Learning to control the exposure of your photography can be quite a complex task. Sure, there might be a setting somewhere, likely conveniently labelled 'EV', and increasing the value will cause your images to become brighter, while decreasing the value will cause them to become much darker. However, fine-tuning your exposure is actually an incredibly complex procedure that requires knowledge of how settings like aperture and shutter speed expose the camera sensor to more light, and today, we're going to be looking at how ISO settings fit into the equation.
This One Goes Up To Eleven
Put in the simplest terms possible, the ISO (a name taken from the Greek word isos, meaning equal) of your camera directly controls the amount of light your sensor is exposure too by either amplifying or weakening the signal it outputs. The result is a dramatic shift in exposure; high ISO, bright image, low ISO, dim image. Unfortunately, though, as with the other two exposure settings, there is a drawback to increasing the ISO.
Computers Aren't All That Just Yet
When you use your ISO to adjust your exposure, you're not actually increasing the amount of light that the sensor is receiving, you're only amplifying the signal it's outputting. As a result, any imperfections in the initial image will be amplified as well, and this becomes something known as 'digital noise'. When you try to artificially brighten a photo, you're trying to create data that just isn't there to begin with, and the result will be a little incomplete, or noisy.
Is There Anything That Can Be Done?
Computers aren't able to entirely denoise an image at this stage, so if you want a brighter image but don't want the noise that will come with it, you're going to need to adjust the other two exposure settings instead of your ISO. Sadly, that might mean you'll need to compromise between how bright the final picture will be, how much motion blur will be present, what the depth of field will look like, and how grainy it may be, though that is a struggle that we will further look at in the future with the exposure triangle. For now, it's enough to understand that altering the ISO of your image will result in digital noise, and there's no simple way to fix it.
Compromise By Reaching Out To Someone Who Understands Exactly What They're Doing
At the end of the day, learning how to take your own pictures is difficult and time-consuming, and if you have a child, you may not have lots of time to make sure you're able to take perfect pictures to document their journey growing up. Luckily, you don't have to be the one to provide all of their childcare photography, thanks to Fotek. You can rely on our team to produce a gorgeous set of photos for you at any time. To speak with our team about how we can help you with all preschool photography in Sydney, contact us here.