Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Understanding ISO

Understanding ISO is the last step in our journey to understanding exposure (we discussed aperture and shutter speed here and here).  ISO can be either the first, second, or last thing you do to ensure a properly exposed photograph, but I feel it is the easiest to grasp.

ISO refers to your camera's sensitivity to light.  Here are a few eloquent explanations found from some of my favorite photography sites.

How To Choose The Right ISO For My Digital Photography

Controlling the Faucet--Learning ISO

Understanding Exposure In Under 10 Minutes

The way I used to remember this was ISO 100 outside on a sunny day, ISO 1600 inside.  I had a cheat sheet similar to this (handwritten on a post-it) in my camera bag.  That way when I needed to make an adjustment to my exposure but wasn't able to sacrifice certain elements of my photograph (depth of field, shutter speed), I knew what else I could change to take a proper photograph.


So the question becomes, where do you start, what can you change, what are you willing to sacrifice?

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