When shooting indoors or outdoors at night, which ISO is preferred?

When shooting indoors or outdoors at night, a higher ISO, such as 800, is preferred because it allows the camera sensor to be more sensitive to light. At night, or in low-light conditions, there is limited available light, and using a higher ISO enables you to capture images without needing excessively long exposure times or wide apertures, which could lead to motion blur or a shallow depth of field.

ISO 800 strikes a balance between sensitivity and noise level; it provides adequate brightness for low-light scenes while still maintaining relatively good image quality. Images captured at this setting tend to exhibit less noise compared to very high ISO settings, making it suitable for night photography. Even though increasing the ISO can introduce graininess, ISO 800 typically allows for more controlled image quality that is acceptable for nighttime shooting circumstances, delivering clearer and sharper images without heavy post-processing.

Lower ISO settings, such as 100 or 200, would not be effective in low-light conditions, as they require more light to produce a properly exposed image, which is often not available at night. ISO 400 could be usable, but ISO 800 generally provides a brighter and clearer result, making it the more favorable choice in low-light environments.