Only so-so on ISO?

The ISO is one of the three significant factors in taking quality pictures on any camera. So I thought it might be nice for everyone to know what it is. I'm sure, by now, if you like to tinker, you noticed that changing the ISO seems to make your pictures "different" but its hard to really place how. I'm going to attempt to simplify it for you.

ISO is the adopted name for the International Organization for Standardization. I know its not an in the right order to be an acronym; if you want a history lesson on it read the wiki. Basically ISO is the film speed.

Now I know what you are thinking, "Who uses film anymore?" Well a lot of people; but besides that you will find that every aspect of digital photography is tied to analog, A.K.A film.

So what is film speed? It is the speed at which the film reacts to light. That is all a photo is by the way, light hitting film/sensor. So the faster film means less "time" is needed to get a fully exposed shot; meaning you can have a faster shutter speed or higher F-stop (more on that later).

Lets get to the important part, what ISO does to your pictures and what settings are best for what situations.

Lower ISO settings (typically 100-400) are good for well lit situations, like a sunny day at the park or a light overcast day; where as higher ISO settings (800-1600+) are good for darker situations, a poorly lit room or after dusk. Here is the catch, the higher the ISO, the more "noise" you see in a picture. So you have to decide whether you want a picture with some noise or, if you are trying to stop a kid in motion, deal with a blurry photo. If your photos are looking over exposed (way too bright) or your shutter is unnecessarily fast, try lowering the ISO as a first step. It will produce a cleaner picture in the end.

Good luck and happy shooting!

What's up with the name?

The name... hmmm. Not an easy challenge. Finding a name, for me, is like trying to find a pair of shoes that don't make me look like a clown ( I'm 6'5" with a size 13 shoe; that's just about all of them).

Now you want to make it even harder? Try starting a photography company. Literally every word associated with a camera and its various accessories is being used as a name for a photo company. Try it: Shutter, Aperture, Tilt, Lens... and others just sounded funny to start with, like Flash Photography (I feel like that one needs a warning label on that one).

I thought about just going with my own name but, lets face it, that just makes me sound stuck-up. Not to mention the name doesn't sing and looks boring even in script fonts.

This left me with one option: obscure words that had a subtle meaning behind them.

I came up with the name eXChange photography while thinking about my main focus behind starting this thing, I wanted to see the control switch from the photographer to the customer. To many times I have been forced to pay for prints that I didn't like or even want all because the photographer made me feel obligated to pay. I mean what other industry do you know would make you pay for poor work? Even McDonald's will take back their food if you don't like it.

So eXChange, eX- The old way of thinking and welcome the -Change. Not to mention, less subtly, the word exchange refers to a trade. I'm sure i could come up with a million different reasons I love the name, but lets keep it simple.