Photo Tips: ISO
ISO 1600 © Andrew Newson
I’m hoping to give you some photo tips on a regular basis that should help your photography and this time around we will be looking at ISO. These will be included in the newsletter and if you wish to sign up for that, you can do so here.
ISO refers to the sensitivity (to light) of the digital image sensor. This is also true of film, except it was the sensitivity of the emulsion on the film rather than the image sensor. Most people remember buying 35mm film when going on holiday. If you were planning a trip somewhere hot and sunny you would have probably bought a lower ISO rated film like 100 or 200 because you would have had more light to use.
The lower the ISO rating the more light that is needed to achieve a well exposed photograph. In turn the higher the ISO rating the less light that that is need to achieve a well exposed photograph.
There are some quality issues to watch out for though, the higher the ISO the more digital noise you will get, a sort of grainy effect on your images. So to achieve the best results you always need to shoot at the lowest ISO rating that is possible for the shot.
I always set my ISO first. I may need to revisit this if I can’t achieve the results I want, but it’s always the very first thing I do.
I have a very broad guideline of what ISO setting I should use for what conditions…
Really bright sunny day = ISO: 100-200
Bright day = ISO: 200-400
Overcast Day = ISO: 400-800
Indoor/Artificial Light = ISO: 800+
These are just a broad guideline though, take sports photography for example where you need to achieve a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. Let’s say it’s an overcast day where I have suggested ISO 400-800, well it’s probably going to be the upper limit of 800 in this scenario.
Also landscapes, where generally it is thought that first and last light are the best for this type of photography. So you are shooting in relatively low light, so you would crank up the ISO, right!? Nope, not this time, you would use a low ISO to achieve maximum quality, probably the lowest setting your camera has (usually 100 or 200). This means you will be needing a longer shutter speed, but the landscape isn’t going anywhere fast so you can use a tripod and a longer exposure and this will give you the best results.
Low ISO with long shutter speed © Andrew Newson
Having said there are some quality issues when pushing the ISO, which is definitely true, modern cameras are getting better and better at being able to shoot at high ISO levels with pretty good image quality retained. So you do need to be a little careful but actually there are definitely scenarios when you will want to really crank it up to get the best shot.
Sometimes in fact you won’t have any other option, I’m thinking of a concert for example. If you see one on the TV you will see flash guns going off all over the stadium, these are only going to illuminate the back of the persons head standing directly in front of you. So in this scenario turning the flash off and using a high ISO setting is definitely your best option.
Sometimes flash can really spoil the atmosphere of a photo too, say at a party. You put the flash on and suddenly the whole scene is a wash with light and all of the atmosphere has been sucked out of the shot. Again, another scenario where it might be best to turn off the flash and go with a high ISO. The high ISO will be able to capture the ambiance of the available light at the party.
For those more advanced users you could try using a small amount of flash (think flash compensation) to illuminate your subject and a high ISO to capture the available light too.
Product Photography for Cottage Industries
© Andrew Newson
Cottage industries, mumpreneurs, people working from home and crafters. If you search the internet there are so many of these business popping up now and according to some recent reports in the press these businesses could be the answer to the economic crisis. So if you have decided to go this route how can you make your goods stand out from all the others? If you look at websites like Folksy and Etsy there are literally thousands of listings?
So whether you’re selling your products through an eBay shop, Folksy or you have your own e-commerce website, there can be nothing more important than the photographs of your products. We live in a very visual world and good photographs will really help sell your products.
You might be thinking that this sounds really expensive, but it doesn’t have to be and given the importance of photography to sell your products, isn’t it worth investing in!?
I would recommend an entry level SLR and some basic lighting. This could cost around £400, which I know is expensive my anyone’s standards but I really believe you will make this money back and more from increased sales. Of course, if you can’t afford this kind of outlay then you could choose to use a compact camera or even your mobile phone. There are lots of tricks that will help you get much better results whether it’s with an SLR or just your iPhone.
I am currently running beginners courses in product photography on a 1-2-1 basis. There is a minimum booking of 2 hours and this can be for 1 or 2 people. Just simply book the amount of time you require and choose for 1 person or two.
If you would like to have a talk first about your requirements please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email.
Free Photography Workshop: Creating A Series
© Pierre Wayser and © Andrew Newson (Channelled)
I am running a completely free workshop for the Uckfield Art Trail again this year on Saturday 20th July at the Civic Centre, Uckfield. The event will start at 10am and go on until around 11.0oam, maybe a little longer if needed.
