The ISO level indicates how sensitive is the camera sensor to light. I consider the ISO level a rescue shooting parameter, as it allows to get impossible pictures (exposure-wise) by sacrificing some quality.
My rule of thumb: ISO level should be always as low as possible.
Why so? High ISO levels (higher than 1600) add a lot of noise to the pictures, which makes it look dirty. Consider the two examples below.
The following picture was taken using ISO level 100.
However, the following picture was taken using ISO level 6400.
Can you see the difference? Focus on the girl’s forehead. Do you see how in the first picture (ISO 100) the image seems smooth, while in the second one (ISO 6400) there seems to be some abnormal pixels? That’s noise, consequence of high ISO levels.
When to use high ISO levels then?
High ISO levels can be used when neither increasing the aperture nor increasing the exposure time are enough to get correct exposure.
Play with it!
I strongly recommend you to play a bit. Put your camera in any mode and experiment with this setting, find differences when using ISO 100 and ISO 6400. Get familiar with the numbers and their consequences.
If you don't have your camera with you, you can use some fantastic online simulators. The one I recommend is CameraSim.
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