larrylee Loc: East Tennessee Mtns.

Just a heads up note...
About a week ago, I took a day trip up in the mountains to check how the leaves were coming along. It was a fairly cloudy day, and I only got off only around 20 shots. When I got home and started post processing, I discovered from the horrible noise in every shot, that the ISO inadvertently been moved to AUTO, and most all shots were 3200 and up. ( I normally never use auto and didn't check ). Lesson learned. I just set the auto limit to 800 on my camera, in case this happens again.

THATS NOT THE WHOLE STORY.
My Granddaughter's wedding photographer just made the same mistake. ( at a very fancy wedding ). As I was working on several of the professional photographer's pictures, my G. Daughter gave me for re-cropping and general PP, I found that in any indoor shooting enlargement over a 4x6 was useless to keep. I checked the camera setting specs and found the her auto ISO was  26,700, on her Canon 5D III, and the worst part is , that it was some of her best composed shots, that anyone would want 8x10 or larger. The only way I could make them fairly presentable, was to soften a great deal in Photoshop and or Topaz to convert them to an oil painting. All the intricate detail in the wedding dress was lost for ever : Larry

BebuLamar

I think my photos are OK at 12,800 ISO.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I have three auto settings saved for when I choose to use auto iso. It sounds like these were cases where the range of iso was on the high end.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

26k iso ?
...dont think I EVER kept a photo at that ISO setting....
800 for crop and 2300 for FF bodies.(may go up to 5000 of its a sports moment.) 26k is way too high in my opinion (and the OP's apparently as well :-)

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

How could a professional photographer make such a mistake? We amateurs are allowed that, but a pro at a wedding? I use auto iso all the time and find it very useful. (D7200 is good in low light/high iso so not that much noise in most cases). Sorry to hear about her wedding photos. I hope you were able to help salvage enough of them to make her happy.

BebuLamar

As far as the wedding is it a mistake? or is it what the photographer intended. He/she certainly knew there isn't enough light to shoot indoor at low ISO (even 800) so he/she either chose to use the flash or use the high ISO. I think the photographer thought the high ISO images are fine and although noisy should look more natural.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Your comments are relevant for anybody that's inadvertently using auto ISO. Anybody that's using it intentionally would be keeping an eye on how the ISO changed as the shutter speed changed (assuming that the aperture was pre-decided).

When I'm using auto ISO + manual I find the biggest risk is in not noticing that the ISO has either bottomed out or topped out. When that happens and you carry on adjusting the shutter speed you will end up with over- or under-exposed images.

Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

Not sure what camera you are using, but 3200 ISO should not be a picture breaker. If I set my ISO to 800 there would be a lot of shots that would be missed out on. If you are getting extreme noise above 800 ISO then it might be time to look for a different/newer camera that can handle noise.
As for the wedding pictures, it sounds like the "professional" wasn't very professional. Did the photographer give your granddaughter the RAW files to post process herself? Were they even RAW files? The whole thing doesn't sounds professional at all.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

If you have to shoot iso above 2400 in a professional setting, imho, you need to consider off camera speedlight work. Most FF bodies will give great results up to 2400. They images begin to noticeably degrade (noticeable in the pixel peeping sense) and as you apply noise reduction the image deteriorates in post.

I just cannot get my head around intentionally shooting 3200-26k ISO for all the wedding shots.
(Or ANY shots for that matter)

larrylee Loc: East Tennessee Mtns.

She did try not to be overly intrusive during the whole shoot. I'll give her credit for that. But in a staged situation. with a lot of setting up, where she could have used extra lighting, She relied on the auto ISO. and she did have extra help, other shooters and videographer etc. I called my Granddaughter and ask if maybe someone else may have captured those critical shots. Sadly no.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

What I don’t understand is how you have access to “edit” the pro photographer’ files. Didn’t he/she process them for your G daughter?

larrylee Loc: East Tennessee Mtns.

I just took my Panasonic FZ2500 along this time, with it's smaller sensor to check out the leaves. didn't know and didn't want auto ISO. got what I deserve.
Just wanted to post this as a heads up to check before maybe loosing a day of shooting, or in some cases a wedding or a dream vacation: Larry

larrylee Loc: East Tennessee Mtns.

Yes to some degree. but some still needed recomposing and cropping to get the best end product.

Acountry330 Loc: Dothan,Ala USA

I use auto ISO all of the time, but never st it or the max ISO setting. That is just asking for trouble. Happy shooting.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

A recent firmware upgrade on the D810 reset everything to factory standards; images in JPEG fine, and auto ISO was on. I caught the switch away from RAW, but missed AutoISO in the top display.
Shooting after sunset at a abandoned gold mining town in the Eastern Sierras, I was pissed because all my shots, wherever I set ISO were completely dark. Then the lightbulb went on, I saw AutoISO was checked. That fixed everything.