ISO Sensitivity??

[Gwenise]

Hello, I was playing around with my cameras settings in manual and came across "ISO Sensitivity" and was curious what it shoudl be set at as a general over all setting and how I should set the rest of the settings. I have a Nikon D3000 with kit lens 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G and a 55-200mm 1:4-5.6 G ED (both with VR).

Thanks.

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by Gwenise

Hello, I was playing around with my cameras settings in manual and came across "ISO Sensitivity" and was curious what it shoudl be set at as a general over all setting and how I should set the rest of the settings. I have a Nikon D3000 with kit lens 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G and a 55-200mm 1:4-5.6 G ED (both with VR).

Thanks.

The general rule is to keep it as low as you can. If you can't open up the aperture any more, and/or your shutter speed is getting too slow, is when the ISO gets ramped up. It usually introduces more noise in to the image the higher you set it, so it's the last thing in the exposure settings that gets adjusted.
It's also a preference. I like a lot of black and white. I use an older D70 that has a lot of noise at higher ISO. I like to max it at 1600 when I know I will be converting, as it seems to have a nice grainy film quality to it.

[John Hendry]

The lower the iso the better the quality of image but it requires the most light so in low light conditions you would increase the ISO but the quality of image would suffer so keep it as low as you can.

That is why we use tripods for a lot of landscape work, we want to have the best quality so low ISO, therfore we need to have long exposure to let the right amount of light in to the sensor. And the tripod to keep the camera still.

Hope this helps.

All the best

[SusanH1970]

Read up on the exposure triangle and how aperture, shutter speed and ISO all work together. At the end of the article there are links to other articles that go more in-depth explaining them individually.

Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle

Hope this helps.

[Gwenise]

Thanks for all the info!

[3bayjunkie]

ISO I use:
200 - 400 outside during the day
800-1600 at dusk
1600-3200 inside with low light

I would not suggest going higher than 3200 unless you have a D3. with your camera i probably wouldn't go more than 1600 or it is going to come out with a lot of color grain. The ISO also depends on your camera lens and how wide you can open the aperture. the lower f/stop the more light can came in, allowing you to use a lower ISO.

Try to keep the shutter around 1/30 - 1/60 at minimum while hand holding. if your shutter speed is reading slower with your aperture wide open you should raise your ISO or use fill flash or video light if possible.

[arlon]

This might help: Nikon D3000 High ISO Comparison

[intrepidstu]

Originally Posted by 3bayjunkie

ISO I use:
200 - 400 outside during the day
800-1600 at dusk
1600-3200 inside with low light

I would not suggest going higher than 3200 unless you have a D3. with your camera i probably wouldn't go more than 1600 or it is going to come out with a lot of color grain. The ISO also depends on your camera lens and how wide you can open the aperture. the lower f/stop the more light can came in, allowing you to use a lower ISO.

Try to keep the shutter around 1/30 - 1/60 at minimum while hand holding. if your shutter speed is reading slower with your aperture wide open you should raise your ISO or use fill flash or video light if possible.

Personaly, i always try to use a shutter speed twice as fast as my focal length is long. If i cant get this shutter speed at the current ISO, (for my desired apeture), then i crank it up a stop higher. I use a "twice focal length" shutter to make up for the crop factor when applied to the "shutter speed should be at least the inverse of focal length" rule.

stu.

[SwissJon]

This all very much depends on what you're photographing, and why.. You talk about iso sensitivity like it's a fixed value..it's not, and so long as ypu know how it interacts with the other settings on your camera, as well as how it effects the photograph, then there's no "rule" as such, just a favoured setting.

For example, a landscape photo would want the lowest settig possible.. Usually 100. If the shutter speed is too slow, use a tripod,

If you're taking a photo for a newspaper, where it's going to be printed low quality and small, you could easily get away with the highest, most grainy image.

Film noir style street photos benifit from the "atmosphere" created by grain, but for an authentic 50s style photo you might want to keep the iso low allowing you to introduce a slow shutter speed and give a little movement blur, and add the grain later.

It's all part of the learning process, but I suggest you set the iso to it's lowest and highest settings,take some photos, and look at the results.. Pay attention to the aperture and speed settings as you do this, see what happens there.

[3bayjunkie]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

This all very much depends on what you're photographing, and why.. You talk about iso sensitivity like it's a fixed value..it's not, and so long as ypu know how it interacts with the other settings on your camera, as well as how it effects the photograph, then there's no "rule" as such, just a favoured setting.

For example, a landscape photo would want the lowest settig possible.. Usually 100. If the shutter speed is too slow, use a tripod,

If you're taking a photo for a newspaper, where it's going to be printed low quality and small, you could easily get away with the highest, most grainy image.

Film noir style street photos benifit from the "atmosphere" created by grain, but for an authentic 50s style photo you might want to keep the iso low allowing you to introduce a slow shutter speed and give a little movement blur, and add the grain later.

It's all part of the learning process, but I suggest you set the iso to it's lowest and highest settings,take some photos, and look at the results.. Pay attention to the aperture and speed settings as you do this, see what happens there.

You are correct, I as talking on mainly the settings I use when doing portraits or candid photos of people. However its up to your interpretation, this was just a starting point. For anything with a tripod and a scene that isn't moving I would use the lowest ISO