It has been a while (almost a week) since I used my DSLR, thanks to a whole flurry of activity (not least the passing away of Steve Jobs, one of my idols). And when I got back, brandishing the camera with ill-justified confidence, the first thing one of my friends told me was "Ah, your DSLR?Awesome. You can play around with the ISO settings now and get great pictures."
Which was wonderful to know. Yes, I could now play around with ISO settings. Except that I did not know WHAT an ISO was or why I should be bothering about its setting. It was one of the words that showed up on the menu screen of my EOS 600D, but I did not know why it mattered.
Well, after a bit of a knowledge session with a few gentlemen who know photography, I think I might have the answer.
Evidently, ISO was a term that originated in the time of film cameras and measured the film's sensitivity to light. Well, not too many people use film now, but ISO speed (often shown in terms of 100, 400, 800 - remember those figures you used to see on camera films) is a measure of how sensitive your camera's image sensor is to light. All right, I know this is more jargon and I promise to talk about image sensor next. But in very simple terms, the higher the ISO, the lower the light conditions in which you could go about snapping pictures and get results. Similarly, if the light conditions are good, you need a low ISO.
In Auto Focus mode, the camera pretty much determines the ISO speed on its own, so you do not need to worry too much about it. But then heck, if you are going to be using the camera in Auto Focus mode all the time, you do not really need a DSLR. In fact, tweaking ISO settings is a lot easier in DSLRs.
There are no hard and fast rules about what ISO speed works in which conditions but a few rule of thumbs, according to the worthies I talked to, are:
Just remember one thing, the higher your ISO speeds go, the more "grainy" your images are likely to get - that is the price you pay for more sensitivity to light. The lower the ISO speed, the clearer your pictures are likely to be.
Ah, so THAT is why so many good photographers prefer to shoot in daylight!Now to try it out. Stay tuned. I am going out of Auto Focus mode.
Which was wonderful to know. Yes, I could now play around with ISO settings. Except that I did not know WHAT an ISO was or why I should be bothering about its setting. It was one of the words that showed up on the menu screen of my EOS 600D, but I did not know why it mattered.
Well, after a bit of a knowledge session with a few gentlemen who know photography, I think I might have the answer.
Evidently, ISO was a term that originated in the time of film cameras and measured the film's sensitivity to light. Well, not too many people use film now, but ISO speed (often shown in terms of 100, 400, 800 - remember those figures you used to see on camera films) is a measure of how sensitive your camera's image sensor is to light. All right, I know this is more jargon and I promise to talk about image sensor next. But in very simple terms, the higher the ISO, the lower the light conditions in which you could go about snapping pictures and get results. Similarly, if the light conditions are good, you need a low ISO.
In Auto Focus mode, the camera pretty much determines the ISO speed on its own, so you do not need to worry too much about it. But then heck, if you are going to be using the camera in Auto Focus mode all the time, you do not really need a DSLR. In fact, tweaking ISO settings is a lot easier in DSLRs.
There are no hard and fast rules about what ISO speed works in which conditions but a few rule of thumbs, according to the worthies I talked to, are:
- In bright daylight, an ISO speed of 100-200 works fine
- If it is evening time or overcast, an ISO speed of 400-800 should be handy
- If it is night or light conditions are not the greatest, an ISO speed of 1600 would be needed.
Just remember one thing, the higher your ISO speeds go, the more "grainy" your images are likely to get - that is the price you pay for more sensitivity to light. The lower the ISO speed, the clearer your pictures are likely to be.
Ah, so THAT is why so many good photographers prefer to shoot in daylight!Now to try it out. Stay tuned. I am going out of Auto Focus mode.
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