Essential Nikon camera settings: 9. ISO

The caliber of images acquired at high ISOs on current cameras means you can now hit even when the brightness levels are depressed…

What is it in a nutshell?

ISO is simply a quantity of how sensitive your camera's sensor is to light - at high ISO settings, such as 800 or 1600, the sensor needs less light to offer a correct exposure.

If you don't increase the ISO in low light, a shutter speed fast enough to shoot handheld might not let in enough light for a correct exposure - increasing the ISO makes the sensor more sensitive, thus the limited sum of illumination provided by the quick shutter speed (in other words, a short exposure) should be plenty for a correct exposure.

Why is it so important?

Using high ISO settings used to mean tons of noise, and hence low-tone images, but modern Nikon DSLRs are able of producing excellent-quality images at much higher ISOs than their precursors.

This implies that you can shoot in lower light while still utilizing a quicker shutter speed - perfect for avoiding both camera shake and blur due to subject movement.

Yet, despite these improvements, there is still some drop-off in quality as you increase the ISO, hence you should attempt to save the ISO at the lowest setting that will nevertheless permit you to take the snapshot.

SEE MORE 10 Camera Settings You Need to Learn to Master Your Nikon

How do you use it?

When you're flashing in low light but want to use a fast shutter speed, set your SLR to shutter-priority mode to permit you to pick out the shutter speed you need to freeze any motion. Now place your camera towards your topic and mark off whether the aperture display is always lit or blinking.

If it's constantly lit, there's enough light to go shooting, simply if it's flashing, then you need to increase the ISO until it's constant.

Flashing indicates that the camera cannot achieve a correct exposure for the ignition conditions, merely recollect that if the light changes or the subject moves into a darker location, you'll need to watch out for the flashing aperture display again, and switch the ISO to compensate.

What you can ignore: Expanded ISO settings

Most Nikon SLRs offer a range of ISO settings above the 'native' highest values. These are known as 'expanded ISO settings'.

These are best avoided in all but the most extreme shooting conditions, as along with increased noise, which shows up in the form of speckles on your photographs, using these settings can also contribute to a bigger risk of blown highlights and blocked-out shadows, as they oftentimes hold a lower dynamic range than the normal ISO settings.

Taking it further: Auto ISO

Along with setting specific ISO values, Nikon SLRs have an automatic ISO selection. This is ideal if you desire to get certain that the shutter speed doesn't drop too low in constantly changing lighting conditions, leading to blur from camera shake or subject motion.

In this situation you can set the ISO to auto, and in the set-up menu, you can select the highest ISO setting that you're comfy with.

Source Link: http://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/10-camera-settings-you-need-to-learn-to-master-your-nikon-and-10-you-can-manage-without-1320864

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