When I started this site I wrote a post about what ISO is and I stated that you should “always try and use the lowest sensitivity you can get away with”. At the time of writing, the sophistication of camera sensors meant that you would start to see noise at fairly low ISO settings so anything above 400 ISO and the chances were that you would clearly see noise in your images.
However, times have changed and technology has moved on. Digital camera sensors have come along way and the pressures to get the best quality image possible has meant that the usable ISO range of the latest digital sensors is much higher giving the photographer much more flexibility enabling you to take photos in much trickier conditions that was possible several years ago.
So while my statement of using the lowest sensitivity you can still stands, you now have greater options. Add to this the better noise reduction you can get in software like Adobe Lightroom, Aperture, Noise Ninja, DFine and Neat Image, you can easily produce clean images that can be printed to a large scale without a lot of effort.
So, don’t be afraid to push the ISO setting up if you are struggling to get the shutter speed or aperture that you want, you may find you don’t even notice the difference in the final image.
What ISO do you shoot at? Have you got any examples of high ISO photography? Leave a comment below and share your ISO tips.
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