Tuesday, January 24, 2012

ISO, What is It?

ISO, what is that? What does it do? What in the world does it stand for? Well first, it stands for International Organization for Standardization an organization based in Switzerland. They apparently set many standards for measurement, one of which is light sensitivity. That is what ISO is, the measurement of light sensitivity of your cameras sensor.
The higher the ISO number setting the more sensitive your sensor is to light. The exact opposite can be said for lower ISO settings. Usually you would use a higher number to gain faster shutter speeds in lower light situations. Lower numbers would be used outside on sunny days. Generally, the lowest you can go is 100, however some cameras go down to 50.
The draw back with higher ISO settings is that as the number gets higher images start to look grainy, that is digital noise. Most people seem to leave the camera set in auto mode, which lets the camera set the ISO. The camera will try to select the lowest number but many cameras let you select your ISO. I encourage you play around with your settings and happy shooting!  

No comments:

Post a Comment