Do you always shoot in ISO 100?

tecboy · Sep 24, 2014

A pro-photographer encourages me to shoot in iso100 all the times. When I use a speedlight, I always shoot iso 400 to prevent recycle lag time and over draining the battery. Depending on how well the environment is lit, I can get lowest as iso 100, or if I shoot in still life. The iso 400 seems to have very good quality in photographs unless I zoom in or cropping large portion of the photograph. I don't think I can tell the differences between the whole photographs with iso 100 and iso 400. Do you always shoot in iso 100?

sscarmack · Sep 24, 2014

I never shoot at is100 lol.

Unless I'm shooting a studio controlled environment and it coincides with my other settings.

I focus on shutter, and then aperture and iso follows last.

ruifo · Sep 24, 2014

Whenever possible, I shoot the lowest native ISO (100 at the D5200 and 64 at the D810). But whenever possible is not even close to always, at all. Moreover, I've been using auto ISO a lot, recently.

xzyragon · Sep 24, 2014

ISO is a variable just like any other setting in your camera.

If someone told you that you should always shoot at f7.1 because that's what gives you the sharpest pictures, would you believe them?

astroNikon · Sep 24, 2014

Nope.
I'm usually in Manual Mode
with a specific Aperture and specific Shutter selected
I then have ISO Auto from say 50 to 6400 or 100 to 1600 depending upon the situation I'm in.

I've learned to use ISO as part of the entire toolset to get the shot and change when it's just not going to work the way I want it to.

sm4him · Sep 24, 2014

Absolutely not. I shoot anywhere between ISO 100 and 3200, all depending on what I'm shooting, where I'm shooting, my lighting and a host of other variables. I can't imagine anyone who is truly a Pro suggesting that one should ALWAYS shoot at ISO 100, unless they mean for it to be an exercise of some sort.

sscarmack · Sep 24, 2014

I'll sacrifice a slightly higher iso for a slightly highly shutter.

1/250 @ 100iso

or

1/1000 @ 800iso

I'd choose 1/000....And I love shooting at the largest aperture 2.8 if possible. Bokeh duh

PropilotBW · Sep 24, 2014

I almost never shoot ISO 100 unless I'm trying to shoot a longer exposure. I usually shooting 400 or 800. I've always wanted faster shutter speeds while taking pics of my kids. I've found ISO100 always leaves them as blurry photos

D-B-J · Sep 24, 2014

Ish? I shoot from 50 up to 6400 depending on subject matter and lighting conditions. I do often shoot at 100 if I can. Well, maybe my average is 160 or so. Somewhere in there.

Pejacre · Sep 24, 2014

I prefer to keep below 3200 but sometimes getting the shot is more important.

Overread · Sep 24, 2014

"Keep the ISO as low as you can" is bad advice for a beginner as a general tip for shooting.

This is because from that point on the beginner will always see ISO as just a noise gain, a detracting element in their photos. That will make them keep the ISO low and will cost them shots, especially if they are shooting anything moving.

IT also closes their minds to the use of a higher ISO even in a lighting controlled situation, say for boosting the exposure on the background without needing a separate light for the background (or when its not practical or possible to use a separate light to light the background area).

Myself I think that it will vary depending upon what you shoot, but that you should always aim to use the ISO that will let you get the shot. Noise you can deal with in editing and furthermore resizing for web display or printing will remove a lot more noise from the shot. A good clean exposure at a higher ISO will give you better results than underexposing at a lower ISO; or underexposing and getting blurry detail because your shutter speed was too slow (you can't fix blur in editing*)

So vary it depending what you shoot - when I shoot macro most of the time my ISO is very low, I want a nice sharp clean shot and my flash is the dominant light source; further I don't mind a darker background.

If I'm shooting wildlife though, unless its a really bright day I'll oft start at ISO 400 or even ISO 800 and see what aperture and shutter speed combination I can get. I know I want at least 1/500sec - and ideally a lot more.

Use the ISO - its a very powerful tool and in most modern cameras you can get very good results - I'd certainly not worry about ISO 800 on modern cameras.

*at least not without spending hours rebuilding an area that might not even have any data in the shot or before or after shots to build from - ergo you're basically drawing in the fix.