Introduction to Shutter Speed in

Photogr aphy
BY NASIM MANSUROV

An image of a bird captured using fast shutter speed

One of the three most important settings in photography is Shutter Speed, the other two being
Aperture and ISO. Shutter speed is responsible for two particular things: changing the
brightness of your photo and creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring
motion. In the following article, we will explain everything you need to know about it in very
simple language.

Shutter speed exists because of the camera shutter – which is a curtain in front of the camera
sensor that stays closed until the camera fires. When the camera fires, the shutter opens and
fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that has passed through your lens. After the
sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping the light from
hitting the sensor. The button that fires the camera is also called “shutter” or “shutter button,”
because it triggers the shutter to open and close.
What is Shutter Speed?
Shutter speed is the length of time the camera shutter is open, exposing light onto the camera
sensor. Essentially, it’s how long your camera spends taking a photo. This has a few
important effects on how your images will appear.

When you use a long shutter speed, you end up exposing your sensor for a significant period
of time. The first big effect of it is motion blur . If your shutter speed is long, moving
subjects in your photo will appear blurred along the direction of motion. This effect is used
quite often in advertisements of cars and motorbikes, where a sense of speed and motion is
communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels.

Motion blur.

Slow shutter speeds are also used to photograph the Milky Way or other objects at night, or in
dim environments with a tripod. Landscape photographers may intentionally use long shutter
speeds to create a sense of motion on rivers and waterfalls while keeping everything else
completely sharp.
 Shutter speed: 5 seconds (a long shutter speed).

On the other hand, shutter speed can also be used to do just the opposite – freeze motion. If
you use an especially fast shutter speed, you can eliminate motion even from fast-moving
objects, like birds in flight, or cars driving past. If you use a fast shutter speed while taking
pictures of water, each droplet will hang in the air completely sharp, which might not even be
visible to our own eyes.
 Shutter speed: 1/1600th second (a fast shutter speed)

All of the above is achieved by simply controlling the shutter speed. In summary, quick
shutter speeds freeze action, while long ones create an effect of motion when you photograph
moving objects.

How Shutter Speed is Measured

Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second when they are under a second.
For example, 1/4 means a quarter of a second, while 1/250 means one-two-hundred-and-
fiftieth of a second (or four milliseconds).

Most modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras can handle shutter speeds of up to 1/4000th of a
second, while some can handle much quicker speeds of 1/8000th of a second and faster. On
the other hand, the longest available shutter speed on most DSLRs or mirrorless cameras is
typically 30 seconds. You can use a longer shutter speed by using external remote triggers, if
necessary.

Shutter Speed and Exposure

T he other important effect of shutter speed is on exposure, which relates to the brightness of
an image. If you use a long shutter speed, your camera sensor gathers a lot of light, and the
resulting photo will be quite bright. By using a quick shutter speed, your camera sensor is
only exposed to a small fraction of light, resulting in a darker photo.
However, shutter speed is not the only variable that affects the brightness of an image. There
are also Aperture and ISO, along with the actual brightness of the scene in front of you. So,
you have some flexibility when you’re deciding on a shutter speed, but you need to pick your
other settings carefully.

Shutter speed can be a vital tool to capture a photo of the proper brightness. On a sunny day,
you may need to use a fast shutter speed so that your photo isn’t overexposed. Or, if it is dark
out, a long shutter speed may be necessary to avoid a photo that is too dark (which, in turn,
could require a tripod, due to motion blur from handholding the camera). For many people,
this is the main r eason to adjust shutter speed : to make sure your photos are the proper
brightness. Still, motion blur concerns are also very important, and should not be overlooked.

Fast, Slow and Long Shutter Speeds

A fast shutter speed is typically whatever it takes to freeze action. If you are photographing
birds, that may be 1/1000th second or faster. However, for general photography of slower-
moving subjects, you might be able to take pictures at 1/200th second, 1/100th second, or
even longer without introducing motion blur.

Long shutter speeds are typically above 1 second – at which point, you will need to use a
tripod to get sharp images. You would use long shutter speeds for certain types of low-light /
night photography, or to capture movement intentionally. If anything in your scene is moving
when you use long shutter speeds, it will appear very blurry.

