Quick Newb Questions

Corbet · Oct 27, 2005

Alright, I am a newb when it comes to taking great photos. I have an Canon Powershot S1 IS, and I was wondering the following:

What is ISO Speed? Whats a recommended speed?
When it comes to aperature speed and shutter speed, what do you recommend for portraits? fast action?

jstuedle · Oct 27, 2005

ISO is the "speed" that the film or sensor accepts light. The faster the ISO or ASA (same thing to keep it simple) the less light to the film/sensor but the trade off is lower image quality in terms of either grain (film) or noise (digital).

For portraits, I would use a lower shutter speed to get more depth of focus.

For faster action use higher shutter speeds to freez the action but at the cost of wider apertures and lower depth of focus.

You will find photography is a series of trade offs. The key to good photography is understanding the relationships between shutter speed/aperture/ISO and how they each effect motion, depth of focus, and quality of image. Then you can move on to other things like composition, creativity, special effects, and so on. Good luck and post a few shots so we can see your progress.