ISO is actually a common short name for the International Organisation for Standardization.

The ISO setting on your camera is something that has carried over from film. Remember back in the ‘old days’ when you used to go and buy your rolls of film and you would buy film rated at 100, 200 or 400, maybe even 800 or 1600? Well that number refers to the film’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light the film is. The ISO bit is from the standards for film sensitivity, and the number refers to it’s rating.
So what does sensitivity mean? Well a low sensitivity means that the film has to be exposed to light for a longer period of time than a film with a high sensitivity in order to properly expose the image. With a lower sensitivity you also get a better quality image too which is why you should always try and use the lowest sensitivity you can get away with. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, a little more explanation is required.

You might remember buying film for a sunny holiday and the shop assistant would recommend using a film rated at 100 or 200. If, on the other hand, you were going to be taking pictures indoors, then you might be recommended a higher sensitivity like 400 or maybe 800. If you used ISO100 film and decided to take some pictures indoors, chances are you would need to use the flash, or your pictures would come out quite dark. This is because the film’s sensitivity is so low that the shutter would need to be open for a long time to let enough light in. Your camera may not have had the features to allow it to keep the shutter open for long enough, which is why you ended up with dark pictures.

This was one of the problems with film. Once you’d loaded it into your camera, you were pretty much stuck with that film sensitivity for 24 or 36 shots.

Bring on digital cameras and you can now change the ISO setting for each shot you take. That is one of the big advantages of digital photography.

So why do you only get choices like 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and maybe 3200 when it’s digital, surely you could set 154 or 958 if you wanted it? It’s only electrical currents and circuits after all, not a piece of film. Well, in theory you could choose any setting you wanted, but imagine how tricky that would be. There are three settings which combine to give you the exposure, these are Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Each one can be changed individually to allow you to set then to what you think will give you the perfect exposure, or you can let the camera set them for you to what it thinks is the perfect exposure for the conditions it can detect. Already with three different options, each having several settings themselves, the combinations are numerous, so keeping ISO to set values, which people will understand makes it a little less confusing.

Now, I mentioned quality too, and that better quality images are achieved with a lower ISO number. If, again, you go back to film days you may remember the sort of grainy effect some images had. Well this grain effect is what is introduced with a higher sensitivity film. Digital has it’s own grain effect with higher sensitivity and is known as Noise. Digital noise can be seen a sort of speckley effect in areas of similar colour, like skies or dark shadow areas. It is a subject of much discussion and the camera is often judged on the amount of noise it produces at these higher sensitivities. This is why you should always try and keep your ISO set to the lowest number, and use aperture and shutter speed to get the right exposure. If you can’t do that with aperture or shutter speed, move up to the next ISO setting and try again.

Why is a high ISO setting needed? Well for indoor work, where flash isn’t allowed and the light levels are fairly low. Or you can use it deliberately to get the grainy gritty feel to the image (although I would prefer to add this later on the computer).

It’s well worth experimenting with ISO settings so you can see just how your camera performs at the various levels. Once you have got to grips with how changing Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO effect your image, you’ve pretty much got all the technical fundamentals nailed.

Over at the Digital Photography School Blog there is a nice post on how to choose the right ISO setting which is worth checking out.

After some thought I decided to change the design of this site to something which I think is a little better on the eye. I also had a few tips from Vivien over at Inspiration Bit, which is a great blog for design tips with loads of useful links. She was kind enough to give an expert opinion, as well as point me to some great resources on the web. As colour choice and design isn’t one of my stronger skills it was a big help on choosing a more appropriate theme.

If you have any thoughts on my theme, please let me know. It’s actually based on Ocean Mist which caught my eye, and I’ve made a few alterations which suit my site a bit better. I’ve also used one of my own photos for the header too which I thought worked quite well.

Believe it or not, you can buy things cheaper from other internet stores then you can on ebay. OK, there are some bargains to be had, especially with photography equipment, but the common thought that everything is cheaper on ebay is not always true.

One great source of second hand camera gear is on photography related forums. Many photographers give the first offer to people who use their favourite forums and often the offer will be better than when they put their gear on ebay.

If you are thinking about buying a camera, it is well worth checking out the second hand market as other photographers are replacing their kit when they reach it’s limits, but it can be perfect for a beginner. With digital prices coming down all the time, a 1 year old camera will still have all the functionality you would need to learn photography, but will be a fraction of the price of a new camera.

Get closer to your subject.

Once you have taken a picture from the viewpoint that you think is right, try getting closer and taking it again. You can do this by physically walking, or running if you feel the need just don’t drop your camera, closer to the subject or using your zoom lens and zooming in on the subject.

This fills the frame with more detail from the shot rather than the wider view and can help pick out certain details more effectively.

Getting really close may give your image a more abstract look where patterns and shapes make the image instead of a recognisable object.

If your lens allows you to screw on filters, get yourself a UV filter, or Skylight filter and put it on your lens and keep it there. You now have a lens guard. Buying a new filter is a lot easier and cheaper than buying a new lens if you manage to scratch it or you manage to damage it in some other way.

Aperture is the term used to describe what is simply the hole in the lens that light travels through to reach the camera’s sensor or film. This hole can be set at different sizes, and combined with shutter speed, you get the two main settings which control exposure. There is some maths involved to get the actual values, but to be honest, that doesn’t really matter. What’s more important is to know what aperture is, and what happens when you change it. Getting your head round aperture can be a bit of a hurdle, so hopefully this will help a little bit.

The first thing to get your head round is that the smaller the number the larger the hole. OK, that may sound a little odd but in this example f2.8 is the largest hole, and f22 is the smallest hole for the lens shown in the next photo.

