When to use what ISO settings?

[andrewtansj]

Hi, rather new with photography, not so sure about ISO settings. anyone can help me with that? many thanks...

[sin77]

Here's a rough guide for you:
Broad day light use 50-100
Outdoor dark sky 100-200 (PS: I'm not referring to evening)
Indoor 200-800 (depends whether dim or bright lighting and noise control by camera)

You play around the settings then load to computer to compare the noise and brightness.

[dorts]

Usually when I am outdoors, I use 100, if it is bright enough for a decent shutter speed. For darker situations, 200-400. Max 400, because it gets pretty noisy with my cam. Do check the noise of your camera on the different ISOs and see which suits you for different situations.

[spazzer]

Originally Posted by andrewtansj Hi, rather new with photography, not so sure about ISO settings. anyone can help me with that? many thanks...

i would sometimes use up to 1600 and 3200 when indoors due to the lack of light as i think a pic is more important than noise lvl and we can use software to eliminate the noise slightly too

[NeTHaCk]

Originally Posted by spazzer i would sometimes use up to 1600 and 3200 when indoors due to the lack of light as i think a pic is more important than noise lvl and we can use software to eliminate the noise slightly too

yes .. but even with noise ninja, it doesnt help too much. maybe a little.

i shot a wedding as a backup photographer at ISO200 . i just shot my sis graduation convocation yesterday with iso 800 .

for low light, to compensate the aperture, up the iso . was using iso 800 though noise is relatively high on my nikon d50, i believed what spazzer said is true, the pic is more important .

however, if your noise is wayyyyyyyyyyy too high.. also not much point.

i believe sin77 has stated clearly what iso to use.

for me, id just recommend a max of iso 400 + ev compensation + built in flash. anything above 800 is noisy

[dorts]

You lose details remember.

[sin77]

Originally Posted by NeTHaCk for me, id just recommend a max of iso 400 + ev compensation + built in flash. anything above 800 is noisy

keep the issue of using flash aside.
When you up the EV, your shutter will become slower.
Try to maintain at least 1/40 sec for human movement at wide lens and 1/60 for tele.
Instead, open up your aperture to f3.5 or f2.8.

[cantaresg]

For me, I look at my shutter speed at any desired aperture. Suppose I need an aperture of 5.6, and the minimum shutter speed is 1/250s, if the current ISO cannot ensure this shutter speed, I will increase the ISO to compensate.

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by andrewtansj Hi, rather new with photography, not so sure about ISO settings. anyone can help me with that? many thanks...

In general, use as low ISO as possible

When no choice, whether it is because:

1) not enough light to even shoot at 30 seconds at your desired aperture, and you don't happen to have a remote to do bulb mode properly
2) cannot hand hold at the shutter speed you have to use
3) etc etc etc the more you shoot the more you'll know

Then up the ISO, but not beyond 400, depending on what model you using. For me my Pentax K100D is still quite ok at ISO 800 especially when convert to B&W, relatively clean

Someone used an analogy involving water and light and photography but I always cannot put it properly so hrm, ISO generally refers to the "film speed" equivalent.. A higher ISO means need shorter exposure timing, etc

[sin77]

Originally Posted by cantaresg For me, I look at my shutter speed at any desired aperture. Suppose I need an aperture of 5.6, and the minimum shutter speed is 1/250s, if the current ISO cannot ensure this shutter speed, I will increase the ISO to compensate.

Wahaha... u are hardcore Aperture Priority (Av) user

[cantaresg]

Originally Posted by sin77 Wahaha... u are hardcore Aperture Priority (Av) user

Perhaps you can consider so. I use manual and aperture priority most of the time, but in either case, if I do not have a tripod with me, I'd try as far as possible to stick to the slowest shutter speed = 1/focal length principle to avoid handshake. Personally, for my camera, camera shakes produce uglier images than ISO noise.

[andrewtansj]

thanks so much guys... learn so much here... will try out and explore more...

[jmmtn4aj]

Depends. If it's really bright, I'd set to ISO 400 or 200, then up the aperture till around f/8-11 (sharpest aperture range on most lenses) while keeping the shutter speed around 100th of a second. When it gets darker, the absolute lowest shutter speed I'll accept is 60th of a second. Past that motion blur becomes a problem. I sacrifice aperture (and thus sharpness) first to keep that shutter speed, then I start to up the ISO.

[westwest2]

Originally Posted by andrewtansj Hi, rather new with photography, not so sure about ISO settings. anyone can help me with that? many thanks...

my friend she sometimes uses iso1600 and still gets the photo she wanted outdoor...

so its depend on what u want...