High ISO - The True Magic of Digital
By Alan Reinhart
4 Jul 2008
While many pixel-peepers and micro-stock sites are spanking us for "high ISO noise", and their mantra is "ISO 100 only!", if used carefully, (like any specialty tool should be), many new photo-ops are available to us. There are lighting conditions that would just have not been possible with film.
There is a fountain at an office building I'd been wanting to shoot, and when an opportunity came up - it was a gray and somewhat overcast day. At first I was going to skip it but went ahead to give it a go. I cranked up to ISO 1600, and shot away, and got some decent stuff! The big discovery (for me, anyway) was that the was/is a certain quality of light that happens on a an overcast day that you don't see otherwise.
Working with a VR/IS (hand-shake reduction) lens and some noise reduction software in post processing (Yes - high ISO shots prob won't work for 'right out of the cam' shooters), a whole new world of light quality is available.
In another case, a cam club I'm in had a competiton to shoot "Water". Period. Hmm - I have no decent strobe (on-cam flash doesn't count), but wanted to do some water motion shots. My little kitchen table-top studio is lit with compact fluorescent lights which require fairly slow shutter speeds. So - Crank up the ISO! Shooting on a tripod at ISO 1600 and using a cable release (so I could work the props), I got some very interesting water-motion shots (I blew bubbles into the water!). I entered two from the series in the club competition, and one got First in Class (the red-green patterns in the wine glass)!
So don't be afraid of high ISO. Use this tool, use it carefully - it still won't let you shoot the black cat in the coal-bin eating burnt toast... But there are a TON of other places it will save the day and bring home that otherwise lost image.
2 responses
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Dirk HR Spennemann said (21 Mar 2009):
my vote!
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Liz Bennefeld gave props (18 Jun 2009):
This is interesting. Not something I"ve gotten into...yet.
