Tutorials

Sensitivity is your wild card when photographing in low-light conditions. Your DxO ONE lets you select a high sensitivity value while maintaining high image quality.

A camera’s sensitivity setting, which is expressed in ISO, indicates the sensor’s ability to record light. It’s one of the three key factors of photography (along with aperture and shutter speed). With a DSLR camera, you can change the sensitivity setting with each image to match the lighting conditions.
The main drawback with increasing the sensitivity is digital noise. You can select a wider aperture or a faster shutter speed, but the image quality will be reduced. However, the technology in new cameras has improved significantly, especially with respect to sensitivity. Today, these tools make it possible to take photographs in low lighting by using a very high sensitivity setting to capture beautiful photos.

Your DxO ONE is no exception — you can use it to photograph at very high sensitivities. The highest level it offers is 12800 ISO and even 51200 (HI2) in extended ISO. However, to avoid digital noise, which affects the details in your photo, don’t go beyond 12800 ISO unless you’re shooting with very little light, in which case you have to increase the sensitivity to extreme levels to be able to take a photo.

When photographing a dark scene, select the program (P) mode. The shutter speed and aperture settings will adjust automatically, so all you have to do is set the sensitivity. You can select the maximum ISO value that you don’t want to exceed in the settings menu on your DxO ONE.

With a high sensitivity setting, you can take photos underwater with your DxO ONE as long you use its waterproof Outdoor Shell. In shutter priority (S) mode, increase the shutter speed to obtain sharp photos and set the sensitivity to AUTO mode. If the background becomes dark, the sensitivity will increase automatically.

At nightfall in an urban setting, the reflections on store windows make for a very visually striking subject, but the environment is dark. Increase the sensitivity to shorten the exposure time and to be able to shoot handheld. Use these same settings at nighttime urban events, such as concerts.
In the middle of the day, increase the ISO sensitivity to increase the shutter speed. This is useful for capturing motion, such as in sports photography. However, don’t increase the sensitivity more than necessary to maintain optimal image quality.

During the editing stage, both DxO PhotoLab and DxO Connect software and their powerful algorithms automatically reduce the digital noise created by shooting at high sensitivity levels as soon as you import the photos.