My First Trip Out With a DSLR - D90 ISO Settings

M

mattpark

Suspended / Banned
Messages
34
Name
Matthew
Edit My Images
Yes
Hello All,

Well today is my third day of owning a DSLR camera! Picked up a D90 and 18-200 VR lens on Friday :).

Had two nights surfing buttons and menus to death, and finally had some time to get out the front door with it this afternoon.

So here I am with my first question for the pro's: Should I really let the camera choose what ISO to shoot with?

The reason I'm asking this, is because today I've had a good snap with pretty much all the scene modes, P, S, A, and M modes and on 99% of the photos i've taken I'm sure its chosen a much higher ISO than what I would have thought would be required. The result of which obviously, is really grainy/noisy photos.

Under "Shooting" -> "ISO sensitivity settings", I've left everything at default:

ISO Sensitively - 200
ISO Sensitivity auto control - OFF
Maximum sensitivity - 400
Minimum shutter speed - 1/30

The weather today awesome - bright warm sunlight, and i just don't get why. I appreciate this might be one of those "how long is a piece of string" questions, and it probably depends on so many other variables... but I'm interested to hear what you guys do? Are you explicitly setting an ISO for every photograph you take? What would a good sunny day usually warrant?

Anyway. Here's one of the few photos that the D90 chose IS0200 for that I kind of like. Love to hear some criticism, and how you think it could be better (go easy on me, i'm a learner). This is the last surviving member from a "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" set of monkeys in my parents back garden :

DSC_0130.jpg



Cheers,

Matt
 
This is a nice shot, you have a great depth of field here which relly shows off the monkey, Personally i would just use the M(anual) A(perture priority) and S(hutter priority) and set the ISO yourself , it will give you much more control over your end result. There area few good tutorials on here which should help you get to grips with the settings. Great choice of camera too!
 
fantastic shot, what range where you with this?
 
Cheers for the comments guys - really appreciated.

p1tse said:
fantastic shot, what range where you with this?
Click to expand...

Focal length was 170mm, and guess I was probably about 8 meters away? Just seemed kind of right when I was composing!
 
i'm no Pro, but i've had a D90 for a good few months now and here's my take on ISO. This could go two ways : 1, i get a reply from an expert telling me i'm talking out of my backside and they tell me/us how it should be done (good!). or 2, i'm actually starting to figure the damned camera out!

anyways i really cant tell the difference between iso200 and 400. i dont need large prints, and at 100% on my screen i can see difference in noise whatsoever.
if i'm shooting hand held and i can't get the shutter speed high enough to stop blur (about 1/200th in my case) i turn the iso up. i recently went to an aquarium with the kids. i had my kit lens 18-105 vr fitted and had to turn the ISo up to 3200 before the pics looked any good. on my pc they look cracking with, but at 100% noise can easily be seen. anything higher than 3200 is quite noisy , but you'de get away with it on say 7x5 snaps etc.

i guess ideally you want the lowest ISO, but there are situations especially when hand held that means the extra noise introduced is a very small price to pay when you see the improved sharpness and quality of the pictures.

the same is to be said with shooting fast moving objects etc. Personally i feel the D90 is excellent right up to iso3200 especially for the type of photo's i'm looking for.

i set ISO to manual adjust . in the beginning i couldn't get my head round why i was drastically adjusting aperture or shutter speed whith no real movement from the light meter or change in exposure of the photo (the camera was sneakily adjusting ISO) now i have it in manual i have feel i have learnt so much more about aperture and shutter speed and i think i have a good enough understanding of ISO or when i need to adjust it from 400 which i have it set to 99% of the time.

Al
 
I use the same camera and lens combination as you.

I always always select the ISO myself and aim to use the lowest one possible.

Equally, in low light situations, I will go for high ISO (800-1600) coupled with VR to get the shot handheld and without flash.
 
If you can get yourself a copy of Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, excellent book and very informative.
 
I use the 'Easy ISO' setting which allows quick control of ISO via the rear thumb wheel. Manually controlling ISO means that you've got one more thing to consider when taking your photo, but does mean that if you get a noisier photo than expected, you only have yourself to blame!
Having said that, auto ISO can be useful in fast changing light conditions or if you forget to check what you've got set!
 
I generally use aperture priority and set the ISO myself, although for most normal light conditions 200 is fine. In challenging light I use manual and rack up the ISO if necessary but VR or a tripod usually mean I rarely go above 800.

Andy
 
I left the d300 on the lowest iso. Think it's 200 (don't do the lower options)

actually I forget about it usually and depend on A shooting. Low f#s.

Out n about. 100-200 iso.
In dusk/inside then perhaps up to 400-800.
Higher fir the noisy pictures you intend for black n White. Although I prefer to add noise afterwards :)
 
ecniv said:
Higher fir the noisy pictures you intend for black n White. Although I prefer to add noise afterwards :)
Click to expand...

The above makes no sense to me, no matter how often I read it.

Nikon invented a very clever auto ISO system so you don't have to keep adjusting ISO manually.

ISO is clearly one of the 3 factors that affect exposure, but unlike shutter speed and aperture, it's usually the case that a lower ISO is better. No-one apart from our friend above wants noise in their picture.

