about 100. In some cameras it's 200, it's some cameras it's 64. For the sake of our discussion today, our native ISO, the ISO that's recommended with a given camera, we're going to say it's 100. What does that mean? It means that your ISO at 100 pretty much does nothing for you. It means that your photo is well exposed.
As you increase your ISO, you start to notice that your photo is not as sharp as it should be. It has a grainy look to it. And as you increase your ISO, that that grainy appearance also increases because you are increasing the amount of noise into your photo. Noise is the trade-off for increasing your ISO. Now the good news is, modern cameras handle noise like it's nobody's business. You can go pretty far up with your ISO before introducing noise into your image.
So with photos taken at music events like stadium concerts, it's almost given that there's going to be some introduction of noise into those photos and it can look really cool. Same thing with photos of newsworthy occurrences, such as catastrophic events or war photos or things that happen in nature. They look better with not that they look better, but some amount of noise [is expected] in those photos. It's expected that no one really criticizes when there is noise in that type of an image, because the truth of the matter is, if a photo journalist is photographing something such as a natural disaster or a protest or anything like that, no one is expecting a smooth, perfectly clear, gorgeous photo. There's a sense of grit about that. So having noise in those types of photos is perfectly acceptable.
Again, the solution for decreasing the amount of noise in your photo is to improve the lighting situation.
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