ISO is a number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light. The higher the ISO number, the higher your camera’s sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture. The trade-off is that higher ISOs can lead to degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”

High ISO Pictures

You’d want to use a high ISO when wanting an image that looks ‘noisy’ or ‘grainy’. You’d use it when in a low light situation.

Low ISO Pictures

Artist Research: Edward Weston

One of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century, Edward Weston has had a significant impact on the history of photography. His work was first published in 1906, and his career continued until his death in 1958.

My Contact Sheet:

Original Photos

I chose to go into the music studio where there was low light to achieve the results I needed. I then took the same picture in with different ISO’s to see the how it would look.

Edited Photos

Shutter speed refers to how long the shutter is open for which exposes the sensor to light for more or less time depending of the shutter speed. 1/250 or higher is ideal for shooting action shots when you want the motion to be captured still. The lens can also be opened for seconds at a time – on a standard camera up to 30 seconds. This is ideal for very low light situations where you have a tripod at hand. In the diagram below it is demonstrated how the different shutter speed affects how movement looks in cameras. Sometimes you will want to capture very fast motion as a blur in order to show the speed – to do this you will have to use a lower shutter speed and try to keep the camera still so that only the motion is blurred.

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Examples of high shutter speed

These photos are brilliant examples of a very high shutter speed = the way I can tell the shutterspeed is high (probably 1/1000 or higher is because part of the world that is normally moving is now completely stull – a snapshot of reality.

Examples of low shutter speed

On the left is a beautiful example of a very low shutterspeed – they likel had to use a tripod to keep the camera still for an extended period of time – overnight for example. Keeping the camera open and using the B setting allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you want – exposing the sensor to light for a very long period of time – causing these star trails. On the right is another example of a low shutter speed – the camera was probably open for a quarter of a second (1/4) while the person stood up. This created a blurred motion effect.

A photographer who uses shutter speed to her artistic advantage

Francesca Woodman uses shutter speed to create nostalgic, ghostly self portraits, often using strange positions and a large amount of motion blur, in weird, dirty looking rooms. Her photos have an eerie, sad message, and her photos sadly seem to tell of her fading away before she eventually ended her own life at 23

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My Attempt #1

To achieve this effect of the ball floating in the middle of the tree,, I used a fairly high shutter speed – 1/500 this means the sensor was only exposed to light for one five hundredth of a second – freezing the ball. I edited it in post in LrC and cropped the ball so it is on the top left rule of thirds cross point – I also turned down the highlights and added grain and haziness to create a film effect

My Attempt #2

To achieve this effect the camera was moving at the same rate as the subject, so the subject is the only thing in focus while the background has motion blur. In lightroom classic I changed it to black and white, and changed the contrast up a lot, also adding grain. This all together gave the photo a very candid effect.

This is the contact sheet of all the photos we took. Most of the photos of people dodging the camera turned out really unflattering, and the sky wasn’t blue enough for the ball photos to look at all visually pleasing. But out of all of them I got a few I like which are above.

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Photoshoot 2 – Studio

During the process of learning Lightroom classic I learnt how to flag images as picks and rejects using SHIFT + P/X to select my favourite images from the bunch. Below are the photos that I flagged as picks.

ISO is a standard or light sensitivity set by the International Organisation for Standardisation.

ISO controls how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light; the lower the ISO, the less sensitive and vice versa. However, when you use higher ISO, the photos taken could look grainy or ‘noisy’ and the overall quality would decrease – as shown below

High ISO is only really necessary in very dark settings as it will make the photos brighter, yet it sacrifices the photos quality. Because of this, you should generally try to avoid using an ISO that’s too high, and find other ways to brighten your photos, such as shutter speed.

The photos captured above show the same general subject, however each taken with different ISO, the darker photos are more sharp however clearly are too dark, but the lighter photos are less sharp and too bright – more detail below – , so be sure to find the ISO right for the environment you’re photographing.

This is a larger example of my ISO 100 photo, and as you can see there is no visual noise, the chairs are in sharp focus, although they may be hard to see well due to lack of light.

the aperture controls the amount of light that is entering the lens, like the iris of your eye. This is measured in F-Stops for example F-Stop 22 would be tiny like a pinhole. Depth of Field is basically what is in focus in-front and behind in the image, so if you have a shallow depth of field make the background of the image blurry / not in focus. If the whole image is in focus than the Depth of field is large. This links to Aperture (e.g F-stop 8) as if you use a large aperture than you will have a shallow depth of field. Than if you use a small aperture (e.g F-stop 22) than you will have a large depth of field. From F16-F22 will mean that all the of the image will be in focus.

