What settings to start with on Nikon D5000

[Almond.Butterscotch]

Originally Posted by inkista

Eh, what's the point of a fisheye if you can't play with the distortion? Might as well just get a rectilinear ultrawide, like everybody else. Besides, I normally use that lens for panorama shooting--having the widest field of view possible is kind of the whole point when you're shooting equirectangulars handheld...

fair enough. now to un-hijack this thread before osmosis shows up...

[pawnslinger]

Originally Posted by inkista

ISO: the higher the iso, the more light you can gather at once but the noisier the photo will become.

I really liked your guidelines. But, this is not quite right... is it?

The higher the ISO, the _less_ light you gather... but I thinik you had the right idea. Even with film cameras, the higher ISO films tended to be more grainy (more noise).

[inkista]

Pretty sure I've got it right. Think of it this way:

If I have a good exposure at iso 100, f/8, 1/60 second, and I flip the iso to 1600, but leave the aperture and shutter speed where they are, I'll have overexposed the picture by four stops. Higher iso => higher sensitivity => grabbing more light.

Higher/faster the shutter speed, the less light you get.

[pawnslinger]

Originally Posted by inkista

Pretty sure I've got it right. Think of it this way:

If I have a good exposure at iso 100, f/8, 1/60 second, and I flip the iso to 1600, but leave the aperture and shutter speed where they are, I'll have overexposed the picture by four stops. Higher iso => higher sensitivity => grabbing more light.

Higher/faster the shutter speed, the less light you get.

Well, yes, but I don't know anyone that would increase the ISO and leave A and S unchanged. Unless there wasn't enough light in the scene to properly expose the scene before... let's say in a low, available, light situation. High ISO allows you to get by with less light.

Normally, when you think of the sensor, it is an analog device that is sensitive to light, when the ISO is increased, the actual sensitivity of the sensor doesn't physically change, but what happens is the A/D converter makes do with less S in the S/N processing. Hence the N (noise) sometimes overpowers the S (signal).

Now, if you over-expose the sensor, by using a high ISO, yet leaving the A and S at their old levels, the picture will just be blown. If you hold A and S unchanged, the amount of light hitting the sensor does not change - how it is interpreted by the A/D converter does change though, and will blow all the pixel sites.

Now, if you are doing a HDR composition, this could be extremely useful thing to do. But in an ordinary shot, blown or over-exposed, areas are not what I would like to see.