This time around I will not be concentrating on the technical side of photography, but more the creative side. Specifically I will be talking about the benefits of starting a photography project and creating a set of images. I believe this is a process that will really help you grow as a photographer and help you develop a style.
I’ll be showing some images from two of my photography projects, Channelled and The Ghyll. You have the chances to ask questions about these.
To register for the workshop, all I ask is that you join my mailing list for my email newsletters and drop me an email.
Mailing List Signup.
Email Me.
Learn how to photograph your family
© Andrew Newson
If you’ve ever had a professional family portrait taken you’ll know that it can be expensive and rightly so in my opinion, because professional photographers have expensive equipment, lots of overheads and years of experience.
However digital technology does make photography more accessible for everyone. The price of a digital SLR has come down hugely over the last few years – you can buy an entry level SLR and lens for just £300!
Some are of the opinion that just having a digital SLR means you can take professional quality images – not so I’m afraid. You do need to know your way around the camera and know what settings you need to achieve the shot you want. Well the good news is that it’s not rocket science, a short course or two and you can be well on your way to taking great quality images that will amaze your friends. Before you know it people will be encouraging you to take up photography professionally!
So what I’m suggesting here is to buy a camera, lens and maybe some lights and learn how to use them and be able to take wonderful photos of your family growing up over the years. Not just a one-off portrait and much more than just phone snap shots, real quality photographs you can treasure forever. Let’s take a look at the costs involved…
Basic Set up:
Entry level digital SLR and kit zoom lens – £300
A good quality fixed focal length lens for portraits – £100
Memory cards – £20
Adobe Lightroom 4 software – £90
The above kit is plenty to take great portraits, but if you want to add some studio lights in too for that professional looking family portrait…
Studio Set up:
Beginners studio lighting kit – £300
£510 for the basic set up or £810 for the Basic and Studio set up.
£500 is a lot of money to anyone, I know, but add up your costs for that professional studio shoot and some prints and I’d be very surprised if this option is more expensive.
You could always just buy the camera and hire my studio for those professional looking family portraits.
You do need to know how to use this equipment though and like I said, it’s not as hard as you might think. As long as you think you could possibly have the flair to take the photos then this is a very real option for you.
I’m now offering courses for people like you here at my studio in Crowbrough, East Sussex and you can book that here. Just choose 3 hours of time for 2 persons. You can choose longer if you like but I find 3 hours is about right for this course. The price for 3 hours is £223.
If you don’t already have the equipment then I am more than happy to give you the advice on what camera to buy and where to buy it, beforehand. Once you have the equipment you can then book up a 3 hour course with me at the studio which will walk you through different aspects of photographing your family, from candid snap shots to basic studio scenarios.
The session will be for you and your family, there will be an intro talk from myself first and then we will then do some practical hands-on shooting in the studio with me on hand at all times to help you. You’ll soon discover it’s not that hard and you will start to get some great shots. I’ll even take a few photos of you and your family and you can take home a large print all included in the price.
No Point in Point & Shoot!
I was interested to read this article on PetaPixel about Olympus pulling out of the Compact Camera market. The article basically says that a compact camera is not much better quality than a smart phone and go on to say that most people don’t care about any small quality difference anyway.
I find this interesting because I think there is quite a big quality difference between a compact camera and smart phone. The size of the image sensor (physical size not mega pixels) is important to the quality of the image and most compacts are going to have larger sensors than mobile phones, not forgetting the size of the lenses on these devices too, which will make a big difference.
It’s kind of ironic that in the 1960′s Kodak brought us the Kodak Instamatic camera, the camera that brought photography to the masses. Now Apple (and others) have done this with a device that most of us have anyway. Except now the quality isn’t as good as it was in the 1960s.
Of course a smart phone has lots of benefits that a compact camera doesn’t, the ability to add filters and upload to your favourite social media site being fairly important factors. So now we are seeing compact camera companies producing camera’s that have built in Wifi or even 3G so you can upload direct from the camera and some even have the option to use Apps to add filters. For me I think this is really what they have to do to compete against the mobile phones.
Also another really big development in the compact camera market is that Ricoh have just produced a compact camera with a large APS-C sized image sensor. The same sized image senor that is my main camera, the Fuji X-Pro1. So if they have managed to get a big image sensor in a camera this size perhaps it’s only a matter of time before others do.
It’s true though that SLRs offer control and quality that is very difficult to rival and anyone who really cares about image quality would probably not be considering a compact as their main camera. But for those that want better snapshots or an additional go-anywhere camera then I say don’t forget the compact camera just yet.