My Images

these images are from a canon camera simulator, and this was to experiment with how Aperture, ISO and Depth of field effect each other when taking an image.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Meatyard was an optician before he took up an interest in photography. He was a member of the Lexington Camera Club which lead him to pursue his interest in photography, Meatyard’s main genre of photography is abstract. With many of his images using motion blur and multiple exposures.

These images are combining abstract photography with portraiture photography whilst including aperture and depth of field.

These photos show how there is the main object in the image in focus at the front of the screen and the rest of the background is more blurred.

Saul Leiter

Leiter started out as a painter and then, found his inspiration of colour photography, his works began in the 1940s. Leiter focused mainly of colour theories but also different perspectives of framing the images, He created abstract compositions of everyday objects. Leiter had large areas of the images out of focus ,which draws your eyes to a particular area or pop of colour.

examples of images by Saul Leiter

Personally, I really like Saul Leiter’s work as I like that the main part of the image is not centred and all the pop of colour is something I personally like and look forward to trying something similar in the future.

My Images

contact sheet

Best Images Edited

I have chosen these images as the best of my aperture and depth of field images, either the background or the main object of the image is in focus or out of focus. Especially these images with the leaves are and interesting way to mix portraiture photography and depth of field.

The aperture controls the amount of light hitting the sensor. It is measured in f-stop and typically ranges from f/1.8 to f/22 (f/1.8 being a very large aperture and f/22 being a very small aperture – imagine a large hole like a bottle top for f/1.8 versus a pinprick for f/22). The depth of field is much higher when more light is let in, so f/1.8 has the shallowest depth of field and therefore more background/foreground blur (depending on focus point). The opposite being a great depth of field at f/16 – f/22 has generally everything in focus. Depth of field and aperture link in directly with each other – aperture is the number you control based on the scene and the effect you want – and the depth of field is what is produced based on that number (also the level of exposure in the image.)

Above is the canon camera simulator this is a low aperture photo I have taken – to use the large aperture which lets lots of light in I had to use a higher shutter speed – (1/250 or higher is typically good for action photography) and a lower ISO. This large aperture creates a narrow depth of field and only the plane and a few marbles are in sharp focus – in my opinion this creates a higher quality effect.

This has a medium aperture which means the image still has a narrow depth of field but the image is not as blurred.

This is a very high aperture photo which means it has a very large depth of field and the whole image is in focus.

(FOCAL LENGTH AND FOCUSING)

Focal length is the length is the distance between the pole of the mirror and the focal point of the mirror. A higher focal length leads to a ‘flatter’ image. 50mm focal length is ideal for portraiture photography because it replicates the human eye and is therefore the most flattering – but a lower photo length leads to a wider image. The focussing ring allows you to change what is in focus in the image. You adjust it until either the whole image is blurred (Uta Barth) or the section you want in focus is sharp. There is also autofocus which is another setting where the camera focus’ on what it in the centre when you half press the shutter button.

PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO USE INTERESTING APERTURE AND MANUAL FOCUS

Uta Barth is a photographer that has a very unique style and generally takes photos of out of focus scenes. It is very abstract. She clearly uses the focus ring to force the camera out of focus which creates a cool effect. She is a contemporary German-American photographer who explores optical illusions, visual perception and non-place. She emerged in the late 1980s and brought light to the viewers visual attention within the photography frame. She takes photos of surreal landscapes and roads, in a deliberately blurred, dreamy way. Her works are exhibited internationally for their unique style and aesthetic look.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard is a photographer that has a similar style of work to Uta Barth but this set of images called “Zen Twigs” he made sure to keep one twig in focus in the foreground. This creates a sense that the branch is the most important thing in the image and creates a cool effect.

Saul Leiter was a photographer who was formerly an artist and then discovered photography. He uses lots of unusual framing devices in his images like windows and signs to draw our eyes to a large section of blur and draw our eyes to a splash of colour.

MY PHOTOSHOOT

Overall, aperture is a very important part of making a photo look good – and knowing how to use it is key to the photographic process.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light.

By having a lower ISO value it makes your cameras sensor less sensitive to light which is perfect for locations with lots of light. By having a High ISO value it makes your cameras sensor more sensitive to light which is ideal for locations with minimal amount of light. However using a High ISO value can affect the image quality of your photo making it appear noisy and grainy.

High ISO is sometimes needed because if the conditions of your photos are dark and doesn’t feature a lot of light then a higher ISO can help brighten the image but also degrading it in the process. Below is an example of an image taken from a Low ISO value at the start to a High ISO value at the end.

Adobe Lightroom is a very useful program that is used to edit pictures efficiently in large quantities. For example lets say you take pictures of a large event, Adobe Lightroom will allow you to import them into the library and sort them into a collection where you can edit your photos freely without changing the original image.

