Basic Photography | Why Using High ISO Does Matter

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Book Worm | 24mm | ISO 1600 | f/2.8 | 1/25

I believe that most of of you knows that the best ISO is always the lowest ISO like ISO 100 and below and using High ISO should be always your last resort when using Low ISO can’t do the job for whatever reason. As many of you already know, ISO number refer to the sensitivity of the sensor towards the light, the higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor towards the light and this will give you the advantage to use higher shutter speed compared to if you use Lower ISO which will require more light because it is less sensitive towards the light.

The only difference when shooting a picture with film and digital camera is that, in digital camera we can change the ISO to our liking depending on the lighting condition  but we can’t do the same with film camera because we will be stuck with the same ISO depending on the film that we use. If we use Film ISO 100, then we will stuck with that ISO for the entire rolls of film but in digital camera, we can change the ISO frame by frame. One frame shooting at ISO 100 and shoot the next frame with ISO 2000.

So why using High ISO does matter? Because sometimes using High ISO is the only answer, take for an example if you required to shoot indoor sports event, you are prohibited to use flash for the entire games, so you will be required to use High ISO in order to captured the sports at its best. If you have been to theatre lately, you can’t use flash there also, the only way to get the pictures during theatre performance is to shoot it with High ISO. Basically any indoors activity require shooting with High ISO if using Flash is not an option.

About the photograph above where I shoot my son reading a book, yes I can use flash there, it’s my home, nobody will scold me if I use flash there but I don’t want to use flash, simply because I know that the flash will only kills the mood. It was quite dark inside my house, I have to use ISO 1600 to get the shot and very slow shutter speed of 1/25.

To those of you who like to spend most of your time shooting inside a photography studio or like to use flash all the time, or hard core strobist fans, then you don’t need to be too concern about High ISO things, simply because most of the times you will be using very Low ISO for your photographic endeavor. So who should be concern about High ISO? It is for those of you who like to shoot with natural light or available light and hate using flash, your camera capability shooting at High ISO with minimal noise should be your main concern.

Sometimes using High ISO is an option but sometimes using High ISO is only the answer to get the shots.

*If you are interested about the color tone of the photographs above, just hit the banner below…

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