On a Nikon, if part of your pictorial objective is a sharp image then AutoISO should be used. I would simply set the slowest shutter speed that I'm willing to use into the AutoISO settings. Now I shoot in A mode. As I narrow my aperture from 5.6 to 11 and the shutter slows, the camera will not allow the shutter to drop below my MSS (Minimum Shutter Speed) setting, and will instead increase ISO to make up the difference in exposure. As to your stated concerns of not wanting to go much higher than a certain ISO or this or that...
I change my MSS to 1/50s.
I don't understand how this is
remotely more intuitive or faster than manual mode.
as I said previously...we are all slaves to the light. We can only do what the light allows. And if that means using ISO 6400 to meet the demands of our desired effects (being DOF and blur) then that's what we use. Otherwise, you have no image. What are you going to do...try a slower shutter speed and hope you don't get any blur? All that gets you is a bunch of blurry images.
I adjust exposure according to the settings which will least affect the final output. I will
first adjust shutter speed. I will then adjust aperture. I will FINALLY, if
NOTHING ELSE is working, I'll adjust ISO. But this adjustment is kept to a minimum by going back through and compromising aperture, because in
most cases I'd rather have shallower DOF than image noise and lower dynamic range and resolution. But the camera doesn't know what "most cases" mean.
It's just not a matter of "if I hit this ceiling, then start adjusting ISO to you're camera heart's content". I don't need or want to go through a bunch of menus to change min/max settings to accomplish this same result. Instead, I keep my minimum and maximums in my head and manually TELL the camera how to apply them.
Once I've done doing whatever is necessary to get the scene under a single light source (or to operate as if) I can set the actual exposure. I'm not a proponent of ETTR, so I will usually just use my gray card in constant-light conditions and lock exposure, or if the light is constantly changing, I'll pick one spot on the subject to act as my exposure (and focus) reference. The gray card method is easiest and will guarantee that any bright reflective highlights will have as much exposure as possible without clipping. To set exposure I just face the card to the light, spot meter the card, and press AE Lock. I set my EC to +1.3 (the correct EC for my particular gray card) and I'm done with exposure. If I have to use the subject as a reference in changing light, then I simply go old-school and make a guesstimate based on knowledge and experience on the EV correction needed for the subject tone. I may take a test shot to check the exposure. By tying exposure to a particular point on the subject, it will be consistent regardless of how the light changes.
And all I do, in a typical setting, is meter the brightest part of the scene and increase exposure by around +3EV. My camera has a maximum exposure of +3.7EV, so I know anything brighter will fit within those 0.7 stops of latitude. No grey card, no guestimation. My hilights never clip, seldom are shadows without discernible detail; and even if they were I'd know that in order to get detail out, I'd have to clip the hilights. Sometimes this is OK, sometimes it isn't. But the greycard doesn't know that, and it's faster to say "everything brighter than
that is ok to clip".
It's not about the light source, it's about what the light reflects. The brightest region will always be at the edge of latitude regardless what the shadows are doing.
Though this really has nothing to do with AE.
Once my exposure is set I'll select the exposure mode that's best suited for the image I want. Then I adjust whatever the priority function is to the setting I want, and I'm ready to shoot. Under constant light I can just press the shutter. Under changing light I have to move my focus point to the reference point on the subject.
Ok. I can dig that. Not sure I'd want my reference point to be my focus point, but I'm sure that you can change this. I never said that manual is best suited for all situations, only that it's more flexible in terms of changing settings.
Second, because I'm in an auto mode, I'm able to change the one setting that I care about (or sometimes, but very rarely, two settings) directly and without regard for the other settings.
See, and I can - and do, often. But as far as I can tell, this is a Sony/Minolta feature.
Dark coat, -1. Light-skinned face, +1. I spin the dial and shoot. Sometimes there isn't even time to do that, and I just press the shutter. Better to get a shot that needs to be fixed, than no shot at all.
In this case, I'll just increase or decrease exposure directly. If you're metering from a variable reference, then you don't gain any advantage *at all* by using auto mode, all you're doing is limiting the combinations of ISO, shutter speed and aperture that you can access on the fly.
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It is impressive your understanding of exposure, especially in terms of EV, but our approach to exposure is so VASTLY different. I do ETTR, you don't. You seem more focused on what light is available, I'm more focused on what light is reflected back. Your approach is very similar to slide film, mine is closer to b/w.
I doubt we'll ever find common ground on this issue, not because you're wrong and just stupid but rather because we literally see things so differently.
But in the end, we both get good exposures according to our expectations.