In between, shutter speeds from 1/100th second to 1 second are still considered relatively
slow. You may not be able to handle them without introducing camera shake from your
hands, especially close to the one-second mark.
This photo is blurry because I used a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/30 second.
Also, this strongly depends upon your lens. Some lenses, such as the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, have
specific image stabilization (also known as “vibration reduction”) technologies within the lens that
can help photographers take pictures at very slow shutter speeds when hand-holding cameras, without
introducing camera shake. Other lenses do not have vibration reduction, which means you need to use
the reciprocal rule instead to determine how long your shutter speed should be without introducing
blur from camera shake. It is also important that you know how to hold a camera.

How to Set Shutter Speed

Most cameras handle shutter speeds automatically by default. When the camera is set to
“Auto” mode, the shutter speed is selected by the camera without your input (and so are
aperture and ISO). However, you can still set the shutter speed manually if necessary:

1 . By setting the camera to “Shutter Priority” mode, you choose the shutter speed,
and the camera automatically selects the aperture.
2 . By setting the camera to “Manual” mode, you choose both shutter speed and
aperture manually.

Within both of these modes, you can choose to set ISO manually or automatically.

In most cases, we recommend letting the camera select the correct shutter speed for you. Still,
watch to be certain that you aren’t introducing too much motion blur in a photo (or freezing
motion that you want to be blurred). I cover more of this in an article on camera modes, but I
tend to shoot in “Aperture Priority” mode 95% of the time, letting the camera calculate the
shutter speed automatically.

How to Find Shutter Speed

Do you know how to find what your camera shutter speed is set to? It is typically very easy to
find it. On cameras that have a top panel, the shutter speed is typically located on the top left
corner, as circled:
Shutter speed displayed on top camera LCD

If your camera does not have a top LCD, like some entry-level DSLRs, you can look through
the viewfinder, where you will see the shutter speed on the bottom-left side. And if your
camera has neither a top LCD nor a viewfinder, like many mirrorless cameras, you can see
your shutter speed simply by looking on the back screen.

On most cameras, the shutter speed will not show up directly as a fraction of a second – it
will typically be a regular number. When the shutter speed is longer than or equal to one
second, you will see something like 1” or 5” (with the quotation sign to indicate a full
second).

If you still cannot find the shutter speed, set your camera to “Aperture Priority” mode, and
make sure that you have turned “AUTO ISO” off. Then, start pointing around your camera
from dark to bright areas. The number that changes will be your shutter speed.
Understanding Aperture in Photography

BY NASIM MANSUROV

Illustration that shows types of photography at different aperture settings

Aperture is one of the three pillars of photography (the other two being Shutter Speed and
ISO), and certainly the most important. In this article, we go through everything you need
to know about aperture and how it works.

An image captured with a wide aperture of f/1.8 isolates the subject

What is Aperture?
Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the
camera. It is an easy concept to understand if you just think about how your eyes work.
As you move between bright and dark environments, the iris in your eyes either expands
or shrinks, controlling the size of your pupil.

In photography, the “pupil” of your lens is called aperture. You can shrink or enlarge the
size of the aperture to allow more or less light to reach your camera sensor. The image
below shows an aperture in a lens:

Aperture is like the “pupil” for your camera system, which can open and close to change
the amount of light that passes through. Note the nine blades in this lens, which form
a diaphragm to block any light that tries to pass, except through the center.

Aperture can add dimension to your photos by controlling depth of field. At one extreme,
aperture gives you a blurred background with a beautiful shallow focus effect.

At the other, it will give you sharp photos from the nearby foreground to the distant
horizon. On top of that, it also alters the exposure of your images by making them
brighter or darker.

Aperture Explained in Video

If you prefer to understand how aperture works visually, we put together a video for you
that goes through most of the basics. In the video, we go through what aperture is, how it
works and we also show how it affects things like depth of field and bokeh, which are
covered further down in this article.

If you are ready to move on, the information presented below has a lot more in-depth
material.
How Aperture Affects Exposure
Aperture has several effects on your photographs. One of the most important is the
brightness, or exposure, of your images. As aperture changes in size, it alters the overall
amount of light that reaches your camera sensor – and therefore the brightness of your
image.

