Mother & Child: Langur

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I guess Mother hood doesn't come easy. Photographed in Bandhavgarh National Park. This is an old photograph from my 2005 archives.

Canon EOS 10D, Canon EF 300mm F4 L IS USM, Sigma 1.4x TC. ISO 800, f5.6, 1/125 sec. Full frame image.

I was trying out in the late evening and forgot to change the ISO. So lots of tiger photos were also captured at ISO 800 in the morning.

Look forward to your comments.

[Mohammed Raheel]

I was trying out in the late evening and forgot to change the ISO. So lots of tiger photos were also captured at ISO 800 in the morning.

Saby,, ideally what should have been the ISO in this picture?
What could be the thumb rule for ISO adjustments for beginners?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good question.

If you notice I was using a lens with image stabilisation. And the subject was still. The langur baby was also not moving as it was feeding. I was using a bean bag from an open gypsy and no one was moving in th vehicle. So I could have used a shutter speed of 1/60 easily. Shutter speed of 1/30th would have been manageable as well. I would have used ISO 200 for this scene.

In the days of film, the films with higher ISOs were basically more sensitive to light and reacted faster. In digital, the signals are amplified to simulate the ISOs.

The low ISOs give you low noise. ISO 100 and ISO 200 gives you low noise. So it is safer to use those ISOs. When you half press your shutter, it shows you the shutter speed at a particular aperture. You can increase or decrease your ISO based on the shutter speed. If you feel the light level is low, and the shutter speed is becoming low resulting in pictures not being sharp, then increase the ISO.

These days, the low noise capabilities of the cameras are much better. Till ISO 400, you get low noise. Try to remain within that range.

A word of caution. If you underexpose your photo and then try to increase the exposure in post processing, then you are likely to get more noise. So try to get the exposure right in the camera itself.