From the course: The Practicing Photographer

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Understanding how cameras handle ISO and low light

Understanding how cameras handle ISO and low light

From the course: The Practicing Photographer

Understanding how cameras handle ISO and low light

- When you change ISO on your camera, you gain the ability to use faster shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures. When ISO is set to a higher level, your sensor seems to become more light sensitive, meaning it doesn't need to be exposed to light for as long to register an image. In truth though your sensor doesn't become more light sensitive when you crank up the ISO setting. Rather the camera is altering one component deep in its guts. While we call them digital cameras, an image sensor actually outputs an analog signal. That signal is passed through an analog-to-digital converter after you shoot, and that's where the digital part of digital photography begins. Before that conversion process though, that analog signals that comes off a sensor has to be amplified. The actual electrical impulses that come off the sensor are very faint, and without amplification they can't be easily measured and then converted into numbers. When you increase ISO, you're doing nothing more than…

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