ISO is…?

I know not everyone is a shutterbug. I also know that it doesn’t take a shutterbug to realize that you can’t shoot a basketball game in a dark gym without using the flash and having obnoxiously blurry and bright photographs. So, how do you fix that? Many people might cringe when they read this, but you switch your settings to manual.

I know, I know. What a crazy thing, when almost certainly you can get it with one of the built in settings. Well, you can try, but it’d be a lot easier in the long run to switch over to manual and adjust your ISO.

Okay, so you might be on my side, but you’re also probably still wondering what the heck that is. In short, ISO (also called ASA sometimes) refers to how light sensitive your film is. Yes, I did just say film. Even though 99% of photographers these days use digital cameras, ISO is still defined as “film speed.” Helpful tip: since hardly anyone uses film anymore, this idea of the “film” in your digital camera as the LCD screen that you use to see what you’re taking a picture of.

Now, how is all of this going to help you take a better picture in a darker situation? It’s simple, once you get the hang of it (and it will take some getting used to). High ISO’s (like 6400) absorb light faster, which means that in a dark room, you won’t have to stand still with your camera for 30 seconds.The down side to high ISO’s is that because the image is being produced so fast, it (the image) will get a little fuzzy. (Fun fact: the technical term for “fuzziness” is noise or grain. The higher the ISO, the more noise there is in the photograph.)

Of course, using lower ISO’s (like 100) absorbs light slower. This means that if you’re shooting the ocean waves on a ridiculously bright day (since water reflects light), you’d probably drop down to this ISO setting. This would also mean that your photo will be really sharp with attention to detail. Below you can see the difference (the photo on the left is at an ISO of 100 while the photo on the right is at an ISO of about 1600).

I should probably add that most cameras are programmed to an ISO of 400, which is good for any normal shooting. Also, most cameras can go as far as 800 without getting a lot of noise, so there’s no need to worry if all of your yearbook pictures are going to appear blurry.