Photography Tips (7)

SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY

Simple tips on the basics of photography by Trevor James @ www.trevorjamesphotography.com








That week went rather quickly for a change. Usually on the run up to Christmas things start to get much more rushed but the time seems to hang on to the very last. That didn't appear to be the situation for the last week - where did it go?

Just to catch up on last week's topics (Shutter Speed), we said that we can use it to tell the camera 'how long we let the light to enter the camera' - whereas the Aperture setting measure the amount of light entering the camera and therefore what parts of the image will remain sharp and what parts are out of focus. This week's topic on ISO settings will show how it works to allow us to shoot in low-light situations without image blur, as well as for creative design - giving a grainy effect similar to that of traditional photographic prints.

ISO SETTINGS

Two images showing the effects of High ISO with noise and Low ISO with clarity

I’m not a geek at this stuff but ISO stands for International Standards Organisation and it replaced the old ASA/DIN some years ago. ISO is basically the light sensitivity control meter for your camera to let it know how much light it is allowed to use. If you had little men running out of your camera to catch as much light as possible for your image then these are the ISO gang. 


Some digital cameras have a range of ISO 100 – 1600, whilst others are blessed with wider ranges. So, depending on how much light you have available to you would depend on the film speed (ISO rating) you would have chosen traditionally. Today it’s 

done on the camera. In a nutshell it takes longer to expose an image in low light on a setting of 100 than it does to expose it on 1600. The upside is that in low light you may still be able to take a good quality correctly focused photograph with sharp details by adjusting your camera’s ISO setting to a higher rating without the use of 

a tripod, or other means of good stability, than you would when using the ISO 100, for example. The downside of this is that there will be exposure to digital noise. Which is similar to grain in traditional photography – and tends to be somewhat undesirable for using higher ISO settings. For sharper images use ISO ratings of 50 – 200 and no higher. 

So the higher the ISO rating the greater the amount of digital noise that will occur on your photos. 

There are positive sides to ISO settings in that it allows you to keep pace with the changing light levels while avoiding unnecessary noise and exposure problems. There are also some very good 'noise reduction programmes such as that in Photoshop that will smooth out much of the unsightly graininess. we must not lose track of its advantages in this debate over clarity or noise: the digital world has allowed us this ability to walk from an area where you may have been shooting in ISO50 and instantly change to another vehicle. The traditional method was to either carry extra cameras with faster film in it of to continually change films with the same camera (a very expensive method for most).

Please take on board when manipulating your photography with ISO settings that it can be a little cumbersome to 'get it right' first time: the level of digital noise on the image may be difficult to see on your camera's LCD screen for a number of reasons. I would also recommend setting your ISO one setting down from the highest your camera can go as your final shot. So if your highest ISO is 1600, set it to 800.

Next week I want to talk to you about one of my beginners courses I did some time ago and what we actually learned from the day's events. This will give each of you some idea of how my courses are conducted and a taste of how things are structured.

TILL NEXT WEEK - Have Fun