Natural and Available Light Portrait Photography | Why High ISO Matters

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Putra Mosque Putrajaya | ISO 2000 | f/5 | 1/100 | 24mm

Does Hight ISO Matters? You may get a different answers from one photographer to another, depending on whom you ask, depending on their chosen photographic genre. If you ask landscape photographers, they usually don’t bother so much about it because most of the times, they will be shooting on tripod with long exposure, they will use the Lowest ISO possible to get the best result and having a camera with the ability to shoot at High ISO is not their concern.

Same goes to fashion photographers who like to shoot in the studio for most of the times and on location where they usually will bring studio lighting with them or just use off-camera flash system, CLS or  Strobist. These photographers also don’t need to worry so much about High ISO since they also for most of the time rarely use High ISO, they like to use Low ISO because the lighting help them to get their subject properly exposed.

Those are just few example of the photographers who doesn’t really need to worry so much whether their camera have the capability to shoot at High ISO, they rarely need to use them. So who does need the High ISO? Natural light or Available light portrait photographer will need them, and maybe travel photographers who like to focus more on human interest in their photography than to focus more on interesting place or monument will greatly benefit having a camera with the capability shooting at High ISO with minimum noise. I will not go further about “Noise” issue here, since by now I believed most of you has already understood what “Digital Noise” is.

For the photograph above, I’ve to push the ISO to 2000 to get the shot, I can’t use ISO 100 or 200 to get the shot, it was quite dark there under the pink Putra Dome Mosque. The reason why I can’t use Low ISO is that, I will not be able to use fast enough shutter speed to get the shot if I were to use ISO 100, so I need to push the ISO that will give me faster shutter speed so I don’t have to worry about camera shake or blurry picture. You may ask, why I don’t use flash? My answer is that, I don’t like using flash for my family pictures. Actually this place is not suitable for flash photography because the flash will disturb the people praying there or those who meditate there.

My point here is that, having the camera that can shoot at High ISO with minimal noise does matters to those who like to shoot with natural light or just available light and to those of you who like to shoot in low lighting conditions without the help of the tripod. Take for an example a travel photographer, as mention before, travel photographer who like to shoot human interest like a monk meditating inside a monastery rarely use flash and in some part of the world, using flash is prohibited because the light will become a disturbance to the activity inside.

Shooting at High ISO has it downfall which is “Noise”, your picture will not look smoother, your picture will be a little bit grainy but thanks to the new technology today, we can safely shoot at High ISO with minimal noise but I would like to remind you especially those who are new with photography that, we should only bump up the ISO or use the High ISO as the last resort. Just because your camera can shoot at ISO 12000, doesn’t mean that you have to use that setting. Always start with the Lowest ISO possible and only increase the ISO when you think that the Lowest ISO does not permit you to use fast shutter speed that will prevent a camera shake.

The choice of the shutter speeds also depend on the activity of the person being photographed. If you shoot a person sit still praying in the mosque, maybe you can use much more slower shutter speed than shooting a picture of a Whirling Dervish Dance  in the dimly lit indoor theater. The choice of shutter speeds and the choice of ISO often goes hands in hands. Sometimes having the right camera will give you more flexibility to manifest your vision. If you asking me, does High ISO matters to me? My answer is, Yes, it does matters.