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High ISO Tip: Hong Kong Night Photography

Any photo tour of Hong Kong wouldn’t be complete without a shot of one of the local junk boats against a brightly lit skyline. The iconic Chinese junk, from the word ‘jong’ in old Javanese meaning boat, has been around for over a thousand years.

When framed against HK’s ultra-modern skyline, it makes for a perfect ‘Old vs New’ themed shot. One way to capture the shot is to increase your camera’s ISO. Let’s take a closer look why.

What is ISO?

The meaning of ISO is International Organization Standard. In terms of photography, ISO is a way to measure a camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. If you’re using film, it’s also called film speed.

Low ISOs like 100 to 400 are less sensitive to light. High ISOs like 3,000 or 6,000 are more sensitive. The drawback with ISO is that the higher you go the lower your image quality.

Best ISO Settings for Night Photography

Is there one ISO setting that’s perfect for night photography? Definitely not! As with any photographic situation, it all depends on the amount of light and your desired creative outcome.

For example, if you want to photograph the junk boats at night in Hong Kong, you’ll need to push up your ISO. A higher ISO will help you get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the movement of the boat.

High ISO (1600) photo of a Hong Kong junk boat by Julien Grondin.

For example, Julien ‘Beboy’ Grondin shot this photo at 1/15 sec. at f2.8, 35mm, ISO 1600. Nowadays, most cameras can handle a higher ISO. In fact, it can never be too high.

According to Julien, “The most important thing is to get the shot. A grainy image is better than no image at all.” I’d have to agree.

High ISO: Should You Be Afraid?

To sum up, ISO is simply one method to make your photo lighter or darker. There are definitely some drawbacks to using a high ISO. On the other hand, using a higher ISO may be the only way for you to capture your shot.

So whether you’re trying to photograph junk boats at night in Hong Kong, or making a photo tour of your own neighborhood, the most important thing is to do what you have to do to get your shot.

How about you? Do you care that much about grain in your photos? Is it better to get the shot or miss it because you care purely about image quality? Leave a comment below.


Comments

6 responses to “High ISO Tip: Hong Kong Night Photography”

  1. Dave Straton Avatar
    Dave Straton

    I think ‘noise anxiety’ is over-rated. Recent cameras (I have a Nikon D850) can handle a pretty high ISO without any noise to worry about. In the old days of film, it was sometimes quite fashionable to push development to get increased grain. I know grain and noise are not quite the same, but I still think noise has been given a bad rap, and should be tolerated more than it is.

    1. I like that term “noise anxiety,” Dave. I agree about recent cameras being able to handle more noise. Even my Sony A7ii that was released in December 2014 performs well at higher ISO levels. Yes, if I remember correctly people used to choose a certain types of film for the noise. These days there’s even some nice hipster presets and filters to reproduce the effect. Thanks for your comment.

  2. If you do not have the photo, you cannot decide whether to keep it or not!
    I started doing concert and theatre photography 40 years ago by pushing my black and white negatives to 1600 ISO during developing and printing to 20″ by 16″ with no problem. With modern cameras and post processing grain is not really a problem and can be used to great effect. To prove the point there are lots of presets to put grain in to your photos.

    1. Ha, good point David! You’re right about the grain adding an artistic effect. It just depends on what type of look you’re going after.

  3. Hi Pete, just saying hi, as I’ve recently attended your online workshops with Singapore Photography Community. I’m a cityscape photography enthusiast mostly shooting long exposure, so the topic was spot on! Hopefully you’ll come back again for similar topics. Thanks and take care!

    1. Hey Joey, glad you enjoyed the workshop. I share info about upcoming workshops in my newsletter. Hope to see you at the next one!

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