A Better Shot III: Film Speed

You know, a couple weeks ago I asked my peeps about my camera and it's apparent inability to take photos in low light conditions.

Scott emailed me and asked if he could find a way to fix it.

"Can I take a look at that?"
"Yeah, sure."
"... Ok never mind"

Crap! Ok so I did some research, and I actually did find a way to at least mitigate the effects of camera shake and slow shutter speeds in low light conditions. Ok so basically this is how cameras work; the slower the shutter speed, the more light is let in, the longer the exposure and the higher chances of blurring are. When there is an abundance of light (for example on a very sunny day), the film speed is automatically set to high, because the lens does not have to be open for a long time (whereas in low light conditions, a longer exposure must be used to capture more light). However, a longer exposure almost inevitably means blurring (unless of course you are using a tripod), and even more so if your subject is mobile (which of course they almost always are, in my field of... photography).

So... the way to fix this... is to set your ISO higher. What this does is decrease the amount of time the lens is open and (in digital cameras) increase the sensor's.... sensitivity to light. What this means, is that you have a fast shutter that produces a relatively well-lit shot, even in low conditions.

However, increasing the ISO not only increases the sensor's sensitivity to light, but also decreases it's sensitivity to colour and tone. Therefore, your picture will come out relatively sharp but grainy and with more noise. This can be annoying especially if you're taking a picture in a very dark place, but in places where the light is just a little less than is required for a 1/10 or 1/13 of a second shutter speed, a higher ISO works great (Ok yeah by now, I absolutely hate AUTO mode).

Hope that helped.

kamster

I may post pictures giving examples later.

Oh and... you may have realized that A Better Shot isn't actually weekly... try... bimonthly.