ISO

ISO is the camera’s sensitivity to light. It can range from 100 to 6400. If you use a higher ISO, say 3200 or 6400, then the image will be grainier. This is often referred to as ‘noise’. The lower the ISO, say 100 or 200, the more fine detail and less noise the image will have.  

If you are taking a picture in a dark environment then you need to use a high Iso. If you are taking a picture in a bright environment, then you need to use a low ISO. Here are some of my examples of ISO settings:

Here is an example if using different ISO settings. On the left we can see a clear bright image that isn’t too dark or too light; this is because I used an ISO of around 400 as the environment I was taking the photo in was quite bright.

On the right we can see the same image, however it is slightly too dark. This is because I set the ISO at around 800, which was too high for a bright environment.

This proves that it essential to set the ISO to the right setting to get a correct white balance.

Here is another example. It was quite dark at the underground car park, so therefore, I needed to use a high ISO to make sure you could see the final image. Above, I used an ISO of around 1600 and the picture is clear and you can see the definition of the cars and road markings. Below, I used a low ISO, of around 400 to show how if you set to too low in a dark environment then the final image will come out dark and you won’t be able to see much detail within the image.