A large aperture (a wide opening) will pass a lot of light, resulting in a brighter
photograph. A small aperture does just the opposite, making a photo darker. Take a look
at the illustration below to see how it affects exposure:

In a dark environment – indoors, or at night – you will probably want to select a large
aperture to capture as much light as possible. This is the same reason why your pupils
dilate when it starts to get dark.

How Aperture Affects Depth of Field

The other critical effect of aperture is depth of field. Depth of field is the amount of your
photograph that appears sharp from front to back. Some images have a “thin” or
“shallow” depth of field, where the background is completely out of focus. Other images
have a “large” or “deep” depth of field, where both the foreground and background are
sharp.
This photograph has a thin depth of field – a “shallow focus” effect.

In the image above, you can see that the girl is in focus and appears sharp, while the
background is completely out of focus. The choice of aperture played a big role here. I
specifically used a large aperture in order to create a shallow focus effect. This helped me
bring the attention of the viewer to the subject, rather than busy background. If I had
chosen a much smaller aperture, I would not have been able to separate my subject from
the background as effectively.

One trick to remember this relationship: a large aperture results in a large amount of both
foreground and background blur. This is often desirable for portraits, or general photos of
objects where you want to isolate the subject. Sometimes you can frame your subject with
foreground objects, which will also look blurred relative to the subject, as shown in the
example below:
Taken with a portrait lens using a very large aperture of f/1.4

Quick Note: The way the foreground and the background out-of-focus highlights are
rendered by the lens in the above example is often referred to as “bokeh“. Although
bokeh is the property of a lens, one can yield shallow depth of field with most lenses
when using a large aperture and close camera to subject distance.
On the other hand, a small aperture results in a small amount of background blur, which
is typically ideal for some types of photography such as landscape and architecture. In the
landscape photo below, I used a small aperture to ensure that both my foreground and
background were as sharp as possible from front to back:

Taken using a very small aperture of f/11 in order to keep the whole image as sharp as
possible.

Here is a quick comparison that shows the difference between using a large vs a small
aperture and what it does to the subject relative to the foreground and the background:

A
comparison of two images shot using large (left) vs small (right) apertures

As you can see, the photograph on the left only has the head of the lizard appearing in
focus and sharp, with both foreground and background transitioning into blur. Whereas
the photo on the right has everything from front to back appearing sharp. This is what
using large vs small aperture does to photographs.
What Are F-Stop and F-Number?
So far, we have only discussed aperture in general terms like large and small. However, it
can also be expressed as a number known as “f-number” or “f-stop”, with the letter “f”
appearing before the number, like f/8.

Most likely, you have noticed this on your camera before. On your LCD screen or
viewfinder, your aperture will look something like this: f/2, f/3.5, f/8, and so on. Some
cameras omit the slash and write f-stops like this: f2, f3.5, f8, and so on. For example, the
Nikon camera below is set to an aperture of f/8:

Aperture is labeled in f-numbers and in this case, I’m using f/8.

So, f-stops are a way of describing the size of the aperture for a particular photo. If you
want to find out more about this subject, we have a much more comprehensive article
on f-stop that is worth checking out.

Large vs Small Aperture

There’s a catch – one important part of aperture that confuses beginning photographers
more than anything else. This is something you really need to pay attention to and get
correct: Small numbers represent large, whereas large numbers represent small apertures.
That’s not a typo. For example, f/2.8 is larger than f/4 and much larger than f/11. Most
people find this awkward, since we are used to having larger numbers represent larger
values. Nevertheless, this is a basic fact of photography. Take a look at this chart:

As you can see, an f-stop like f/16 represents a much smaller aperture opening than
something like f/2.8.

This causes a huge amount of confusion among photographers, because it’s completely
the reverse of what you would expect at first. However, as strange as it may sound, there
is a reasonable and simple explanation that should make it much clearer to you: Aperture
is a fraction.

When you are dealing with an f-stop of f/16, for example, you can think of it like the
fraction 1/16th. Hopefully, you already know that a fraction like 1/16 is clearly much
smaller than 1/4. For this exact reason, an aperture of f/16 is smaller than f/4. Looking at
the front of your camera lens, this is what you’d see:

So, if photographers recommend a large aperture for a particular type of photography,

they’re telling you to use something like f/1.4, f/2, or f/2.8. And if they suggest a small
aperture for one of your photos, they’re recommending that you use something like f/8,
f/11, or f/16.

