Please educate me - why auto ISO? (Page 5): I set ISO to establish fast shutter in A priority to avoid camera shake with telephoto lens. Usually 1600 with my Nikon D3s. I never use...

THOSMITH Loc: DeKalb IL

I set ISO to establish fast shutter in A priority to avoid camera shake with telephoto lens. Usually 1600 with my Nikon D3s. I never use auto ISO.

amyinsparta Loc: White county, TN

People use auto because they wish to, because they don't have time to learn all the ins and outs of photography, because they just want to shoot pictures of their friends and family, vacations, and other personal reasons, because they may be afraid of the camera in some way-after all, it does have a LOT of settings! Once they get comfortable with the camera, then they may take a different approach. or not.

Our job is to take them as far as they want to go in their hobby. And who knows, just maybe, one day, some of those who come here asking for a lot of help will turn out to be top notch photographers.

Now I'm gonna to look to see if my camera has auto ISO. I may want to use it! :mrgreen:

Old Redeye Loc: San Mateo, CA

This actually demonstrates why not to use ISO. Note the difference in color balance, contrast and exposure in the two shots. Individually, they look fine, but for a book or photo display more consistency would be desirable.

fstop22 wrote:

I recently used Auto ISO to capture balloons filled with water exploding over my sons head. This aloud for high shutter speeds in varies lighting conditions with no worries of capturing the shot. Nothing wrong with using auto ISO. I can think of lots of other scenario as well.

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

jenny wrote:

Charles,for the most part it is the total newbie "twiddling" with camera and no idea what he/she is doing.

? Pretty judgmental. I use it often. You can view my past posts. I wouldn't consider me a newbie. All of the features they have included in cameras are useful to someone. Some may not be chosen by you because the need doesn't arise.

Here are a couple of low-res. images shot with auto ISO.

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

charles brown wrote:

Am I wrong in telling people who say they want to learn photography to turn auto ISO off?

Yes

architect Loc: Chattanooga

Gauss wrote:

I leave ISO at its minimum value - 200 on my D40 - because that should generally produce the lowest noise images and hence highest quality images. I increase it if there's no other way to get the aperture and shutter settings I want.

Of the three legs of the exposure triangle, only 2 provide artistic control... Aperture for DOF and shutter speed for stopping or enhancing movement. With today's cameras that have low levels of noise at high ISO's it makes sense to me to use auto ISO so that you have full artistic control. And auto ISO will give you the minimum ISO required for your artistic settings.

Sure beats having to change film type to control ISO (ASA) as in the old days.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

charles brown wrote:

I often see references to the use of auto ISO. Why not set ISO yourself instead? You will still have the ability to change iso at any time. Why is it that I suspect that most persons using auto ISO have little understanding as to its relationship to shutter speed and aperture. Am I wrong in telling people who say they want to learn photography to turn auto ISO off?

I agree. You lose complete control over noise with auto ISO. I prefer to set ISO manually for the lighting condition. But many of the cameras today produce fairly low noise at ISO's of 800 or less.

architect Loc: Chattanooga

jpintn wrote:

I agree. You lose complete control over noise with auto ISO. I prefer to set ISO manually for the lighting condition. But many of the cameras today produce fairly low noise at ISO's of 800 or less.

I prefer to lose control of noise rather than sacrifice control of depth of field or control of shutter speed. You can set limits on the top ISO setting using auto ISO. I will set mine at 800 or 1600 depending on what conditions I am expecting. That assures me of the images being taken at the lowest ISO setting appropriate for my aperture and shutter settings.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

charles brown wrote:

I often see references to the use of auto ISO. Why not set ISO yourself instead? You will still have the ability to change iso at any time. Why is it that I suspect that most persons using auto ISO have little understanding as to its relationship to shutter speed and aperture. Am I wrong in telling people who say they want to learn photography to turn auto ISO off?

charles,

There are still some of us here, on the HOG, who began photography with the Kodak Brownie Box Camera. With this camera we were stuck with Kodaks' preset ISO (ASO) values. Then along came 35mm film and we had many more film types, but fixed ASO values for an entire roll of film.

In short we learned to purchase our film for the photographic project we were involved in, and manually set our Aperture, and Shutter Speed for each occasion.

Michael G

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

architect wrote:

I prefer to lose control of noise rather than sacrifice control of depth of field or control of shutter speed. You can set limits on the top ISO setting using auto ISO. I will set mine at 800 or 1600 depending on what conditions I am expecting. That assures me of the images being taken at the lowest ISO setting appropriate for my aperture and shutter settings.

A tripod helps you control all 3, but sometimes it is not possible to use the tripod unless you just happen to carry one around with you all the time.

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

We have heard from quite a few on this subject. There are conditions as mentioned by several that make auto ISO a good alternative to setting ISO manually. I would rather get a chance to take a good shot than no chance at all. Auto ISO is a tool, just like any other, to be used when we think it will help us get a better image. I would encourage anyone to try using all the tools available to us and decide for ourselves if it is right for us. I don't think it is being lazy or a bad photographer to use any tool when needed to accomplish our goal. If my goal is to be the best photographer I can be, then I want to know how to use each and every tool in the bag.

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

fstop22 wrote:

I recently used Auto ISO to capture balloons filled with water exploding over my sons head. This aloud for high shutter speeds in varies lighting conditions with no worries of capturing the shot. Nothing wrong with using auto ISO. I can think of lots of other scenario as well.

I think your examples show why one should NOT use Auto ISO. Both shots were obviously taken very close together in time, but both have a different exposure. Auto anything eliminates the consistency most photographers strive for.

JBTaylor Loc: In hiding again

jpintn wrote:

A tripod helps you control all 3, but sometimes it is not possible to use the tripod unless you just happen to carry one around with you all the time.

And a tripod still doesn't address subject movement.

However, for one job, I did shot in full manual with a tripod, during the proceedings, I had 10 to 20 seconds to capture each scene. I cycled as fast as I could through different combinations of aperture and shutter and sometimes ISO. In the results, sometimes my better shots had more depth of field and sharper from to back results, sometimes the stopping power of a faster shutter speed was needed. Sometimes the best shot was determined by which had the best expressions by all the subjects. I did want full control and to eliminate camera movement as a factor but shot the way I did because I had (limited) time to fiddle with the controls.

I am going to float some part of the exposure triangle if the lighting conditions are dynamic enough.

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

cthahn wrote:

Sometimes there are reasons to use one or another. Most are too lazy to learn anything about photography and leave the camera on full automatic so all they have to do is to push the button. Then when they get poor photos, they whine and come to this website and ask what is wrong.

Not so. If you are new and want to get GOOD pictures set it on auto or perhaps use the icons to pick what type of picture being taken. They may not get outstanding pictures but the exposure will be right almost all the time. Then we (anyway most of us) welcome them to the Hog no matter how dumb their question may seam. Then they can have study time and learn to use their cameras to get more what they want. If they are just starting and want pictures it is well to use auto. In the old days I would have never handed my Minolta SR1 (complety manual SLR with out meter) to someone new and say go to it. - Dave

Bobster Loc: Thousand Oaks, CA

I use auto iso when shooting fast moving objects such as birds in flight. I set the aperture and the shutter speed and the ISO is set by the camera withim the limits that I have preset in the camera.