ISO for Dummies. Not!
Wed, Mar 11, 2009
Well, we’ve mention about what ISO is all about and probably you might think that its way too much to remember. We understand that some of us are students and we have other things to remember, so, this time we’ve come out with a shortcut of ISO settings for you. What does it tell you?
- What ISO you should use
- When is it going to be used
Enough talk. Here it goes:
ISO 100
- To create motion blur
- Enables slow shutter speed
- Oh, sometimes it might get a bit sharp (less grainy/noise)
ISO 200
- Landscape mode (with noise free skies)
- Allow a bit faster shutter speed
- Freezing motion of water ripples

Photo by Mypoorbrain
ISO 400
- Reduce camera shake
- Versatile use as it allows more faster shutter speed
ISO 800
- Breathtaking portraits
- Sometimes, night shots

Photo by midorisyu
ISO1600
- Night photography (usually when taking pictures of buildings during the night) – like the garden city of lights!
- Fast shutter speed regardless the dark environment.
- But, please beware of the noise which some people hate and don’t understand
AUTO ISO
- The lazy bone but effective way when you don’t have much time to think about your camera settings.
- Ranges from ISO100 – ISO800 depends on camera.
Above all, we suggest you to take a walk and see how different ISO settings will effect your picture style and more important how your camera reflect to the changes.
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March 16th, 2009 at 7:56 AM
hm..
camner nk balance between noise dgn ISO yg kita nak.
i want my pictures as sharp as possible,
tapi kadang2 rase byk noise lak. huhuhu..
is it an acceptable trade off or is there somehow i can reduce noise
while maintaining sharpness.
-noobie @ Canon Powershot G9 user
March 16th, 2009 at 10:28 AM
to encik logamaya ; p
in my opinion when the condition of ambient (surrounding) light is unacceptable, i prefer to crank up the ISO, i prefer sharp pictures over blurred ones and dont mind the noise as you can always remove noise later on in post processing. this works especially well if you shoot in RAW format. the other option is by using a tripod and using a low ISO, and it works well wit non moving subjects. concert photography uses a mix of both id say coz of the action and sumtimes good static moments. it is a bit of a give and take thing actually. hope that helps bro : p papehal tanye lg
March 5th, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Really Good Articles/posts that you have on this site. Thanks