heart of PHOTO
Photos and photography tips from a beginner learning

Today I want to bring up something that is so dreadful that it might actually kill you while reading. Nah, just kidding, but perhaps paying attention to this will spare your photos this dreadful fate.

So what am I talking about? Yeah, digital noise. That is probably one of my worst enemies so far, not counting bad focus. But by learning a little about ISO might spare some of your lovely pictures.

To start with, what is ISO?
ISO is how sensitive your camera will be to the light around you. A high ISO means your camera is more sensitive to the light and thus can better take photos in the dark. A lower ISO, as you probably already figure means that your camera is less sensitive to light. And today lets go into the advantage of not making your camera to sensitive to that light.

To put it short, the more sensitive your camera is to light, the more likely it is to cause some bizarre side-effects to your photos; what we’d like to call digital noise.

So yeah, I’ve got to tell you, I learn something new daily. And I suppose I can still call myself somewhat of a beginner. So, up till now all ISO was to me, was a darker or brighter photo, not knowing there was a lot more to it; this noise. So while I perhaps got the brightness I wanted, I the same time was getting noise without knowing why. Reading the manual and then experimenting some I was able to grasp that ISO was more then I initially had imagined.

So I tried reducing the ISO and I was able to perform about the same quality, if not better in some cases, and at the same time remove that bizarre digital noise. Take a look at these two pictures and you can get an idea what I’m talking about here:

Photo taken with 800 ISO

Photo taken with 200 ISO

As you can see, not only did the noise get reduced, but I also managed to get a nicer color on the photo by lowering my ISO. To me it is really amazing how you can increase the quality of a picture, or ruin it if you prefer, by a simple change in the settings of your camera. And every time you manage to increase the quality of your pictures you feel so much more satisfied with yourself and your performance.

Have you any experience with noise yourself? And did keeping ISO in mind help you out making your photo a bit better? I’d love to hear about it.