Project 39: using faster film and higher sensitivity

The aim of this project was to discover the use of / benefits / shortcomings of different ISO levels. I chose to undertake this project on an overcast, rainy day and photographed some autumn leaves and trees in the neighbourhood. I chose this day because I thought it would be really obvious to see the differences the ISO made. What I didn't expect was that I could hardly hand-hold the camera at the shutter speeds required at ISO 100! And that was at the widest aperture of 2.8! Seemingly the light levels are even lower than I had thought. Nonetheless I managed to get some comparison shots, but changing the ISO as necessary, though a couple of the images do show some blurring. The wonderful thing about shooting in the rain was the lovely intense colours which are brought out by the rain and the fantastic diffuse light that overcast days have (which I generally don't appreciate enough!).
So obviously the advantage of increasing the ISO to 400 or 800 today was to be able to actually take the shot! The same would apply in evening shooting without a tripod, or in a night venue or cafe where light levels are low. The drawback is higher noise/grain levels, which can either add to the photo, not matter or be a feature of the photo, depending on the subject matter. Even if you were using a tripod, sometimes it might be useful to increase the ISO, for example if the slow shutter speeds mean things moving in the wind (such as trees/leaves) and then it might be worth increasing the ISO. Also with lower ISO you can be limited to using the larger apertures, but sometimes you might want larger depth of field, so need to decrease the aperture. Increasing the ISO will allow for this. The other end of the spectrum is if you want the silky water effect you might want to decrease the ISO as much as possible (obviously a tripod is needed for this) and then you can increase the shutter speeds.

Now, after I've gone on a bit; onto some photos!
Photo 1, ISO 100

70mm, f/2.8, 1/20sec,

Photo 1, ISO400

70mm, f/2.8, 1/90s

Photo 2, ISO100

70mm, f/2.8, 1/15s

Photo 2, ISO400

70mm, f/2.8, 1/60s

Photo 3, ISO200

48mm, f/2.8, 1/15s

Photo 3, ISO400

48mm, f/2.8, 1/30s

Photo 4, ISO200

48mm, f/2.8, 1/60s

Photo 4, ISO800

48mm, f/4, 1/125s

Photo 5, ISO400

70mm, f/4, 1/20s

Photo 5, ISO800

70mm, f/4, 1/45s

Photo 6, ISO200

70mm, f/2.8, 1/20s

Photo 6, ISO400

70mm, f/2.8, 1/45s

Photo 7, ISO200

70mm, f/2.8, 1/30s

Photo 7, ISO400

70mm, f/2.8, 1/60s