Alternatively, is a classic theory of photography still relevant in today's digital age. The following 'unaccredited' photo was sent to me by a regular forum member. I wonder how relevant or even how accurate it is in today's world.
ISO or rather ISO 6:1993 which defines the scales for speeds of black-and-white negative film and color reversal film, ISO 5800:2001 which defines the speed of color negative film, and/or ISO 12232:2006 that describes speeds with digital still-cameras, has a long history as setting the guidelines for photographers. It all comes down to being consistent... it was a way of talking about and working through what was originally an analogue process. The issue with digital is that the sensor doesn't change sensitivity in the same way that changing film did. In summary, the light collected with a digital camera is based only on the length of the exposure and the opening of the shutter. The noise is strictly a result of the ability of the sensor (workflow) to unpack that information cleanly.... clearly the sensors (processes) available today are much cleaner than they were even a few years ago. What that means is that we can shoot underexposed and increase the gain during image processing. Shooting to the right is no longer etched in stone. In the digital world, given a certain level of technology, ISO is almost irrelevant.
The impact of improved noise control, has a direct impact on our thinking regarding aperture settings (f-stops). In the classic world, fast lenses were required due to low available ISO film speeds. Kokachrome was rated at ISO 64 so (for example) you needed to shoot wide open to capture shadow detail in low light... There is something called bokeh (BOH-kay) that was of interest to the art-types... Now the main (only?) reason to shoot at f/0.9, f/1.2, or f/1.4 is to isolate the subject and even that requirement is being sliced and diced by technology vis-à-vis the new dual lens smart phones.
Low light; crank the ISO and shoot for extended depth-of-field or if bokeh is your thing, get a selfie stick or hone your image processing skills ; ) Lens filters... in-camera or processed... one regular exception for me is the polarizer filter (PL circular or linear)... panorama cameras... forget about it.
Lens or in-camera stabilization as viewed via the internet... ignore shutter speed unless you are shooting sports... et voilà! or as they say in the country that taught the world English "Bob's your uncle".
Do (should) photographers think about f-stops, shutter speeds, and/or ISO? I might start another thread about about content and presentation... Maybe not as riveting as the literary spat between Tom Wolfe and Noam Chomsky over the roots of language, but something to think about while waiting for film to come back from the lab.
Casey
© 2017 - WatchProZine