The auto ISO feature will increase ISO only when needed, which in my opinion is better than setting it yourself, especially since it will set ISO at small increments which cannot be made manually, eg 900 or 540.

Having said that, noise is better than motion blur in most situations and I will happily use ISO 3200 for a whole shoot when necessary - usually gigs.

I would recommend learning how auto ISO works - it is very useful and works in a predictable way. Then you have one less thing to worry about.

I will regularly use manual mode, but leave auto ISO activated. Thus I am in complete control of the shutter speed and aperture, but can rely on auto ISO to bump up the ISO when required for the correct exposure. I like that.
 
martsharm said:
I will regularly use manual mode, but leave auto ISO activated. Thus I am in complete control of the shutter speed and aperture, but can rely on auto ISO to bump up the ISO when required for the correct exposure. I like that.
Click to expand...

I use manual 99% of the time and do like the Auto ISO feature - it is very useful indeed.

On the D700 I used 200-6400 and with the D300 I have it set to 200-1600. The only downside of the system as I see it is the inability to set the start point of the Auto ISO mode lower down (i.e. below ISO 200).
 
To be honest, when starting out try to stick to Apeture Priority and Shutter Priority and move onto manual when you feel confident enough to do so. These 2 modes should be chosen depending on the situation you are in.

I would say for shooting outdoors in good light, ISO 200 is fine for most situations (i dont know what f/stop your lens goes down to).

Choose your Program mode depening on what you are shooting.

1. AP. Choose apeture priority mode to let YOU choose the apeture value and let the camera work out the shutter speed for you. This allows you to control your depth of field. The lower the F stop value you choose the greater the background (and foreground) blur you will get. The higher the number will make more and more of the background and foreground come into focus from the object you are focusing on. This mode is great for people shots for example.

2. SP. Shutter priority mode is used when YOU want to control the shutter speed and let the camera work out the correct apeture value. If you are shooting sports / action shots where you want to "freeze" the action you select a high shutter speed such as 1/250th 1/500th of a second or shorter for example. If you want to capture the flowing of a river to create a silky smooth shot, you might want to set the shutter speed to 1 or 2 seconds for example.

Now... ISO. If you find that in these situations your camera is having to open the shutter longer and longer to get a good exposure and your images are blurring, this is where you can increase the ISO of the camera to make the sensor more sensitive to light. A higher ISO value means that the camera can speed up your shutter values again for you.

This is why for most things ISO 200 outdoors is probably fine, you will just need to start cranking it up when the light starts to drop or you go indoors. Thats why we buy f2.8 or lower f/stop lenses so that we can shoot with wide apetures in low light and still get fast shutter speeds.

I hope that makes sense?
 
jamesoliverstone said:
To be honest, when starting out try to stick to Apeture Priority and Shutter Priority and move onto manual when you feel confident enough to do so. These 2 modes should be chosen depending on the situation you are in.

I would say for shooting outdoors in good light, ISO 200 is fine for most situations (i dont know what f/stop your lens goes down to).

Choose your Program mode depening on what you are shooting.

1. AP. Choose apeture priority mode to let YOU choose the apeture value and let the camera work out the shutter speed for you. This allows you to control your depth of field. The lower the F stop value you choose the greater the background (and foreground) blur you will get. The higher the number will make more and more of the background and foreground come into focus from the object you are focusing on. This mode is great for people shots for example.

2. SP. Shutter priority mode is used when YOU want to control the shutter speed and let the camera work out the correct apeture value. If you are shooting sports / action shots where you want to "freeze" the action you select a high shutter speed such as 1/250th 1/500th of a second or shorter for example. If you want to capture the flowing of a river to create a silky smooth shot, you might want to set the shutter speed to 1 or 2 seconds for example.

Now... ISO. If you find that in these situations your camera is having to open the shutter longer and longer to get a good exposure and your images are blurring, this is where you can increase the ISO of the camera to make the sensor more sensitive to light. A higher ISO value means that the camera can speed up your shutter values again for you.

This is why for most things ISO 200 outdoors is probably fine, you will just need to start cranking it up when the light starts to drop or you go indoors. Thats why we buy f2.8 or lower f/stop lenses so that we can shoot with wide apetures in low light and still get fast shutter speeds.

I hope that makes sense?
Click to expand...


That does, thanks for putting it in plain English for baffons like me:thumbs:
 
martsharm said:
The above makes no sense to me, no matter how often I read it.

Nikon invented a very clever auto ISO system so you don't have to keep adjusting ISO manually.

ISO is clearly one of the 3 factors that affect exposure, but unlike shutter speed and aperture, it's usually the case that a lower ISO is better. No-one apart from our friend above wants noise in their picture.

The auto ISO feature will increase ISO only when needed, which in my opinion is better than setting it yourself, especially since it will set ISO at small increments which cannot be made manually, eg 900 or 540.

Having said that, noise is better than motion blur in most situations and I will happily use ISO 3200 for a whole shoot when necessary - usually gigs.

I would recommend learning how auto ISO works - it is very useful and works in a predictable way. Then you have one less thing to worry about.

I will regularly use manual mode, but leave auto ISO activated. Thus I am in complete control of the shutter speed and aperture, but can rely on auto ISO to bump up the ISO when required for the correct exposure. I like that.
Click to expand...
Spot on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top