How to Pick the Right Aperture

Now that you’re familiar with some specific examples of f-stops, how do you know what
aperture to use for your photos? Let’s jump back to exposure and depth of field – the two
most important effects of aperture. First, here is a quick diagram to demonstrate the
brightness differences at a range of common aperture values:

Or, if you’re in a darker environment, you may want to use large apertures like f/2.8 to
capture a photo of the proper brightness (once again, like when your eye’s pupil dilates to
capture every last bit of light):

As for depth of field, recall that a large aperture value like f/2.8 will result in a large
amount of background blur (ideal for shallow focus portraits), while values like f/8, f/11,
or f/16 will help you capture sharp details in both the foreground and background (ideal
for landscapes, architecture and macro photography).
Don’t fret if your photo is too bright or dark at your chosen aperture setting. Most of the
time, you will be able to adjust your shutter speed to compensate – or raise your ISO if
you’ve hit your sharp shutter speed limit.

Here is a quick chart that lays out everything we’ve covered so far:

Aperture Size Exposure Depth of Field

f/1.4 Very large Lets in a lot of light Very thin

f/2.0 Large Half as much light as f/1.4 Thin

f/2.8 Large Half as much light as f/2 Thin

f/4.0 Moderate Half as much light as f/2.8 Moderately thin

 Aperture Size Exposure Depth of Field

f/5.6 Moderate Half as much light as f/4 Moderate

f/8.0 Moderate Half as much light as f/5.6 Moderately large

f/11.0 Small Half as much light as f/8 Large

f/16.0 Small Half as much light as f/11 Large

f/22.0 Very small Half as much light as f/16 Very large

Setting Aperture in Your Camera

If you want to select your aperture manually in your camera for a photo (which is
something we highly recommend), there are two modes which work: aperture-
priority mode and manual mode. Aperture-priority mode is written as “A” or “Av” on
most cameras, while manual is written as “M.” Usually, you can find these on the top dial
of your camera (read more also in our article on camera modes):
In aperture-priority mode, you select the desired aperture, and the camera automatically
selects your shutter speed. In manual mode, you select both aperture and shutter speed
manually.

Minimum and Maximum Aperture of Lenses

Every lens has a limit on how large or how small the aperture can get. If you take a look
at the specifications of your lens, it should say what the maximum and minimum
apertures are. For almost everyone, the maximum aperture will be more important,
because it tells you how much light the lens can gather at its maximum (basically, how
dark of an environment you can take photos).

A lens that has a maximum aperture of f/1.4 or f/1.8 is considered to be a “fast” lens,
because it can pass through more light than, for example, a lens with a “slow” maximum
aperture of f/4.0. That’s why lenses with large apertures usually cost more.

In contrast, the minimum aperture is not that important, because almost all modern lenses
can provide at least f/16 at the minimum. You will rarely need anything smaller than that
for day-to-day photography.

With some zoom lenses, the maximum aperture will change as you zoom in and out. For
example, with the Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-P lens, the largest aperture shifts
gradually from f/3.5 at the wide end to just f/5.6 at the longer focal lengths. More
expensive zooms tend to maintain a constant maximum aperture throughout their zoom
range, like the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8. Prime lenses also tend to have larger maximum
apertures than zoom lenses, which is one of their major benefits.

The maximum aperture of a lens is so important that it’s included in the name of the lens
itself. Sometimes, it will be written with a colon rather than a slash, but it means the same
thing (like the Nikon 50mm 1:1.4G below).

Examples of Aperture Use

Now that we have gone through a thorough explanation of how aperture works and how it
affects your images, let’s take a look at examples at different f-stops.

