willy6419

I'm an amateur hobbyist that shoots some macro, mostly landscapes and wildlife, working on BIF skills in preparation for 5+ weeks in Alaska. Nikon D 500 and D 750 bodies with a variety of lenses. Normally RAW and Lightroom post processing. Tripod or monopod when i can.

I'm experimenting with Auto ISO for wildlife to maintain desired shutter speed image quality, in varying light conditions. My goal is tact sharp image.

Any advice to speed my learning curve or redirect my thinking is appreciated.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I have been shooting wildlife professionally since the early 1970's and Auto ISO would be one of the LAST settings I would choose. I always select my ISO & WB based on the scene and light I am shooting in.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

"Auto ISO" like anything auto is going to give you a compromise sometimes. If you want to be sure to get a shot if the light is off a bit, then go with Auto ISO but understand if the other settings are off you may get noisy shots. In my limited experience noise is easier to deal with in PP than out of focus due to too slow a shutter speed.

willy6419

Thanks, Understand Auto is a compromise and best to 'control'. It's given me some 'surprises' already, so appreciate the comments.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

At least one pro wildlife shooter posted a long discussion on UHH within the last year on why he has moved from shutter priority to auto ISO plus exposure compensation to deal with rapidly changing light conditions. If the search function were better, I’d be able to find it, but perhaps someone else can reference the post - I found it to be pretty persuasive.

Jim Bob

Simple. Use the lowest ISO possible to capture the image you are shooting. I only use auto ISO in situations where lighting is unpredictable. Your mileage may vary.

Jim Bob

On this issue you are dead right.

anotherview Loc: California

Being a Canon shooter, I cannot offer an assessment of your Nikon camera and its ISO performance.

In general, though, putting a digital camera on Auto ISO allows the shooter to control Shutter Speed and Aperture manually, to suit intention, while the camera automatically picks the required ISO for a good exposure.

At some point, however, Auto ISO may select an ISO setting that produces too much noise in the captured image. The judgment of the shooter must determine the level of noise acceptable to the purpose of the image.

Know that the advent and development of image stabilization has given the shooter more latitude in the selection of exposure settings. In other words, with IS, the shooter could set the ISO to 100 or lower while manually controlling Shutter Speed and Aperture.

Getting a good exposure with IS engaged still requires the shooter to use effective hand-held technique.

Abandoning the tripod in favor of hand-holding with IS engaged may give you the results you seek. But this suggestion prompts old-school advocates of using a tripod to air strong opinions about this accessory. Read more here on the tripod: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/digital-killed-my-tripod.htm

Good luck.

willy6419

The unpredictable light as birds or wildlife change positions from sunny to shade has been the reason i thought I'd experiment with it. Initially i set too wide of parameter, but now that I've tightened them up, it seems to provide fewer high ISO surprises. Thanks for sharing.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I don't use Auto ISO but I don't worry or object to using higher ISO's while shooting wildlife. The D500 handles higher ISO's quite well. The D750 not so well, in my opinion. I don't normally shoot RAW — I only shoot RAW. If I am shooting from a Tripod I use lower ISO's or as close to native as I can get unless I need a really fast shutter speed. I shoot pretty wide open unless I am shooting landscape.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I utilize auto iso to maintain the shutter speed that I want for wildlife. Landscape losest ISO and on a tripod

srt101fan

Hi Willy, as you can see, Auto ISO is a controversial subject. I like Manual + Auto ISO for a lot of my shooting but, as some here have suggested, you need to be careful with Auto ISO.

I think TriX, in his response to you, was referring to two posts by John Gerlach:
Is aperture and shutter priority obsolete? http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-487131-1.html
Are both aperture and shutter priority obsolete? http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-503718-1.html

John is a nature/wildlife photographer, author and safari guide. Steve Perry (Backcountry Gallery) also has a great YouTube video on M+Auto ISO. These guys, both members of UHH, really know what they are doing so there must be something to this shooting mode!

You might want to look at my previous comments on this subject; scroll down to item 7 in the following link:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-510011-1.html

Hope this helps.

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

You've hit on what I was going to suggest. Make a determination of what your acceptable ISO ceiling is for each camera, and set that as your high limit on auto ISO. Be sure to test a full range of scenes, especially low light and high dynamic range, to check for noise.
If birds and wildlife are your targets, couple auto ISO with either full manual or shutter priority. You don't want your shutter speed to slow down and end up with well exposed piles of blur.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The newer cameras that are ISO invariant have a great deal of tolerance with sensitivity. At base ISO you can underexpose up to 5 stops without negatively impacting image quality. Also, newer cameras are featuring highlight protection, and in the case of Olympus, shadow protection as well. The highlight protection will override any camera settings that may result in over exposure, anywhere in the image.

For landscapes, where you have the ability to nail the exposure, there is no need to use AutoISO, or P, shutter or aperture priority. You can usually take your time to get it right. Measuring the highlights with the camera's spotmeter, adjusting your settings one stop higher than the reading will ensure a decent exposure, at least to the extent you can lift the shadows enough in high contrast scenes.

For wildlife it gets a little trickier. In even lighting, I measure highlights and set the camera, with manual exposure. When the lighting is changeable - like days with passing clouds, I will use aperture priority, the spotmeter to read the highlights, and set the exp comp to +1 stop. AE lock is set to go on shutter half press, so I can meter the highlights, hold that reading and take the picture. It takes a little getting used to, but it does work.

Lastly, Lightroom is great software, but it should not be the final stop in your post processing. For a truly finished image, with good detailed, clean professional looking images worthy of display or purchase, you still need Photoshop or something with similar capability.

Neilhunt

You are trying to optimize between ISO, shutter, aperture/DOF in challenging conditions.
If you were shooting landscape, you could set all three manually.
But for wildlife, especially birds, lock down the two that you most care about, and let the third float automatically.
Or set a max-ISO (say 800 or 1600 depending upon your camera/sensor size), lock down shutter speed, and let the camera trade between aperture and ISO subject to the limits of max aperture of the lens and max ISO in your setting.

For BIF with a long lens, you'll probably want to set shutter speed as the most important, and aperture is probably limited by your lens wide open, so S-priority with auto-ISO seems like a good choice to me.