In its most basic form, photography is the act of capturing the light reflected off an object and recording it on paper or another material. Therefore, the quality of a photograph is largely determined by the amount of light that reaches the camera's light sensor. Both digital and film cameras use a light sensor to determine how much light is needed to create an adequately exposed image. The sensitivity setting of a camera's light sensor is called its ISO, named for the International Organization for Standardization that standardized the light-sensitivity measurement.
ISO Options in Digital Cameras
Many fully automatic all-in-one (also called "point and shoot") digital cameras come with a preset ISO of 100 that can't be changed. Digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, which often have manual and automatic settings, have an ISO that can be adjusted. In these cameras, you can adjust the ISO to a higher number in order to increase light sensitivity, which is ideal for darker conditions, or you can adjust it to a lower number to avoid over-exposure to light in bright conditions.
Higher ISO
Turning your camera's ISO setting up will allow you to take pictures in lower-light conditions, such as inside a building, because the light sensor will be more sensitive to the limited amount of available light. However, shooting with a higher ISO setting will also result in lower picture quality. You may also need to use a tripod to avoid blurred objects in the photograph if you are using a higher ISO.
Lower ISO
Lowering your camera's ISO setting will allow you to take pictures in bright conditions, such as a sunny day at the beach, by making the light sensor less sensitive to light and less likely to result in overexposed pictures. If you are using a lower ISO, however, you must make sure that the conditions are bright enough to warrant it. Otherwise, the image may be underexposed and the photograph will be too dark.
Other Considerations
Although a digital camera's ISO setting plays a big part in making sure that a photograph is properly exposed, there are other settings to take into consideration as well. The camera's aperture setting, which determines how much light reaches the light sensor by widening or narrowing the hole through which light reaches it, will also affect the photo's exposure. Another important setting is the camera's shutter speed, which determines how long the camera's shutter will remain open; a higher shutter speed will allow less light to reach the sensor, while a lower speed will allow the sensor to remain exposed for a longer period.
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