Anyone who has held a camera in their hands has seen these three letters – ISO. Nowadays, we might even find them in some smartphone apps, like the Blackmagic Camera for iPhone used in the featured image. Most of you are surely aware of common ISO numbers or what happens when you crank this setting up. However, if we dig deeper and touch on “native ISO”, “dual ISO”, and the common misconceptions of “how to set it correctly”, the discussion often becomes vague. No wonder. It’s a complicated topic. So, why don’t we revisit the basics and try to really understand ISO on technical and creative levels. It all starts with the exposure. As filmmakers or photographers, we need to get the correct amount of light in order to produce images that tell our particular story. There is a famous triangle of factors that helps us with that: the lens aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. We have already explained shutter speed in detail here. (Exploring the power of aperture is on the list for future texts.) By changing the aperture, you control the amount of light that hits the sensor. By changing the shutter, you control how much time the light will hit the sensor. What about ISO? Well, ISO, on the contrary, doesn’t actually have any influence on the light itself. Why, then, do we talk about it when we talk about exposure? Tal Lazar, seasoned filmmaker, educator, and author of several MZed courses, including “The Language...
Published By: CineD - Thursday, 8 August, 2024