In this lesson: Master the art of using grain and noise for visual communication

Using a high ISO setting not only allows you to create photos in low-light situations, but it also produces digital noise, which gives your images a grainy look. This can be used in a creative manner for dramatic impact.

When you think of grain in a photo, you likely think of one like the image above – a black and white image that has a gritty look to it. In the film days, that gritty look was a result of using high ISO film – film that was more sensitive to light than normal film.

Today, noise in a digital image is the equivalent of grain on film. Just as grain in a film negative increases with the speed of the film, the noise produced by a digital imaging sensor increases with ISO sensitivity. For example, digital noise is virtually nonexistent when the ISO is set at 100. But at ISO 3200, noise will be evident. Noise is often considered detrimental to an image, so the standard practice is to use the lowest practical ISO setting when shooting. Noise, however, can also be used to help convey the mood of an image. In that context, increasing the ISO setting may offer some benefits to your images.

Noise Can Agitate the Senses

Typically, when we inspect photos – be they landscapes, portraits, or something in between, we see images that are clear and sharp. Beyond that, they often look clean – as though we are seeing the scene with our own crystal clear vision rather than viewing a photo of the scene.

Noise changes all that. With the inclusion of the grit and grain produced by using a high ISO, you can make the viewer uncomfortable, which helps them have a more visceral reaction to the image. In the image above, for example, the addition of grain adds to the unsettling feeling of the impending storm. Rather than being an idyllic, clear photo of the beauty of nature, the noise in the image shifts it toward the chaotic and raw power of the waves coming ashore.

Often, utilizing noise in this manner also means that viewers will inspect the image with greater focus. In short, noise can be used as a creative tool to compel viewers to interact more thoroughly with your image.

Noise Helps Portray Mood

There’s an unfinished quality to images that have a lot of noise. Sometimes, that can be detrimental. Other times, that unfinished look can be used to your advantage because noise can take an image to another level by enhancing the mood of the scene.

Using the image above as an example, we see how the graininess of the image makes it a more pensive and reserved photo (the black and white treatment helps in this as well). There’s almost a feeling that the girl is so lost in thought that she doesn’t realize her photo is being taken, giving the photo an unresolved quality. Now, imagine the same photo in color without that grittiness to it. It wouldn’t have the same moody impact, would it?

Shoot in Low-Light Conditions

As alluded to earlier, by using a higher ISO, you enable your camera to capture images in low-light situations. So, from a purely practical standpoint, boosting the ISO gives you greater latitude in terms of the subject matter you can photograph – it makes nighttime photography easier and indoor photography more productive. For example, using a higher ISO in the image above allowed the photographer to capture his subject – the little girl and her umbrella – as well as the surroundings. If it weren’t for a higher ISO, the image might have only been of the girl and the umbrella surrounded by darkness.

Challenge Activity

Seeing the artistic value in digital noise can be a difficult task for new photographers – and experienced photographers too! This challenge activity will help you embrace noise as a compositional tool to make more dramatic photos.

In this activity, you will capture photographs at a high ISO setting (say, ISO 800 and above), highlighting the austerity of the subject. Create “grainy” images that convey an uneasy sense of psychological and visual imbalance, like the one above. Try composing images diagonally and processing in black and white to enhance these effects, as seen in the image below. Note how the image above has much less grain than the image below – consider how additional graininess would make the image above more impactful.

Step 1: Find a staircase, ladder or another subject with strong vertical or horizontal lines.

Step 2: Set your camera on a diagonal axis, such that your subject is framed from a unique perspective.

Step 3: Take a series of photos at various ISO settings, starting at a low value, say ISO 400, and moving your way up the ISO scale with each image you take. Use the grainy appearance in the high ISO shots to enhance the unsettling effect of the slanted photo. Be sure to compare your shots from one to the next so you can get a clear visual regarding just how much changes in ISO impact the level of grain in your photos.