Iso setting on camera when to use which one

To avoid noise, you might consider dropping the shutter speed instead of boosting the ISO. But if you do decide to go that route, make sure you get a tripod or use proper handholding technique. So pick up your camera. Practice working in difficult situations. When do you raise your ISO? Share your thoughts in the comments below! When shooting race cars, the light might be good — but it often pays to increase the ISO, regardless.

Note that the exposures are identical when I boosted the ISO, I raised the shutter speed to keep the brightness levels consistent. A concert is a classic low-light scenario where you need to increase the ISO.

A shot like this needs a deep depth of field. To maintain a narrow aperture while handholding, you can dial in a high ISO. A portrait in good light? High ISO camera settings is one of the main reasons for grainy images also referred to as being noisy.

Therefore a high ISO should always be the last resort. The correct ISO setting you need to set, should be a mix between speed and photo quality.

You need to be able to weigh up the available light, then set the lowest possible ISO setting that allows you to shoot quick enough so not to blur the subject.

Over on our facebook page this week we had quite a few questions regarding correct ISO setting. What is ISO? How does it affect photos? In which situations should we use different ISO settings? These questions are best answered by studying the example images below.

Examples photos of numerous ISO settings. Shown below are several photos for you to visually learn from. Lake reflections photographed with ISO taken during the day time in perfect lighting conditions. During the day time in perfect sunny conditions always set your ISO to This correct ISO setting is fast in these situations, even for hand held shots, which will result in the best image quality possible. A bird photographed in shady conditions with an ISO setting of During the daytime in sunny conditions when photographing a subject covered by the shade of a tree, I always set my ISO to for starters.

By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. ISO is the one camera setting you can change without it affecting how your image looks too much , at least for lower values. At higher values, visible digital noise can become an issue.

Every camera has a base ISO. At every other value, the camera amplifies the signal generated by light hitting the sensor which in turn amplifies the amount of digital noise in the image. Since you get the highest quality images at the base ISO, it should be your default for any situation you can use it.

Digital cameras are incredible. If you need to use a faster shutter speed or narrower aperture than your base ISO will allow, you can confidently increase the ISO to around without it having too much of an effect on the image.

The best thing to do is play around with your camera and see how it operates at different values. This range is kind of the highest you can push your camera in most situations without making a definite sacrifice in image quality. Increasing ISO to this point is a tradeoff. Still, a good photo is better than no photo. Once you start to push past ISO , you will see a dramatic increase in noise. As always, the exact value depends on your camera but, at some point, the images will become unusable, at least for professional contexts.

I did a series of night portraits at high ISO values and, because I embraced the noisy look, I was able to shoot them at ISO without worrying too much. The other option is to look at other ways of reducing noise. Astrophotographers regularly shoot multiple photos at ISO and then combine use them in post-production to offset the noise from the other images.

Once you see a visible decrease in image quality, you need to start thinking more carefully. Newer cameras offer a lot more flexibility when it comes to ISO. First of all, they are capable of taking pictures at higher ISOs. Cameras now will routinely shoot at ISO 25, and higher , which was almost unheard of just five or six years ago.

Secondly, when newer cameras do shoot at higher ISOs, they produce less digital noise. Check out this chart from DxO Mark showing the ability of cameras to shoot at higher ISOs without being ruined by noise:. The chart shows the maximum useable ISO for given cameras introduced over the last 12 years. Notice how the dots are higher on the chart the further you go to the right.

The newer cameras are to the right of the graph and the tests show that they can shoot at higher ISO values with less digital noise. In addition, seemingly mindful of the desire of photographers to change their ISO more frequently, camera manufacturers have made it easier to change ISO on the fly.

As a result, it is easier to change the ISO and it truly has status as an equal partner in the exposure triangle. Even beyond cameras, however, we now have a much greater ability to remove digital noise from our pictures. Much of this improvement is thanks to Lightroom. With a quick slider adjustment, we can eliminate much digital noise from our pictures, without making them blurry.

Further, if you have a severe noise problem, there are dedicated plug-ins like Noiseware and Photo Ninja , designed to reduce noise in your pictures, which have continued to improve. As a result of all of this, you have a lot more flexibility when it comes to ISO. But how does this really impact your photography?