Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

Pushing the ISO

Using high ISO values creates images with digital

noise, but how much noise can you stand before

the image is unusable? This is a personal prefer-

ence and can be influenced by the final use. If

the images are for the Web, just to be e-mailed

among family members, or printed at 4 × 6, then

you can use a higher ISO and more noise reduc-

tion. If the images are to be printed on glossy

paper at 8 × 10 or larger, then you might not

want to go as high with the ISO.

You should decide beforehand the highest ISO

that you are comfortable with for your camera.

For example, I know that I can use ISO 3200 on

my Nikon D700 and get a usable file that doesn’t

have too much noise in my opinion. The amount

of noise that you are willing to put up with in

your images may be different.

Know the Sport

Knowing how to adjust the setting on your cam-

era and what the best exposure settings are is only

part of the equation. The rest is all about know-

ing the sport so that you can anticipate where the

action will be and capture it successfully — you

have to know what is going on.

Study the sport

One of the best ways to improve your sports pho-

tography is to know as much about the sport as

possible before trying to photograph it. I don’t

mean that you need to know all the rules and reg-

ulations, but you need to understand how the

game works, where the players are going to be,

and what their purposes are.

Consider basketball, for example; it is usually

played indoors and there are five players on each

team, which means that there should be ten

preview. It is critical that you zoom in to look at
the image at 100 percent. Just seeing the thumb-
nail view does not allow you to see any of the
slight fuzziness that might be in your image.
Check your camera manual for how to preview at
100 percent, and when you do, make sure that
the area you are previewing is the area that you
need to have in focus.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO Because the action was coming right at
me, I was able to use a slower shutter speed and still freeze the action.
Taken at 1/320 second, f/2.8, and ISO 1600.

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