For the first 350 shots or so that I took with my new D80, I was very stingy with the ISO setting. Even in dark situations I would change it from 100 to 400 which didn't really help much in terms of increasing the shutter speed. I was always worried about introducing too much grain into my pictures; pictures that I wouldn't be doing too much with other than uploading them to a photo-sharing website, distributing to friends, or at the most, printing a 4x6. I was too worried about the small details rather than focussing on getting the composition, framing and other elements correct.

After reading reviews, comparisons, and how-tos I realized that grain isn’t really a problem unless I’m going to be making large prints, else it’s not really that big of an issue. The D80’s built-in noise reduction is very good as well, so that helps.

Bottom line is that I was being very stingy with turning up the ISO. So I took pictures with an ISO of 400, and they looked fine on the camera LCD, but when I looked at the full size on the computer, there was quite a bit of blur. The shutter speed just wasn’t fast enough.

Lesson learned – Don’t be afraid of noise, it’s not so bad. Also, if circumstances allow, take a few pictures varying the ISO setting. Now I’m focussing more on the ‘bigger picture’ in terms of proper balance (rule of 3rds if it applies), framing the shot, lighting and other more important elements.

This article by Ken Rockwell really helped open my eyes. It's definitely worth a read.