ISO is basically defined as a camera setting that helped to brings captured images brighten or darken. In simple terms, as you increase your ISO number, your photos will grow progressively brighter. ISO can help you capture images in darker environments, or be more flexible about your aperture and shutter speed settings.

What is ISO?

ISO controls the sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor to light. It is one of three elements that, together with the shutter speed and aperture, form the exposure triangle.

ISO settings

A low ISO number makes your camera less sensitive to light and gives your photo a fine grain. On the other hand, a higher ISO number will make the sensor more sensitive, making the image brighter, which is ideal for low-light situations. But there is a downside, increasing ISO increases grain.

ISO: 50 / f1.6 / SS: 1/800 s

ISO: 100 / f1.6 / SS: 1/800 s

ISO: 200 / f1.6 / SS: 1/800 s

ISO and quality

A lower ISO will produce a better quality photo with better color, a better dynamic range, and less digital noise. A higher ISO generally produces grainy or noise-like images with less contrast and less vivid colors. It is recommended to keep the ISO as low as possible to get the highest possible quality.

ISO: 1600 / f1.6 / SS: 1/1000 s

ISO: 3200 / f1.6 / SS: 1/1000 s

ISO: 6400 / f1.6 / SS: 1/1000 s

It is possible that you will not see much noise even at an ISO value of 6,400, because the Huawei P30 Pro performs very well in low light and can even go up to an ISO of 409,600. This allows you to take good photos even in extreme darkness.

ISO 409 600 (Before-After)

ISO: 409,600 / f1.6 / SS: 0.5 s

ISO-409600

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is one of the three sides of our exposure triangle, along with ISO and aperture. The shutter speed is also known as the exposure time. It is the time that the shutter of your camera is open and the image sensor is exposed to light when taking a picture.

Shutter settings

In-camera pro mode, the shutter speed is displayed with an “S”. It is usually measured in whole seconds or in fractions of a second. The whole second is usually written with “or s, for example, 1” or 1s is for a second exposure. For fractions, 1/4 means a quarter of a second.

Huawei phones with pro mode can handle a fast shutter speed up to 1 / 4000th of a second. You can increase it even more if you work in automatic mode, as long as you shoot in a very bright environment. The cheat sheet below will help you better understand the effect of a faster shutter speed (right) and a slower shutter speed (left).

ISO: 50 / f1.6 / S: 1 / 1700s (faster shutter speed freezes motion)

ISO: 50 / f1.6 / S: 0.8s (a slower shutter speed introduces motion blur or motion blur)

Thanks, Amski (Huawei Community)