EastWest

I'm with James. I usually let the ISO float while controlling aperture and shutter. You can see the ISO value without taking the camera from your eye. If a frame is too dark or light there is an exposure compensation you can toggle in.

Elad1962

Hello Linda
beautifull photos
Most of the time I'm in manual,auto iso,works great for me

Danielmb

Linda...I am like you. Since I shoot both landscape and wildlife, I often float the ISO and if it needs any adjusting, I usually do that in Photoshop.

dave.m

I'm at a complete loss as to where ISO adds/ detracts from the creativity of the image.

ALL sensors have a 'base sensitivity' typically at the lowest published ISO value (but not always). Sometimes called the Base ISO or Native ISO

ALL images are sensed at the base sensitivity, the ISO setting - manual or auto - just amplifies or not the resulting image - ie just brightens the resulting image to the proportion set by the ISO setting. As an example Canon sensors use hardware amplification for whole stops and software for intermediate. So any ISO setting above base ISO is a hardware or software amplification, nothing more. A given ISO setting has no effect at all on perceived sharpness because the pixel spacing of a sensor is fixed and invariate - a 20Mpx sensor is 20Mpx with the same pixel spacing no matter what ISO is selected.

Very high ISO settings can cause chromatic or Luminance noise. This is NOT because of the manual or auto ISO setting, it is because just not enough light hits the sensor at base ISO for the sensor to determine the correct colour (chroma) or even enough light at all (luminance)

The great benefit of ISO settings is that it gives the photographer the ability to select automatically or manually the shutter speed / lens aperture that allows him or her to manage DoF and / or blur to their creative choice. This is a huge advantage over film where the A.S.A choice was made for all current images the moment the film was put in the camera.

So back to my original point, if ISO settings are just a hardware or software amplification of the base ISO sensitivity, sort out aperture or shutter speed you want - or both if you prefer - and let the internal computer take care of the sensor amplification (ISO)

bleirer

It's interesting to see how ISO kills dynamic range on different cameras. Reminds one why staying near the base is important. https://photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm

VTMatwood Loc: Displaced Vermonta in Central New Hampsha

I find that Auto ISO is very useful when shooting fast moving subjects in changing light. I don’t use it for landscapes, but absolutely for birds and other wildlife. At least with Nikon DSLR’s, you can set the max ISO setting as a way to prevent Auto ISO from going crazy...not sure about other manufacturers’ cameras.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I shoot a lot in manual, thats what I set first, the ISO, I take one look outside and consider what it is I'm going to shoot, then I know what my ISO has to be!

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Called Canon while back and they said for my canon 77d I'm safe with noise up to 800.
After that do test shots and see noise is within my tolerance

Besperus Loc: Oregon

Back in the film days...you set the ASA, ISO equivalent, on the camera first. Or on a newer camera the film set it for you (35 mm) automatically. You could do the same thing. Then adjust exposure in your imaging program.

Besperus Loc: Oregon

Back in the film days...you set the ASA, ISO equivalent, on the camera first. Or on a newer camera the film set it for you (35 mm) automatically. You could do the same thing. Then adjust exposure in your imaging program.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Turn to Scotty for the definitive answer!

bleirer

Actually I think both of those statements are true, because he is talking about the metering system. A high ISO forces the indicated metered exposure (f stop and shutter speed) into lower exposure according to the meter, so as he said it is a determinant of shutter speed and f stop exposure. He didnt say ISO was the exposure.

BebuLamar

I agree. The 2 of them were fighting for words.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I have had several Nikon cameras...starting with the D200 and progressing to the D850. None of them use an "algorithm based on 'average' photographers' practices" to set exposure values in Program mode. They all assign exposure using a relationship which is displayed very clearly in the Owner's Manual. And there is absolutely nothing weird or even unusual about it. The relationship, which is shown on a graph in the manuals, is, in fact a very simple function pairing shutter speeds and lens apertures. That relationship generally seeks to avoid both extreme apertures and extreme shutter speeds. And there is absolutely no lock on the functional relationship. Exposure Compensation can effectively shift everything to provide more or less exposure for a given light level, and the command dials can be quickly and easily used to easily shift exposure settings to quickly favor higher or lower shutter speeds or wider or narrower lens openings while preserving proper net exposure settings.

By the way...I worked in the factory that produced the group of integrated circuits that controlled exposure in the Canon AE-1 many years ago. As far as I know, this was the first (or at least one of the first) cameras that was capable of controlling both shutter speed and lens aperture in a coordinated way to set exposure. That system worked exactly the same way, except I don't remember command dials to shift exposure choices). The circuits that we built back in the late 1970s or early 1980s (I can't remember exactly when) had nowhere near enough capacity or power to do a lot of calculations. Looking up combinations in a table in a very small memory chip was just about the limit of what they could accomplish.

The level of misinformation spread through the photographic community just astounds me. It should be no surprise that we sometimes struggle to learn the way things really work or why things are the way they are. The truth is buried under way too many layers of myth and lore.

And no, Leinik, this is in no way intended as a personal attack against you. But it is an expression of frustration with whoever misinformed you, and whoever misinformed that person, and so on, all the way back up the "educational" tree.

bleirer

Actually I think they are talking about matrix/evaluative metering and I think they are correct, that the meter in that mode uses an algorithm derived from common situations like backlighting, where the matrix system adjusts the indicated exposure if it matches one of the non-standard situations.

Jump to the matrix section in this article

https://photographylife.com/understanding-metering-modes/amp