The Camera - ISO

Camera ISO's are one of the top three most important concepts in photography. ISO in simple terms is a camera setting on DSLR camera that allows for bighting or darkening of the scene when a photo is being taken. A low ISO's can also be useful to a photographer who is trying to capture a scene that is already bright, while a high ISO can come in handy when the photo is very dark to begin with.

What is the visual difference between low & high ISO?

The major drawbacks to using a high ISO is the photos you capture with have more grain or (noise) present in your photos. Even though you can capture more light with a higher ISO, it isn't always the best setting to use with different lighting. Having a low ISO will allow you to take a photo with more clarity compared to using a high ISO. This doesn't mean that using a low ISO's doesn't have it's own drawbacks as well. One of the major disadvantages of using a lower ISO would be the small amount of light that is captured when taking the photo.

When should you use a lower or higher ISO?

It is most common that you would use a lower ISO when you have lots of light in the scene where the subject is being taken. If you have less light available, it is more appropriate to set the camera to a higher ISO. Every situation has different levels of brightness, so when choosing the right ISO, it is important for a photographer to experiment with different ISO's first.

Low vs high ISO - Visuals

Today I went outside in my backyard and to photograph a bird bath at two different ISO's. The photo on the left was taken at a low ISO, while the other photo off to the right was taken at a higher ISO. My DSLR camera is capable of capturing ISO's from 100-6400.

The photo that is off to the left was taken at a low ISO at 200, while the photo off to the right was taken at a high ISO at 3200. When comparing both of the photos, you can see how much clarity the photo has off to the left, while off to the right is a very noisy and grainy photo taken at a lower quality.