Higher ISO or larger aperture?

[Vicky12]

Higher ISO or larger aperture?

Have to have a shutter speed 1/200s for walk around shooting in streets and parks. For this shutter speed, either ISO at 8000 or double aperture (ISO4000) to get a proper exposure.

Which is preferable for a better image quality?

Thanks.
Vicky

 

[KJ_North]

IMO i would change the aperture for sure. 8000 ISO is not ideal unless no other option present. Is it that low of light that you still need 4000 ISO? Seems like there should be more room to adjust the aperture further to lower it down more especially if your speed is only 1/200.

 

[Vicky12]

IMO i would change the aperture for sure. 8000 ISO is not ideal unless no other option present. Is it that low of light that you still need 4000 ISO? Seems like there should be more room to adjust the aperture further to lower it down more especially if your speed is only 1/200.

Thank you.
The purpose for setting such a small aperture is to obtain as more details as possible. Will lose some details of aperture opens up. How to compensate this?

 

[Ysarex]

Higher ISO or larger aperture?

Have to have a shutter speed 1/200s for walk around shooting in streets and parks. For this shutter speed, either ISO at 8000 or double aperture (ISO4000) to get a proper exposure.

Which is preferable for a better image quality?

Thanks.
Vicky

Something isn't adding up. If you're out walking around in streets and parks during the daylight hours you shouldn't require ISO values that high. I was walking in the park yesterday and posted some of the photos here: Rainy Morning Walk Look at the first photo I posted. It was actively raining when I took that photo and at f/5.6 I was able to expose with a shutter speed of 1/210th sec. (ISO was 800).

For best image quality your goal is to satisfy your minimum stop-motion requirement (shutter speed) and depth of field requirement (f/stop) and otherwise expose as much as possible up to the point where you reach sensor saturation at base ISO. That will produce the best possible SNR (signal to noise ratio) for your sensor and can arguably be defined as optimal exposure. Yesterday in the rain I couldn't do that as I wasn't carrying a tripod and so required a hand-holdable shutter speed. When optimal exposure isn't an option the default goal then is to expose as much as possible given the circumstance which is what I did yesterday in the rain. I did not need to work with an ISO value in the triple digits.

 

[Ysarex]

Thank you.
The purpose for setting such a small aperture is to obtain as more details as possible. Will lose some details of aperture opens up. How to compensate this?

Can you be more specific please. What camera and lens are you using and what is the f/stop you're wanting to set?

 

[petrochemist]

It depends very much on the subject & hardware used.

If you can tolerate the reduced depth of field a wider aperture is usually preferable, but at extremes this can get expensive & involve less highly corrected optics...

How high you can go with ISO depends a great deal on the sensor used some of my older cameras are effectively useless above ISO 400, some of my friends have cameras that do better at ISO 100,000. As the ISO is pushed up the image shows more noise. There are post processing options that reduce this effect & the acceptable amount of noise can vary widely.

Other options that might help on occasion are:
Extending your shutter speed 1/200 is faster than needed for most static/slow moving subjects (and not fast enough for some faster subjects). With image stabilization 1/10 can be usable hand held.
This street shot was fine at 1/125
P1140003 small by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

and this Infra red one in poor light doesn't suffer much from being at only 1/13 (though the contrast should probably have been boosted)
Rowhedge IR by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr


Adding light is not normally practical for street/park shooting but a flash might be appropriate for your kids at the park. Changing the time of day you go out might give more light...

In low light aperture & shutter speed can still give good results at only ISO 200
Colchester Seige House by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr
IIRC that was leaning against a sign post at 1/8s, f/1.7 with a camera released in 2006.
I don't often go wider than f/2 but it does happen.

 

[petrochemist]

Thank you.
The purpose for setting such a small aperture is to obtain as more details as possible. Will lose some details of aperture opens up. How to compensate this?

Too small an aperture will cause diffraction to soften the image & lose detail. For street shooting f/8 is usually small enough. It used to be said 'f8 & be there'.
Going wider for a narrower DOF can allow focusing on the subject to pull it out from the background.

 

[ACHILLEAS]

Higher ISO or larger aperture?

Have to have a shutter speed 1/200s for walk around shooting in streets and parks. For this shutter speed, either ISO at 8000 or double aperture (ISO4000) to get a proper exposure.

Which is preferable for a better image quality?

Thanks.
Vicky

These numbers are weird. Are you in p-mode?

Anyway it depends on your subject. You want as much detail as possible. Is it something or someone specific? Open aperture. You dont care about losing detail of the rest. Or the entire scene? cityscape. Then increase ISO. Do it in manual using more proper EV settings.

And dont worry about diffraction. Its only a problem if you make it. This means you only think about it if you can see it and that depends on photosite size.

 

[Vicky12]

Can you be more specific please. What camera and lens are you using and what is the f/stop you're wanting to set?

Thank you very much.
"Something isn't adding up. If you're out walking around in streets and parks during the daylight hours you shouldn't require ISO values that high."
Sincerely apologize!
What I am talking about is actually Digital Pinhole Photography. I browsed the Forum many times but did not find a proper place to post my question. I therefore post it here without mentioning digital pinhole photography.
I made a pinhole, 0.35mm diameter, and put it into an extension tube, mounted it to my Sony a7II camera, which produced a relatively good image of a home made pinhole camera. I want to use it as a talk around camera in streets and parks. The pinhole is so small, 0.35mm in diameter, with shutter speed at 1/200s, it requires ISO 8000 to obtain a proper exposure on sun shine days. I am afraid the high ISO will add noise to the image and larger pinhole will soften the details of the image.
This is why pinhole is not mentioned in my question.




