Manual Mode: ISO sensitivity



So far we have examined the effect of aperture and shutter speed with balancing exposure in manual mode. Today we introduce the 3rd factor in manual exposure: ISO sensitivity. What is ISO sensitivity? Simply put, it is a setting on your camera that controls how sensitive your camera is to light. ISO used to be assigned to a type of film sensitivity in the old days of film. You would put a specific ISO film in your camera that related to the kind of lighting you would be shooting in.

ISO settings are easy to figure out: the higher the number, the more sensitive the camera gets to light. Common ISO settings are: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, etc. The amount of change essentially doubles or cuts in half the light sensitivity. In practical use it let's look at a scenario:

I am in manual mode and I must have a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second and an aperture of F/2.8. When I use those settings, I find that I am getting photos that are slightly darker than I want. I look and see that my ISO setting is at 100. If I change my ISO setting to 200, I will have increased the amount of light my camera sees and get a brighter photo.

Balancing all three of these settings: Aperture, Shutter, and ISO is commonly done in manual mode and these settings are referred to as the "exposure triangle".  Your camera may either have an ISO-dedicated button, or you may find it in a menu. Either way, reading your manual will help you find this setting and how to change it.

One last thing: ISO has a "dark-side". You will find that as you increase your camera ISO you will also increase the amount of digital noise that you will see in your images. This appears usually around ISO 1600 on newer cameras. Some people don't like the digital noise or "grain", but others don't mind it. Just be aware that it exists.

Your assignment now is to play around with the ISO on your camera. See how it affects your exposure when you change it. 

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