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If you find yourself in a situation in which the lighting isn’t quite right for your picture, it’s time to bump up the camera’s ISO value. Remember that not all cameras come with ISO adjustments, so review your user manual to see if this applies to your particular model. You’ll probably find it in the onscreen menu system, displayed in the LCD screen on the back of your camera.
Here are some situations in which you might need to increase the ISO:

• You’re shooting in a low-light situation, such as early evening or indoors Naturallight photos have a certain appeal, and by increasing the light sensitivity of your camera you may be able to shoot a picture without using the flash at all. Using natural light can eliminate harsh shadows and produce more natural colors.
• Your subject is too far away for the flash to have any effect During the day you might be outdoors and want to take a picture of something, but there’s not quite enough light—such as in winter or during very overcast conditions. Your camera wants to use a flash, but your subject is just too far away. The flash on your digital camera has a very limited range. So to properly expose your picture, you need to use “faster film”—that is, increase the camera’s ISO setting.
• You’re shooting at night Most digital cameras have very little ability to take pictures at night or in near total darkness. A few models can extend the shutter to about half of a second, but that’s about it. As a result, if you want to capture anything at all with a night shot, you’ll need to increase the camera’s light sensitivity to maximum.

If night photography interests you, investigate what I refer to as “performance” digital cameras—cameras that include manually adjustable shutter speeds and apertures. Cameras like the Nikon CoolPix 995, the Olympus C-4040, and the Canon PowerShot G2 are the sorts of models that are better equipped to deal with very low light such as you’ll encounter at night. Using more full-featured cameras let you perform long exposures for light trails, glowing illuminated signage, and other special effects.

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