Guide on ISO-speeds. (with link)

[kasperkjaerphoto]

Hello

I have now created my first guide, this is on ISO-speeds and how they affect your photos.
Many people don't know what the ISO-setting does on their camera, but it is really important, if you're in doubt, check out the guide, if you know exactly what it's about, have a look and confirm your knowledge and maybe give a comment.

Kasper Kjær Photography: ISO-speeds: What is the difference?

(Thank you to all who gave me input on the guide, while I was writting it)

 

[Overread14 2]

I still think you're overplaying the storage space and battery drain aspects here - considering the price of memory cards and the fact that you can easily take several 100 shots on even a 4GB card when shooting JPEG and even in RAW you can get 100s out.

Also your series of shots that you show here is suggesting that the image quality gets sharper as you use higher and higher ISOs. Your ISO 100 shot above looks significantly softer than your ISO 1600 shot so either your aperture or your focus point has shifted as you have taken the series - giving people a missunderstanding.

Furthermore in your article you start to talk about ideal ISOs and shutter speeds, however you make no mention that the relationship between those shutter speeds and the ISO that you have used is linked directly to the lighting that you had at the time for those shots and the fact that you were tripod shooting. This makes the advice pointless for any other situation outside of the single example you present.

In addition you've overlooked the fact of shutter speed in relation to motion blur of the subject itself, you mention blur form handshake, but not from a moving subject - which is often a primary reason to raise the ISO to get a higher shutter speed.

 

[kasperkjaerphoto]

I value your feedback, but this was not aimed to be a guide that could uncover all the mysteries and methods of the ISO-speed.
I merely wanted to debunk the myth that ISO1600 is great at all times, because that is the impression that many seem to get when they go from point-and-shoot to a DSLR.
I am aware that photographers and semi-pros will get nothing out of the guide.

 

[Formatted]

Depends what you are doing really, I generally shoot with high depth of field and don't often shoot with less than 1/60 of a shutter normally at least 1/200. So if I need to shoot at 1600 ISO I'll shoo at 1600 ISO. If I don't need that much ISO to get my shutter speed I'll decrease the ISO.

It really depends on what you want, out of a picture for its sports so need a sharp image in low light.

 

[Overread14 2]

I merely wanted to debunk the myth that ISO1600 is great at all times, because that is the impression that many seem to get when they go from point-and-shoot to a DSLR.

But if your high ISO 100% crop is showing sharper quality than your low ISO 100% crop then your article is working against your overall intentions. Also by limiting it to an indoor product shoot in lower lighting you've skipped over all the examples of possible situations where using a nice low ISO 100 is going to give a good sharp result. In fact you almost advise against low ISO by showing those example shutter speeds and ruling ISO 100 out so fast.

 

[JClishe]

I merely wanted to debunk the myth that ISO1600 is great at all times,

I didn't realize that that myth even existed.

 

[Josh66]

I merely wanted to debunk the myth that ISO1600 is great at all times,

I didn't realize that that myth even existed.

Yeah, I think if that was an actual myth - I would have heard of it before...

Usually, people say to use the lowest possible ISO (what they really should say is the base ISO of the camera, which isn't always the lowest).



For your example pictures, something where the majority of the frame was not BLACK would have worked much better. You can barely even see the noise.

Use something that's going to actually show the differences in noise levels.

In your other example picture, they're just too small to see anything (and there is still a lot of black).

As it can clearly be seen, the ISO100 to ISO400 are pretty clear, but anything higher than that, gives a lot of noise.

It cannot be clearly seen...