Iso

[Reed]

After 30+ years of photography where, if you wanted a different ISO, you went to the store or the freezer, I have a question, how often do you change your ISO. Do you know what you will need at the beginning of the shoot and set it then or do you do it "on the fly" as you are shooting?

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Reed

After 30+ years of photography where, if you wanted a different ISO, you went to the store or the freezer,

I switched SLR body or Hasselblad film back.

Originally Posted by Reed

I have a question, how often do you change your ISO. Do you know what you will need at the beginning of the shoot and set it then or do you do it "on the fly" as you are shooting?

Nikon has Auto ISO...very useful if you don't need to keep a constant ISO value.

[RichardTaylor]

For me I try to shoot at the lowest ISO possible.

I will pick an ISO that should give me the shutter speed & aperture I want to use an take it from there. I will adjust it on the fly up, to a point, if need be depending on the subject. It doesn't worry me to much if I shoot race cars, for example, at F8 or F11 and I do not want to miss the "moment" whilst twidling dials.

Bright sunny day, or slightly overcast, or at night on a tripod I set it to ISO 100.

Few clouds around and a bit overcast I will probably start at ISO 400.
Once the light stars to go, or indoors with daylight coming in through doors & windows I will start at ISO 800 (this is also dependsant on the lens I am using.

When shooting hand held in very low light I will start at ISO 1600 and take it to 3200 (max for my bodies) if need be.

Some examples all shot at the same motor race meeting earlier this month. .
I was shooting with a Canon 40D + Canon 100-400 F4.5-F5.6 IS(VR) L lens + a mono pod.

(1) Nice & sunny in the afternoon.

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320) (Shutter priority)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 370 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV (just to to keep the highlights under control)

(2) About 1/2 hour before dawn

Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100) (Manual mode)
Aperture f/4.5 (wide open)
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV

(3) Just before dawn (they were racing)

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320) (Manual exposure mode)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 235 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV

(4) It was drizzling about 3 1/2 hours latter (heavy overcast)

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 300 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[RichardTaylor]

For me I try to shoot at the lowest ISO possible.

I will pick an ISO that should give me the shutter speed & aperture I want to use an take it from there. I will adjust it on the fly up, to a point, if need be, depending on the subject. It doesn't worry me to much when shooting race cars, for example, at F8 or F11 and I do not want to miss the "moment" whilst twidling dials.

Bright sunny day, or slightly overcast, or at night on a tripod I set it to ISO 100.

Few clouds around and a bit overcast I will probably start at ISO 400.
Once the light stars to go, or indoors with daylight coming in through doors & windows I will start at ISO 800 (this is also dependant on the lens I am using.

When shooting hand held in very low light I will start at ISO 1600 and take it to 3200 (max for my bodies) if need be.

Some examples all shot at the same motor race meeting earlier this month. .
I was shooting with a Canon 40D + Canon 100-400 F4.5-F5.6 IS(VR) L lens + a mono pod.

(1) Nice & sunny in the afternoon.

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320) (Shutter priority)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 370 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV (just to to keep the highlights under control)

(2) About 1/2 hour before dawn

Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100) (Manual mode)
Aperture f/4.5 (wide open)
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV

(3) Just before dawn (they were racing). The track was damp due to morning dew, hence the sheen from the lights.

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320) (Manual exposure mode)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 235 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV

(4) It was drizzling about 3 1/2 hours latter (heavy overcast)

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 300 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[dlambert]

@Reed - I change as needed, except when I forget to. I see ISO as part of the exposure triangle, and I try to change it just as I change exposure and shutter speed. In reality, I change ISO less frequently, but that's sort of the mindset I shoot for.

@Richard - nice shots. Those Audis look great.

[OsmosisStudios]

I keep mine as low as possible and increase only if necessary. Much of my work now is tripod or studio work, so I rarely go above my camera's native base of 200

[Elmo]

I generally keep mine set at 400 as it gives acceptable results for grab shots when I am just rambling about. If I have time to set up I will drop to 200 for best quality..

[sk66]

Mine is almost always set to auto iso 200-800 (or higher if necessary)...even when in "manual"

[RichardTaylor]

@ dlambert

Thanks very much.

[inkista]

Like anything else, depends on the situation. Sometimes I set it once and forget about it (setting where the light doesn't change); sometimes it's shot-for-shot and juggled about as much as shutter speed. I probably juggle/shift aperture the least of the three settings these days, as I'm typically willing to sacrifice noise for shutter speed or noise for DoF. You can reduce or eliminate noise in post-processing. Reduction of motion blur and DoF are harder to fix that way.

When I first got a dSLR, the first thing I took great joy in doing was switching up iso shot-for-shot, and dialing in 1600 because of film having locked us in by the roll for so long, and the faster film being more expensive. You remember how it was. You always had Tri-X in when you wanted the Velvia and vice versa. And I was always too scared of ruining the whole roll to even attempt the rewind-and-swap thing. One of the APS features that really drew me was its ability to do mid-roll film changes.