Reader Q&A: What is ISO?


Photographer: Al Jurina

One of the often overlooked settings in a camera is the ISO setting. This specific setting can really change the way that you photograph in less-than-ideal lighting situations.

ISO is a setting in your camera (some cameras have a dedicated button, others have it in the menu settings), that allows you to increase or decrease the image sensor's sensitivity to light. For those of you who have shot film, you may remember purchasing ISO 200, or ISO 400 film before, with designations as "all purpose" or "outdoor use". These films were rated in terms of their light sensitivity. The benefit to digital, is that your camera sensor can actually "adjust" it's sensitivity to adapt to the environment. A general guideline on which ISO settings to use are:

ISO 100 = outdoors in bright sunlight
ISO 200 = cloudy days, but still recommend outdoor use
ISO 400 = indoors/outdoors, fair amounts of light
ISO 800 = indoor use, with decent amounts of light
ISO 1600 and above = really awful lighting conditions only


Despite the general guidelines, you can usually just pick the settings that work for you. There is a tradeoff in increasing the ISO number: digital noise. The higher that number, the more digital noise you will get in your image. Here's another comparison to understand it:

Low ISO: need lots of light, but get best image quality with least amount of digital noise
High ISO: need less light, but image noise and quality will degrade as number goes up


What is considered High ISO?  Well, today's digital cameras are getting better with this, but my personal opinion is that anything above ISO 400 is starting to get up there. The important thing to do is to experiment with the different ISO settings and see what works for you.


Lastly, I want to add that the only real reason that you would want to increase your ISO, is if your camera was giving you blurry photos from a slow shutter speed. Increasing your ISO allows your camera to "see" more light, and thus, increase the shutter speed. Your mileage may vary with this, but experimenting with these settings will help you to learn what ISO's are appropriate and when.

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