ISO – Concert Photography

ƒ/1.8 • 50.0 mm • 1/400 • ISO 3200

As promised, finally got around to test out various ISO settings. This isn’t as easy as turning a dial on the T6 to change shutter speed because the ISO button is on the back of the camera body. That said, it’s still very accessible and fast once you get used to the motions. Take photo, bring camera down, press ISO button, arrow key to desired ISO, press ok and ready to shoot again.

The lighting at Black Cat was pretty good for this show which somewhat skews this experiment. This is especially true for Katie since she was under a spotlight. I say this because usually in No Flash Mode which chooses ISO automatically, it defaults to 3200. Whereas ISO 3200 in this case is over exposed. All of which makes perfect sense. After all, 3200 is meant for low light conditions. The higher the ISO, the more noise (pixelation) is introduced into the photograph so the point is to choose the lowest ISO optimal for the lighting on hand. The T6 assists in this effort by displaying a horizontal meter at the bottom of the viewfinder when the camera is in focus. The mid point indicates optimal.

Even with plenty of light, ISO 100 is still best reserved for outdoor shots as demonstrated below. That said, thanks to the “disappearance” of the mic stand and cord in this case, the photo offers a rather artful if eerie atmosphere of sorts. It isn’t until ISO 1600 that objects in the background are getting picked up by the camera. On the other spectrum at ISO 6400, well, you can see for yourself.