The examples above show photos of Grogu and Darth Vader taken at multiple ISO values, with their aperture and shutter speed at f/4 and 1/50th respectively. The room they were taken in was lit with a minimus amount of daylight pouring in from the left side.
Image 1: ISO100
Image 2: ISO400
Image 3: ISO1000
Image 4: ISO5000
Image 5: ISO128000
Image 6: ISO25600
Image 7: ISO51200
Take note of the differences in exposure between each photo and amount of grain as you raise the ISO. There’s a simple trade off you’ll need to make in order to get your desired effect.
Transcript
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Richard J Nieves Photography Podcast. I'm Richard J Nieves, portrait and wedding photography, and owner of Richard J Nieves Photography located in the Bronx in New York City. It's great to have you here, ready to listen, learn and use the information we're putting out here for you today.
On today's episode, we'll be going over the ISO, the third portion of the exposure triangle, and probably one of the more frustrating, but useful aspects of photography that can truly make or break an image. The values of ISO usually range from 100 to 51,200, like my Nikon Z6, but it may change a little from camera to camera.
The ISO controls your sensor's sensitivit to light. The smaller the number, the less sensitive it is, whereas it is incredibly sensitive at higher ranges. The ISO is the biggest factor to consider when choosing your time of photographing. If you're shooting at night or in a dark space, expect your ISO value to range fairly high. That'll allow your camera to essentially see at night. If you're shooting in a dimly lit space at ISO 100, you're probably going to get a pretty dark image.
Now, if you're shooting in a space with tons of available light, whether that is daylight or a flash, you're going to want to keep the ISO at a fairly low value, like a hundred, the negative aspect of ISO was the fact that when you cranked up that ISO value, you start to introduce a lot of noise into the image.
Noise can make your image look grainy and sharpness is affected heavily in a negative way. With modern cameras, high ISO values are not a major issue, but with older cameras or less advanced cameras, they just don't have the best ISO performance. In specific use cases like shooting a wedding or a concert in a dark venue using only available light, your ISO will be high out of necessity. If you're shooting product or portraits in a studio, where you have access to powerful lighting tools, you'll see your ISO values go way down. Thankfully, most modern cameras have the capability to control ISO or pretty much all settings automatically for you.
They're smart enough to know when enough is enough, but you can also set parameters to fit your photography needs. I'll have samples in the blog post for this episode, over on my blog, www.richardjandphoto.com/blog. Please follow me on Instagram @Rich_Photog.
If you'd like to schedule your next portrait session or give us the honor of photographing your wedding. Visit my website, www.richardjnphoto.com or email Katherine@richardjnphoto.com where my partner will guide you along your journey with us. Don't forget to keep creating, stay humble, and enjoy the journey.