Digital Photography

ISO (International Organization for Standardization)

Quality of a photo can be greatly be affected by the ISO setting on a photo.

ISO is how sensitive to light your camera's sensor will be. In the days of film, this would be the speed of the film you were using. A high ISO means that your camera will be more sensitive to light and a lower ISO means you camera will be less sensitive to light.

If you are in a dark room you may want to set your ISO to a higher number like 400 to compensate for the lack of light in the room. That way, your film will be faster and absorb more light. If you are outside on a sunny day you may want your ISO to be lower, around 100 or less, because you won't need to have fast film.

A higher ISO will increase the noise or graininess of your picture. So, there may be a lack of light in the room and you will have to compensate for it by pumping up your ISO. You will be sacrificing film quality for light.

A good camera will be able to use a higher ISO and still achieve a clean soft photo instead of a grainy photo. However, most point and shoot cameras have trouble with high ISO settings. Point and shoot cameras usually auto set the ISO to what it thinks is best but this may not always be the desired effect.

Changing your ISO may require changing your shutter speed or aperture in order to get a good quality photo. ISO can be a good way to get the exposure you want and still be able to use the shutter and aperture setting you need to get the effects you were wanting on your photo.

Here is an example: you want to us a faster shutter speed to help steady your hand held shot but you also need to close your aperture as much as possible so everything is in focus. You take a photo and find your photo is under exposed. Simple solution up your ISO, now you can use the settings you want and still get a great photo.