ISO Settings

The ISO setting is yet another term that has been carried across from film photography to world of digital cameras. This is with good reason because even though the process might be different, the ISO setting performs the same function whether your camera is digital or film. That is where the similarity ends.

A film camera does not have an ISO setting because the ISO value is a term that applies directly to the part of the camera that captures the light. In a film camera this would be the film, and the ISO is a value used to describe how sensitive the film is to light, this is also described as film speed. The higher sensitivity allows the photographer to shoot in lower light conditions at higher shutter speeds because the films higher sensitivity means it requires a shorter period of time to form the image.

With a digital camera the picture is captured by an image sensor which is built into the camera and not added or removed like film. As it is not a sensible option to be able to buy different types of sensor for your camera, the manufacturers have built in the ability to change the light sensitivity through a menu or dedicated button. High ISO settings in both film and digital cameras causes image artifacts or grain to appear in the resulting pictures. Image sensors are improving all the time, and as the camera makers learn to control the grain caused at high ISO settings, the ISO values available on new cameras is going up and up.

In this comparison both shots were taken 1 after the other within 30 seconds. The first image was shot with the flash to boost the dusk light. The second was shot with a high ISO value of 1600 and no flash. In the second picture the overall exposure throughout the image gives a far more pleasing result.

How and where to use a high ISO setting?
The lowest ISO value can be used to help create very clean and smooth images in good light conditions, but if the light is bad, say at dusk or indoors, and the limited range of the flash is not the best option, then using a high ISO value will allow the camera to capture the image without it. Although image artifacts or grain can become an issue with high ISO pictures, this should not be an excuse to not take any, it is always better to have grainy pictures than none at all, and with the power of todays image editing software noise and grain can be reduced to an exceptable level. Some pictures can actually look more hard hitting and effective with the grain enhanced to add gritty realism.

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