Foto Friday – Keep it on the down low…

We have been having a blast teaching our Digital Photography Master Class. In this 4-session class we are exploring the finer points of exposure, photography inside and outside, and post-processing your images. We’ll be running it again soon – make sure to stop by to see when!

One great example we made for the class is a comparison of using your camera at a low ISO versus a high ISO. ISO is the “speed of the film” – basically how sensitive the camera is to light. At low ISO the camera is not too sensitive (so you need lots of light to get good pictures) but the pictures are clear and sharp. As the light gets dimmer, increasing the ISO lets you keep shooting but it makes the pictures grainy and “noisier”. It’s kind of like taking your car stereo and cranking up the volume – the music is louder, but it has a crackle to it and gets distorted. That’s the noise.

Now here’s that sample – the left is a picture done at 100 ISO and the right is 800 ISO. Look at the vast difference in these two pictures:

Wow – really look at the shadow areas and how speckled and noisy it gets. The picture is less sharp, and gets the weird colored dots in the shadows. (To really see it click on the picture of enlarge it).

So keep your ISO as low as possible for the lighting conditions you are under to keep those pictures sharp.

Now a tease – once our class is over I’ll be doing a series to 3 blog posts about the Exposure Triangle- ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture. We’ll explore in-depth how each part of the triangle affects your pictures and which one to adjust to get the look you want. So you don’t miss them, make sure you are subscribed to our blog. If you’re not, enter your email at the top right of this page.

Thanks for reading and leave us a comment – did you know about this difference?

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