• f/0.95 – f/1.4 – such “fast” maximum apertures are only available on

premium prime lenses, allowing them to gather as much light as possible.
This makes them ideal for any kind of low-light photography when
photographing indoors (such as photographing the night sky, wedding
 receptions, portraits in dimly-lit rooms, corporate events, etc). With such
wide f-stops, you will get very shallow depth of field at close distances,
where the subject will appear separated from the background.
• f/1.8 – f/2.0 – some enthusiast-grade prime lenses are limited to f/1.8 and
offer slightly inferior low-light capabilities. Still, if your purpose is to yield
aesthetically-pleasing images, these lenses be of tremendous value. Shooting
between f/1.8 and f/2 typically gets adequate depth of field for subjects at
close distances while still yielding pleasant bokeh.
• f/2.8 – f/4 – most enthusiast and professional-grade zoom lenses are limited
to f/2.8 to f/4 f-stop range. While they are not as capable as f/1.4 lenses in
terms of light-gathering capabilities, they often provide image stabilization
benefits that can make them versatile, even when shooting in low-light
conditions. Stopping down to the f/2.8 – f/4 range often provides adequate
depth of field for most subjects and yields superb sharpness. Such apertures
are great for travel, sports, wildlife, as well as other types of photography.
• f/5.6 – f/8 – this is the ideal range for landscape and architecture
photography. It could also be a good range for photographing large groups of
people. Stopping down lenses to the f/5.6 range often provides the best
overall sharpness for most lenses and f/8 is used if more depth of field is
required.
• f/11 – f/16 – typically used for photographing landscape, architecture and
macro photography where as much depth of field as possible is needed. Be
careful when stopping down beyond f/8, as you will start losing sharpness
due to the effect of lens diffraction.
• f/22 and Smaller – only shoot at such small f-stops if you know what you are
doing. Sharpness suffers greatly at f/22 and smaller apertures, so you should
avoid using them when possible. If you need to get more depth of field, it is
best to move away from your subject or use a focus stacking
technique instead.

You have made it this far, but are you willing to learn more about aperture? So far we
have only touched the basics, but aperture does so much more to your photographs. Let’s
take a closer look.

What Aperture Does to Your Photos

Ever wondered how else aperture affects your photographs aside from brightness and
depth of field? In this part of the article, we will go through all other ways aperture
impacts your images, from sharpness to sunstars, and tell you exactly why each matters.
A landscape image captured at f/16 to bring everything from foreground to background
into focus. Diffraction can be a problem at such small apertures, as explained below.

Here’s a quick list of everything aperture affects in photography:

• The brightness / exposure of your photos

• Depth of field
• Sharpness loss due to diffraction
• Sharpness loss due to lens quality
• Starburst effects on bright lights
• Visibility of camera sensor dust specks
• The quality of background highlights (bokeh)
• Focus shift on some lenses
• Ability to focus in low light (under some conditions)
• Control amount of light from flash
What is ISO?

An image captured with a high ISO setting in order to freeze birds in flight.
ISO is one of the three pillars of photography (the other two being shutter
speed and aperture), and it has a major effect on your images. How does camera ISO
affect your images? In this article, we will introduce ISO for beginners and explain how
to use it effectively for the best possible results.

What is ISO?

In very basic terms, ISO is simply a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo.
As you increase your ISO number, your photos will grow progressively brighter. For that
reason, ISO can help you capture images in darker environments, or be more flexible
about your aperture and shutter speed settings.

However, raising your ISO has consequences. A photo taken at too high of an ISO will
show a lot of grain, also known as noise, and might not be usable. So, brightening a photo
via ISO is always a trade-off. You should only raise your ISO when you are unable to
brighten the photo via shutter speed or aperture instead (for example, if using a longer
shutter speed would cause your subject to be blurry).
 Note how much brighter the image gets when ISO is increased from 100 to 1600
What is the Meaning of ISO?
The acronym ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization”. However,
camera ISO does not directly refer to the organization that creates various technology and
product standards. Ever since two film standards called ASA and DIN were combined
into ISO standards in 1974 (later revised for both film and digital photography), they
were referred to as one word “ISO” from that point on. Although ISO initially defined
only film sensitivity, it was later adopted by digital camera manufacturers with the
purpose of maintaining similar brightness levels as film.

Common ISO Values

Every camera has a different range of ISO values (sometimes called ISO speeds) that you
can use. A common set is as follows:

• ISO 100 (low ISO)

• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• ISO 800
• ISO 1600
• ISO 3200
• ISO 6400 (high ISO)

Quite simply, when you double your ISO speed, you are doubling the brightness of the
photo. So, a photo at ISO 400 will be twice brighter than ISO 200, which will be twice
brighter than ISO 100.