Don’t worry about the ‘f’ either, there aren’t ‘g’ settings or ‘z’ settings, but it’s handy to know that when someone says “I used f8″, you know what they are referring to.

There are of course a range of settings in between the ones shown, and depending on what lens your camera has may effect what settings are available to use, but this should give you an idea of what is actually happening when you change the aperture setting on your camera. By making the hole smaller, you are reducing the amount of light that reaches the sensor or film in the time that the shutter is open. So from this you can start to see how shutter speed and aperture work together.

For example, if you are getting the perfect exposure with a shutter speed of 1 second and an aperture of f8, and then it gets a bit darker. You want to let more light in, so you can either keep the shutter open for longer, or make the hole bigger. Both will let more light in, but both have their own effects on the image, and it is these effects you should learn to understand.

Camera clubs are a bit like Marmite, you either like them or you don’t.

Camera clubs have a reputation as being a few grey haired old men talking about the pros and cons of a certain film, or comparing how big their lenses are.

However, camera clubs are NOT all like this, and they can be a great place for the beginner to learn and get advice, and even get some good second hand bargains frm ther members. The club will have lots of people who share the same interest in photography, there will be range of abilities, and there will be people who will willingly pass on their extensive experience.

The club will usually run competitions where the work gets critiqued by an experienced photographer from the club, or a guest judge, and this can be a great way to get feedback, good or bad, about your work. It can be daunting entering your work into a club competition, but it is well worth the effort. You may even find it does well!

Digital photography has helped, I think, widen the age range at camera clubs too. If you are lucky you may even see club members in their 20’s! Seriously though, with digital photography and digital darkrooms becoming more accessible, it attracts more people who, in the days of film, may not have been quite so interested.

I would recommend finding your nearest camera club and going along to see what you think. Give it a couple of visits before deciding if it’s for you or not, take a willing victim friend or realtive with you if you are a bit shy, but give it a go. It can be well worth the effort.

With digital photography becoming more accessible to the masses, and the level of technology that is available becoming cheaper all the time, for someone wanting to learn photography, digital is the best option over film because:

1. No more processing costs. With digital you can take as many pictures as you want. You don’t have to buy rolls of film, and you don’t have to send it away to be developed.

2. Instant results. As soon as you have taken the picture you can see the results. So now there is no waiting around to see if you got that important shot while the film is being developed.

3. Getting instant results gives you the chance to try again straight away if the picture didn’t turn out as you wanted. A major plus point for the beginner.

4. Although the initial purchase price may be quite high, once you have the kit there is very little extra expense, unless you start to get into it seriously.

5. Digital images give you a lot of flexibility to enhance or improve the image by using software on your computer. A lot of these enhancements can be done at the click of a button in most software applications so it is very easy to do.

6. Information on the camera settings for each shot gets embedded in the digital image file so you can see how different settings can effect the image. In the film days you would keep a log of your camera settings for each shot while you are learning. Now you get that log whenever you take a digital picture.

7.  Film has a shelf life, memory cards don’t. As film get’s older it degrades and may give you unexpected results. A memory card, if looked after, will last a lot longer than a roll of film will.

8.  Digital images can be easily displayed to the world via web sites. It’s possible to take a picture and upload it to a web site within seconds if you have the right equipment. Press and sports photographers see this as a huge benefit.

9.  Digital files can be easily stored. You no longer need to have boxes of photos or slides tucked away in a cupboard. Now you can save hundreds of photos into one CD, or even more onto a DVD.

10. Film comes as one particular type, such as ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800 or ISO 1600. This limits you to the conditions in which you can take pictures. With digital you can change the settings from one picture to the next giving you greater flexibility.

Shutter speed is a setting on your camera which controls the length of time the shutter is open, allowing light through the lens to the sensor inside your camera. Shutter speeds can go from very small fractions of a second, to several seconds long on most cameras.

So why would you want to change it?

On a very bright day when there is a lot of light, if you allow the shutter to be open for too long then too much light will get to the sensor. When this happens you end up with pictures that are very pale and almost all white. This is known as being Over Exposed.

Let’s say, for a simplified example, that to get a perfectly exposed image on a bright sunny day, ignoring all the other camera settings, that you need the shutter to open for half a second. This half a second allows just the right amount of light through to the sensor to get a well exposed imaged.

Now, as the day goes by and you get to the evening, there isn’t as much light about. So if you took a picture and your shutter speed was still set at half a second you would end up with a very dark image, or an Under Exposed image. This is because not enough light got through to the cameras sensor in that half a second. So in order to compensate against lower levels of light, you would need to keep the shutter open for longer.

You can see an example of under and over exposed images here.

This may seem straight forward enough, but the longer the shutter is open, the more chance there is of ending up with a blurred image. The slightest of movements while the shutter is open will register as a blurred effect. Sometimes this can be the desired effect, but most of the time you want a sharp image. Using a tripod, sitting the camera on a solid object like a wall or the floor or holding the camera against a solid object like a big tree or wall can help reduce the chances of getting blurry images.

Most digital cameras will have a fully automatic setting where it decides what settings are best, so all you have to worry about is pointing the camera in the right direction and pressing the button. This may be the mode you use all the time, but it’s well worth experimenting with these settings yourself to see what effect they have. Once you start to understand these settings and what they can do to your image you will open up a whole new range of photographic opportunities and much more creative and pleasing photos.

Before you press the shutter release button (take the picture) stop and look at what you can see through the view finder or what you can see on the screen on your camera.

Are there any distracting objects in view?

Are there any bright areas of the image that will distract the eye of the person looking at your image, away from the main point of focus?

Is everything in focus?

Could the picture be improved by moving a little?

Training yourself to stop and think for a few seconds can help you produce much more pleasing images.