Develop Tab

The Develop Tab will allow you to edit your images to your choosing. On the left side you should be able to see a subcategory named Presets. Presets allows you to choose settings that has already been done and configured to apply to photos, this can be useful if you want to edit your photos quick or want to find a preset that would suit your photo.

With the develop tab you are also able to view your photos information in depth. This is called the histogram and its useful for determining why the image may be blurry or why its not really lit up and etc. The histogram is usually located on the top right side.

Contact Sheets

Contact sheets are photos that are usually arranged in a grid which allows photographers to see previews of the images to determine which images are favoured and liked more. William Klein was a photographer who used contact sheets and was able to make an interesting piece. William Klein would use his contact sheets and draw over them, with the pictures he didn’t want to use he would draw a X across the image while the pictures he wanted to use he would highlight it around the corners eventually creating an interesting piece like this photo below.

Adobe Lightroom is to import and export photos, create, edit, and share photos across all devices. This allows people to quickly and easily edit their photographs with tools to alter contrast, balance colour, and change brightness on mobile devices immediately after taking the picture.

I imported 31 photos into Lightroom. I then made a subfolder or collection as its called in the app of all my best and favourite photos. I had 14 favourite photos, which I then rated out of 5 stars, this app was really useful to help arrange my photos into groups and get them all sorted so they are not cluttered everywhere.

This is collections. This shows how many collections there are. Below there is a plus button to get access to your collections and photos. It also tell you how many photos are stored. To do this, I clicked the plus sign next to collections to create a new collection, titled it photos for photography and put it then imported it into a collection.

By doing this, I can sort my huge gallery of photographs into smaller groups. E.G, instead of having all my photographs in one area it would make it difficult to differentiate and classify them I can split them into particular collections (e.g. photographs for photography and aperture etc.)

Where It Is Stored On The Computer

Functions

I then had the choice to select and rate my images in distinctive ways – one thing you can do is flag your images as good or bad using either the P key (for excellent ) or the X key (for poor), allowing you to then filter out which images you want to see using the flagged filter which you can eliminate, the images you marked as poor from view. You can also rate your pictures from 1-5 stars and then filter them by these star ratings. 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

An array of images flagged as excellent, with the ones flagged as poor filtered out. Star ratings are also shown under each image.

Develop Mode

After learning how to import images, create collections and rate/filter images in library mode I then learnt how to use develop mode. This mode is used when you need to do large amounts of editing on one single image at a time (similar to Photoshop), unlike library mode which can be used to make small quick adjustments to many images at the same time .

Develop mode has many pre-sets which can be used to make quick edits of your images, or you can make lots of improvements manually to really convert the image into one you really like. I spent a while using the manual developing features, and then formed an edited version of my image which I am happy with.

What Are Contact Sheets?

Contact Sheet

A contact sheet is a type of photographic paper that displays a collection of small images. These images are taken from a reel of film that the photographer has put into several strips. The photographer then puts these negatives on the sheet to see all the images side by side, making it easier to match them together.

William Klein

William Klein (April 19, 1926 – September 10, 2022) was a photographer and filmmaker who was born in the United States of America. He later became a French citizen. He was known for his unique and ironic style in both photography and filmmaking, often using unconventional techniques in photojournalism and fashion photography. Klein was recognized as the 25th most influential photographer by Professional Photographer magazine in their list of the top 100 photographers.

William Klein’s Contact Sheet

what is ISO and how does it affect your camera

ISO controls the amount of light your camera lets in, and therefore how dark or light your photos will be.

Low values, such as ISO 100, are best for a sunny outdoor shoot. For shooting at night — or indoors with dim lighting — use an ISO of 1600 or higher.

What does a high ISO / low ISO mean? What effect can this have on your photos? What is meant by visual noise?

The higher the ISO number, the higher your camera’s sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture.

The lower the ISO number, the more light is needed to properly expose the image

 higher ISOs can lead to degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”

visual noise is when the photo is grainy and is effected by bad lighting conditions

This is an example of a high vs low iso

My photos

IOS = 100

IOS = 6400

IOS = 100

IOS = 6400

These are all examples of photos i’ve taken with different ISOs. we went around the school finding different textured things

What is ISO…

ISO is a number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light. The higher the ISO number, the higher your camera’s sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture. The trade-off is that higher ISOs can lead to degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”

When might you use High ISO?

High ISO is generally well suited to low-light situations, especially when a fast shutter speed or a narrow lens aperture is essential to achieving a creative goal. For example, using a higher ISO setting for hand-held street photography at night allows one to use fast shutter speeds to create bright, sharp images.

My Own Photo using high ISO

This is an example of me using high ISO in a dark room setting.

As you can clearly see this picture has become very grainy. I used an ISO of 6400