How ISO affects your pictures…
Last week, I explained how changing the F-STOP affects your pictures.
This week, I wanted to show you how changing the ISO affects your pictures.
To change the ISO on your camera, find the button that says “ISO” then set the ISO you want by spinning the dial or pressing the up/down buttons to set the ISO. Every camera is different, but it’s pretty easy to do no matter what camera you have.
Here’s how it looks on a Canon 5D:
(click the image to see the larger pic, then use your back button to come back here)
During myFUNcamera workshops, I explain ISO as the camera’s “sponge” setting. The higher the ISO, the MORE light your camera will soak up — like a sponge. The lower the ISO, the less light your camera will soak up.
That means on a bright sunny day, you’ll want to use a lower ISO. If you’re in a dark room where your camera needs all the light it can get, you’ll want to use a higher ISO so your camera will soak up all the light it can.
When you raise the ISO, you’ll see more “noise” or “grain” in your pictures, so there is a price to pay when you raise that ISO.
I took pictures of my family’s “mom’s going away” cards on the kitchen counter using the same camera settings (f/2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/100sec), and I changed the ISO to show you how that setting changes the image.
There were no lights on in the kitchen. Sunlight was coming through the windows, but not shining right on the counter.
Check out what happened as I went through different ISO settings:
ISO is usually the setting that I choose FIRST when I get to a session. I look at the light I have, and the MORE light, the LOWER the ISO I choose. So, as you can guess, since I’m at the beach a LOT, I use ISO 100 most of the time. Indoors, I’ll use ISO 400 or higher.
In general, the LESS light you have, the HIGHER the ISO you’ll want to use. Of course, you can play around with different settings to do artsy fartsy stuff, but less-light=higher-iso is a good general rule to remember.
Have FUN!
~Carey