What is Base ISO?

The lowest native ISO on your camera is your “base ISO”. This is a very important
setting, because it gives you the potential to produce the highest image quality,
minimizing the visibility of noise as much as possible. Some older DSLRs and a number
of modern cameras, such as the Fuji X-T2 have a base ISO of 200, whereas most modern
digital cameras have a base ISO of 100. Optimally, you should always try to stick to the
base ISO to get the highest image quality. However, it is not always possible to do so,
especially when working in low-light conditions.

Note:

Some cameras have extended “HI” and “LO” values for ISO that might stretch beyond
their native range. However, these are completely simulated and lower your image
quality. We recommend avoiding them.

Low vs High ISO Noise Visibility

To give an example of two photos taken at different ISO values, take a look at the
comparison below. Pay attention to the level of noise (graininess and blotchy colors) in
the images:

The difference is clear – the image at ISO 3200 has much more noise than the one at ISO
200 (which I brightened with a long shutter speed instead). This is why you should avoid
high ISOs whenever possible, unless conditions require you to use them.

How to Change ISO

Changing ISO varies from camera to camera. Here are some common ways to change
ISO:

• To start, enter a mode that lets you select the ISO yourself. Get out of Auto
mode, and go to Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or Program (we
tend to prefer Aperture Priority or Manual).
• For entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, you probably need to open a
menu (possibly the “quick menu”) and find the section for ISO. Select the
value you want, or set it to Auto.
• For higher-end cameras, there may be a dedicated “ISO” button on the
camera. Press it while spinning one of the wheels to change your ISO setting.
If you don’t see a button labeled “ISO”, it is still possible that your camera
will let you program one to perform this task.
 • Other cameras may have a dedicated wheel that already has various ISO
settings marked. This makes things even easier.

Check your camera manual if you still aren’t sure. However, it is worth being very
familiar with how to change your ISO setting quickly, since it’s something you will likely
be adjusting quite often, especially if you shoot in low light conditions without a tripod or
flash.

What Camera ISO Should You Use?

Many photographers understand the basics of ISO, but they aren’t sure which ISO value
to actually pick in the field. In practice, there’s a reason why your camera allows such a
wide range of ISO settings: Different situations call for different ISOs. Below, we will
cover some of the common scenarios you may come across.

When to Use Low ISO

As discussed above, you should always try to stick to the lowest ISO (base ISO) of your
camera, which is typically ISO 100 or 200, whenever you can. If there is plenty of light,
you are free to use a low ISO and minimize the appearance of noise as much as possible.

Even in dim or dark environments, you still might be able to use a low ISO. For example,
if you have your camera mounted on a tripod or sitting completely still on a table. In that
case, you can safely use a low ISO and brighten your photo via a long shutter speed
instead, since you won’t introduce camera shake. However, keep in mind that if your
camera does use a long shutter speed, anything that is moving will look like a ghost:

Oh No! It’s a GHOST ATTACK!

Just kidding, of course! That’s my lovely nephew being the subject of my long exposure
test. I set the camera to the lowest ISO to retain the detail, which required a long shutter
speed of five seconds in order to capture a bright enough photo. My nephew sat still,
while my friend stepped in for a brief moment to introduce the ghost.

When to use High ISO

Even though it is ideal to use low ISOs, there will be plenty of times when a high ISO is
necessary in order to take a good photo in the first place. The simple reason is that you
are often fighting against motion blur, and you will need to pick between a sharp photo at
a high ISO, or a blurry photo at a low ISO. Take a look at the image below:

An image of Black Skimmers captured at ISO 800 and 1/2000 shutter speed

I captured these Black Skimmers at 1/2000th of a second and ISO 800. Here, my camera
needed 1/2000th of a second to fully freeze the birds while they were in flight. What
would have happened if I had set ISO 100 on my camera instead? I would have needed a
shutter speed of 1/250th of a second to capture a bright photo. At that setting, there would
have been a lot of unwanted motion blur in the picture, since the birds were moving so
fast. In short, I would have ruined the picture.
The bottom line is that you should increase the ISO when there is not enough light for the
camera to capture a sharp, bright photo any other way. When I shoot handheld photos
indoors without a flash, I always set my ISO to a higher number to capture the moment
without introducing blur. Or, when photographing ultra-fast action like in the bird picture
above, raising your ISO is often necessary.

