Comments on: Photography Basics 2: What is ISO or ASA – Camera/Film Sensitivity AKA Filmspeed

By: Adam Parker

Adam Parker — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:33:09 +0000

Great writeup, this is a good place for beginning photographers to come and learn more about their camera. Balancing all the configuration of a camera takes practice and time to master. Between white ballance, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, RAW/jpg, etc., the more references the better.

You did an excellent job illustrating the differences between the ISO values regarding sensitivity and grain . Only when photographers learn how/when to adjust the various settings on their camera will they have accurate expectations and adequate results come from their shoots.

Here is one more article covering ISO, it’s benefits and a description of how/what the ISO values represent.
http://blogs.adamparkerphotography.com/blog/What-does-the-ISO-setting-on-my-camera-do/16/

By: ShaolinTiger

ShaolinTiger — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:52:02 +0000

krutika chaturvedi: It stands as correct, you don’t go shooting at ISO800 in bright daylight, or ISO100 in pitch black (without a tripod). If possible always shoot at the lowest ISO your camera allows, but if the shutter speed is too low you have to increase the ISO to reduce the chance of handshake.

By: krutika chaturvedi

krutika chaturvedi — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:13:23 +0000

heyy the data you gave was informative but the statements you used are contradictiong each other, for eg. you say that Rule of thumb for ISO is to use lower ISO all the time but then you also mention that if higher shutter speed is required which helps the image not becoming blurred needs higher ISO.

By: ShaolinTiger

ShaolinTiger — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:55:09 +0000

Alex: You’re correct, that was a typing mistake on my part. Lower ISO gives slower shutter speed, higher ISO gives faster shutter speed. I have amended that sentence in the post – Thanks!

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:52:19 +0000

It is a very nice article but some paragraphs confused me.
For example the first line of the 4th paragraph when it says:

“The basic rule would be a higher ISO gives a lower shutter speed…”

Don’t you think that higher ISO gives faster shutter speed? Higher ISO setting makes the image sensor(talking about digital cameras) more sentive to light so an image can be captured with a quick shutter.
I am thinking again and again and cannot understand how a higher ISO gives lower shutter speed!..

Please correct me if I am missing something. I am not a professional photographer at all.

Thank you so much…

By: ShaolinTiger

ShaolinTiger — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:36:28 +0000

Intensecure: Thanks bro I’ll look for that version, all in the same of trials of course

By: Intensecure

Intensecure — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:43:29 +0000

@ ST – The trial versions from DxO, from 3.0 to 4.0 themselves were very buggy, would only process about half my pictures correctly. I think their trial software still sucks AFAIK.
I have a copy (and yes, I admit a “copy”) of Elite Pro 3.5, which is rock solid and processes everything perfectly. The changes that it makes to perspective distortion from the zoom is simply fantastic! It makes my FZ30 twice the camera that it was before.

By: ShaolinTiger

ShaolinTiger — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:27:02 +0000

Intensecure: Aye the only real problem with Panasonic cams, it’s even present in their first SLR, although it’s not SO bad. Yah DxO is excellent, will be including it in the comparison I think. Not sure if I have a working version though.

Albert: Thanks man

Neat Image is not bad in the way it works, especially how it can read profiles from the EXIF and match the predefined parameters for each camera you have at each ISO. I don’t particularly like the way it does noise reduction though, some others are better. Will do some comparisons later.

By: Silencers

Silencers — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:01:50 +0000

Albert: I have to agree on the point on NeatImage, but sometimes I just have to rely on it when processing noisy images in bulk. Makes for a good mass resampling tool, too.

By: Albert Ng

Albert Ng — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:44:58 +0000

Very well-written article with good examples!

Up until recently, even Canon compacts were actually 1/3rd of a stop more sensitive. Such inaccuracy was rampant.

I look forward to your noise-reduction methods, as I generally dislike the output of NeatImage.