Hi this is Marcin Lewandowski and you're watching AdoramaTV. In this
episode I'll tell you a little bit about combining ISO and shutter speed to get
desired effect in all different situations that you might encounter.
More often than not, choosing your ISO level and shutter speed is either a technical
choice or aesthetics choice.
What I mean technical choice is when you either have to freeze the action or you
don't
and when I talk aesthetical choice, is do you mind getting a lot of noise and
grain or do you have to get a clear image that will be blown out to a really,
really big size? You can use a very high ISO images online without really not
seeing the grain.
Please remember that if you use very low ISO, you get much more deals
in the photograph which means you can crop it really tight and not even for
print, but you can use tiny pieces of your images for online use and you will
have all the details perfectly clear.
In some situations, resolving your ISO conundrum is as simple as having a
tripod or not having a tripod. If you have a tripod - simple resolution - just get
a little bit slower shutter speed and you can keep your ISO very low and
get a completely grainless photograph.
If you, however, don't have a tripod, just bump the ISO. The grain will increase
as well, but at the same time you can hand
held shoot a pretty badly lit thing. If you can get away with it in poorly lit
situations, mainly because you don't have to catch some action and freeze it,
use your tripod, a little bit longer exposure and way lower ISO.
In that case, you will be able to print the images and they're going to look
much more beautiful. If you cannot because you have to freeze the action
and you have to catch the movement, then use higher ISO, just try to keep it as low as
possible.
Once we have our technical conundrum resolved, we can concentrate on the
aesthetic aspects of the photographs we are to create. Bumping your ISO to a very
very high level, can create what we call noise in digital, but the same
noise in analog photography is grain and grain can look really beautiful.
So when you find a lot of red dots or even some banding on your very high ISO
images,
why not turn it black and wide? This in turn can create a very, very nice
aesthetic of this kind of rough feel look. At the same time,
don't get constrained with using black and white and grainy imagery - only
when you have to.
Why don't you bump your ISO as high as you can in the middle of the day and
then turn the black and white and see if that aesthetic looks for you.
On top of everything that I mentioned, please keep in mind that you can get away with much
higher ISO when you're only using your images online, like social media or your
own personal website, but if you want to print them,
always keep your ISO as low as you can unless it's your aesthetical choice to have grainy images.
Another situation that might come up is that you simply want to use a
longer exposure, which means that you shouldn't use a very high ISO, because simply
you will over expose your photographs.
Choosing the right ISO/shutter speed combination, can be driven by either
purely aesthetical reasoning or by technical difficulties,
but remember that the final look of the photograph and the choice you make is
entirely up to you.
Thanks for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. Subscribe to AdoramaTV
channel on Youtube for much more
and remember to check out the Adorama Learning Center for some really cool
tips and tutorials.
This was Marcin Lewandowski for AdoramaTV. See you soon.