Day 5: Auto mode when the lights are low...er...no!

One does and learns, the wise men say and I certainly can see their point. As I had pointed out a few days earlier, I have been basically using my Canon EOS 600D DSLR in auto focus mode, letting the camera in effect decide what was good for me. However, after yesterday's talk of ISO and how a higher ISO worked better in relatively low light areas, I decided to try a bit of shooting while Anupama (that's my wife and resident photography wizard) and I were driving down to NOIDA from Delhi.

Now those who know the area will know that there is a large idol of the Hindu god, Lord Shiva, on the opposite side of the Great India Place (GIP) Mall in NOIDA. As luck would have it, our car was stuck in a small traffic jam just about a hundred yards from the idol. We could see the head of the idol quite clearly above the traffic and the city lights. I took out the camera, which was in auto mode, and took a snap. The flash went off pronto and the result was, well, not the greatest. Here, see for yourself (you can click on the image to see a much larger version):

Now, this would clearly not do. So I decided - very bravely - to shift to Program mode (marked by a P on the mode dial) with a higher ISO (800 in this case). I took a deep breath, and snapped - and the result frankly surprised me. There you go: (again, you can click on the image to see a much larger version)

As you can see, the image is much sharper and there are no blurs. All of which teaches me two lessons:

1. When the lights go down, perhaps auto mode is not REALLY the way to go
2. Boy, I do need to look more into this ISO and Program mode thing, especially for shooting at night

And, to use Steve Jobs' immortal expression, one more thing - geez, NOW I know why people are so crazy about DSLR cameras. I have never take a shot of that kind with my Nikon P100, which was a very decent prosumer, but was never capable of things like THIS.

Day 4: Jargon busting: What the blazes is ISO?

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:

• 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.