March 22, 2010

What I've learned so far (ISO)

May seem obvious if you've done SLR photography before, but to those of us who haven't...ISO determines how sensitive the chip is. ISO 100 means it's less sensitive, therefore the shutter needs to be open longer or the f-stop lower to allow more light in regular photography. In shooting pictures of stars...ISO 100 means you can take longer star trail pictures. ISO 1600 means it'll take less time for the light pollution to kick in and a shorter shutter speed. I hear the trade off in this though is that there is a lot more noise in with a higher ISO because it magnifies each signal the chip in the camera gets, including the random noise that we want so little of in astrophotography. So to summarize, ISO 1600 good for sports and ISO 100 good for astronomy (Yes, a broad generalization, but hey, I'm beginning...) Pictures coming soon...

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