Getting to know your camera’s sensitive side
Your camera is sensitive (and no, I don’t mean emotionally). Back in the day, ISO referred to “film speed” and film sensitivity to light. Now that we have reached the digital age, where many film cameras sit collecting dust on shelves, it’s a little different. In terms of digital photography, ISO levels control the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor to light. Setting your camera at a high ISO increases the sensitivity of the sensor, allowing it to pick up on and better utilize available light.
When is it beneficial? ISO can help when your exposure, aperture and shutter speed are having a disagreement (again, not of the emotional variety). For example, when your aperture is letting the most light in possible, and the correct shutter speed still results in a blurry or underexposed image, ISO is often a good go-to fix and can increase your control as a photographer. For example, it can help with brightening an underexposed photo, or give your camera the ability to quicken the shutter speed, thereby making it easier to freeze quickly moving subjects.
An easy fix, right? Wrong. The ability to adjust and raise ISO with modern camera technology is tempting, but not always advised. Cranking your ISO up too high will result in noise, which appears on images as a “speckled” effect, compromising the smooth look and crisp edges that we all strive for. For example, ever wonder why, when you take a photo on your Smartphone in a low-light situation (without flash), it doesn’t look quite as crisp and clear as when you take it in the daylight? This is the result of your camera phone increasing it’s ISO high enough so that its sensor can pick up on some of the very limited light the environment has provided. The same happens with DSLRs. Granted, this is an extremely simple explanation for the way light enters the camera.
I try my best while shooting with my DSLR to keep my ISO as low as possible. If you want to increase the image quality of your Smartphone photos and are not a fan of the flash provided, look for other nearby sources of light. Because, let’s be honest folks, that Smartphone flash we all know so well reflects off anything and everything, and makes most people look like a wild animal caught in the headlights.