ISO Experiments

ISO is a digital camera setting used to either brighten or darken photos. As the ISO number is increased, the photos will become progressively brighter, whereas decreasing the ISO number will cause the photos to become darker. For that reason, ISO can help to capture images in darker environments, or be more flexible about the aperture and shutter speed settings.

Using an ISO of 100 is shown to be highly unsuitable for lighting an area outside at night, as this video showing a piece of back garden demonstrates. Not only is it extremely underexposed, but if viewed closely, one can see faint traces of grain. The most obvious solution to these problems would be to increase the ISO, and see what problems arise from said setup.





Continuing on from the previous experiment, the next does indeed consist of upping the ISO level - in this case, from 100 to 3200. The time and area in this video is the same as the first, only the space appears to now have the correct exposure, as light from bulbs both inside my house and outside can actually be seen, along with the objects that the light casts onto. Unfortunately, lots of grain is present at such a high ISO level, which is a problem that can be resolved by using external lights designed for film production to effectively illuminate the area. In turn, this would mean that the ISO could be decreased, and so the amount of grain would also receive the same treatment.





This video shows a pan of one side of my back garden whilst under heavy sunlight. An ISO of 200 was used to film the area, which appears to be most suitable, as barely any grain can be seen. In addition, the space can be considered lit very well, since there is very little underexposure or overexposure present, with the exception of the portion of the garden cast in shadow.





Filmed entirely indoors, the video presents one side of my bedroom at night, with an ISO of 1600 having been set. It would seem that the amount of exposure is suitable for the area, however, plenty of grain can be viewed at all points. The best solution to this issue would be to utilise external lights designed for film production, as they would help illuminate the area professionally, meaning that the ISO could be lowered, which would produce less grain.





An ISO of 100 was used to film this experimental lighting video of my computer screen rapidly flashing a red light. The experiment was to see how far the light would reach into its surrounding area. Alas, the light did not cause as much effect as hoped, due to the ISO being too low, and the screen not being powerful enough to produce more light. Furthermore, a significantly distracting amount of grain can be seen wherever the light touches. It would be wise to correct this by making use of external lights designed specially for film production.