On most cameras, there is a setting for Auto ISO, which works great in low-light
environments. The beauty of this setting is that you input the maximum ISO you are
willing to use, so that the camera does not cross that limit. Personally, if I want to limit
the amount of noise in a photo, I will set my maximum ISO to something like ISO 800,
1600, or 3200. The downside is that the camera will start using progressively longer
shutter speeds if it reaches these ISO limits, which leads to more motion blur. Everything
is a trade-off!

Minimizing Noise and Maximizing Image Quality

Some photographers think that the best way to capture high-quality images is to use Base
ISO 100% of the time. However, as demonstrated above, that simply is not true.
Sometimes, you’ll be in dark environments when you have no choice but to use a higher
ISO.

You should only use base ISO when there is enough light to do so. Don’t try to force ISO
100 in a dark environment, or your photos will come out way too dark. Similarly, if
you’re using a fast shutter speed to capture action, it’s essentially the same as taking
pictures in a dark environment (since you strictly limit the amount of time your camera
sensor is able to capture light). So, for certain types of sports and action photography, a
high ISO might be your only option.

To maximize your image quality, here are the four steps you need to follow:

1. Select the aperture setting that will provide your desired depth of field.
2. Set your ISO to its base value, and put your shutter speed to whatever
setting provides a proper exposure.
3. If your subject is blurry, progressively raise your ISO and use a faster shutter
speed until motion blur disappears.
4. If your ISO is getting too high and you still have the ability to use a wider
aperture, open it up until the ISO gets to a more manageable level, even if it
means sacrificing some of your desired depth of field.

That’s all it takes! If you follow these steps, you’ll capture the maximum image quality
each time. You’ll find the ideal balance between noise, motion blur, and depth of field.

Common ISO Myths and Misconceptions

ISO has a lot of myths surrounding it, including some that are quite common to hear. In
this section, we will quickly address some of those concerns so that you are not misled
about this topic in the future.

Is ISO “Sensor Sensitivity”?

This is the most common myth related to ISO. It is something you will see all over the web (and
in print). However, although it may help you to think of ISO as “acting like” camera sensor
sensitivity, that’s not what it actually does. Instead, digital sensors only have a single sensitivity,
regardless of your ISO. It is more accurate to say that ISO is like a mapping to tell your camera
how bright the output photo should be, given a particular input exposure.

Is ISO Part of Exposure?

No, ISO is not part of exposure. Shutter Speed and Aperture brighten your photo by physically
capturing more light. ISO doesn’t do that; instead, it essentially brightens the photo you already
captured. So, photographers don’t consider it to be a component of exposure.

Is Raising ISO Just Like Brightening Your Photo on a Computer?

This is a clever question, but, again, it is simply a misconception. Brightening a photo on your
computer can act in many ways like raising your ISO, since it does make noise more visible (and
it leads to a brighter image). But the simple difference is that raising your ISO in the camera
nearly always provides better image quality than brightening a photo on your computer. In other
words, it is better to use ISO 800 when necessary, rather than brightening an ISO 100 photo to a
huge degree in post-processing software like Lightroom!

How Does ISO Affect a Photo?

ISO increases or decreases the brightness of a photograph, but also affects both grain / noise
levels and dynamic range. At the lowest (base) ISO setting, your images will have the least
amount of noise and the highest dynamic range, giving you the most flexibility in post-
processing. As ISO is increased, noise levels increase and dynamic range typically decreases as
well.

What is the Best ISO Setting for Low-Light?

When shooting in low-light conditions, your shutter speed will typically decrease, resulting in
camera shake or motion blur. To avoid such issues, you should increase ISO setting to a higher
value, such as ISO 1600. Depending on your aperture and light conditions, you might need to
increase ISO even more.

What is the Best ISO Setting for Landscape Photography?

When photographing landscapes, you should use a tripod and set your ISO to your camera’s base
ISO, which is typically 100.

Reference:
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