I was walking in the park yesterday and posted some of the photos here: Rainy Morning Walk Look at the first photo I posted. It was actively raining when I took that photo and at f/5.6 I was able to expose with a shutter speed of 1/210th sec. (ISO was 800).

For best image quality your goal is to satisfy your minimum stop-motion requirement (shutter speed) and depth of field requirement (f/stop) and otherwise expose as much as possible up to the point where you reach sensor saturation at base ISO. That will produce the best possible SNR (signal to noise ratio) for your sensor and can arguably be defined as optimal exposure. Yesterday in the rain I couldn't do that as I wasn't carrying a tripod and so required a hand-holdable shutter speed. When optimal exposure isn't an option the default goal then is to expose as much as possible given the circumstance which is what I did yesterday in the rain. I did not need to work with an ISO value in the triple digits.

 

[Vicky12]

These numbers are weird. Are you in p-mode?

Anyway it depends on your subject. You want as much detail as possible. Is it something or someone specific? Open aperture. You dont care about losing detail of the rest. Or the entire scene? cityscape. Then increase ISO. Do it in manual using more proper EV settings.

And dont worry about diffraction. Its only a problem if you make it. This means you only think about it if you can see it and that depends on photosite size.

Thank you.
Yes, I am on P mode.
"Something isn't adding up. If you're out walking around in streets and parks during the daylight hours you shouldn't require ISO values that high."
Sincerely apologize!
What I am talking about is actually Digital Pinhole Photography. I browsed the Forum many times but did not find a proper place to post my question. I therefore post it here without mentioning digital pinhole photography.
I made a pinhole, 0.35mm diameter, and put it into an extension bube, mounted it to my Sony a7II camera, which produced a relatively good image of a home made pinhole camera. I want to use it as a talk around camera in streets and parks. The pinhole is so small, 0.35mm in diameter, with shutter speed at 1/200s, it requires ISO 8000 to obtain a proper exposure on sun shine days. I am afraid the high ISO will add noise to the image and larger pinhole will soften the details of the image.
This is why pinhole is not mentioned in my question.




I was walking in the park yesterday and posted some of the photos here: Rainy Morning Walk Look at the first photo I posted. It was actively raining when I took that photo and at f/5.6 I was able to expose with a shutter speed of 1/210th sec. (ISO was 800).

For best image quality your goal is to satisfy your minimum stop-motion requirement (shutter speed) and depth of field requirement (f/stop) and otherwise expose as much as possible up to the point where you reach sensor saturation at base ISO. That will produce the best possible SNR (signal to noise ratio) for your sensor and can arguably be defined as optimal exposure. Yesterday in the rain I couldn't do that as I wasn't carrying a tripod and so required a hand-holdable shutter speed. When optimal exposure isn't an option the default goal then is to expose as much as possible given the circumstance which is what I did yesterday in the rain. I did not need to work with an ISO value in the triple digits.

 

[Vicky12]

Thank you every one!
Sorry, I is too difficult for me to make a reply. I am using Linux and Firefox. A message says something went wrong when I am trying to post my replies. Sorry. I'll not make any more replies. Apologize.

 

[AlanKlein]

Photrio forums has a Pinhole site. You may get better answers there.

Pinhole Photography

Discuss all aspects of pinhole photography.

www.photrio.com

 

[Ysarex]

What I am talking about is actually Digital Pinhole Photography. I browsed the Forum many times but did not find a proper place to post my question. I therefore post it here without mentioning digital pinhole photography.
I made a pinhole, 0.35mm diameter, and put it into an extension tube, mounted it to my Sony a7II camera, which produced a relatively good image of a home made pinhole camera.

Now it all adds up. Most folks who try pinhole photography do so with the support of a tripod for the obvious reason that the pinhole doesn't provide for sufficient exposure. You can't enlarge the pinhole so if you want to be able to hand-hold the camera you have no choice but to use a high ISO value.

The solution then to get best possible images is to turn to processing software for noise management. Recent software advances have come a long way and state-of-the art software like DXO Photolab can hand the noise you'll get from those low exposures.

 

[petrochemist]

And dont worry about diffraction. Its only a problem if you make it. This means you only think about it if you can see it and that depends on photosite size.

As it turns out the OP is shooting with a pinhole (typically around f/128 or smaller) diffraction will be unavoidable on Full Frame.

I've tried several pinholes & a zone plate on APSC & diffraction was very significant on these, effectively making the images unusable. At some point I'll give them a go on my 5x4 body, which will come better with diffraction, but this will need very long exposures. IIRC Large format film rarely goes above ISO 400.

 

[Golem]

As it turns out the OP is shooting with a pinhole (typically around f/128 or smaller) diffraction will be unavoidable on Full Frame.

AVOIDING diffraction is unthinkable here. No diffraction would mean no image. A pinhole is a diffrection optic. Diffraction is verrrrrrry welcome !

What little info weve got suggests shes at the typical f/128 or close to that. We dont know the length of her extension tube.