Auto ISO is a game changer for event shooting when event has you shooting in ever-changing mixed light (indoor and/or outdoor). It really allows me to be more creative as I can focus more of my attention on depth of field or creative motion control. I still tend to arrive early and use a light meter to map out the lighting so I am not caught by surprise. However, I tend to shoot in full manual when shooting stage events (such as church) where lighting doesn't change during the event and I only have to compensate exposure when my distance to subject changes (inverse square). In these situations I have a set starting point based on prior engagements (e.g. recipe) and "tweak" to suit.
I've been a sports photographer for over 20 years and I've been shooting Auto ISO most of that time. A couple of things to consider: being in Manual with AutoISO enabled really works great because you can specify fast shutter speed (at or over 1/1000) which freezes the athlete AND wide open aperture which separates the athlete from the background. in this scenario, the camera is still in semi auto mode because the camera can match ISO to the appropriate exposure value given the situation. One thing to look out for in AutoISO is "bumping the rail". This happens when you setup AutoISO and specify a lower limit for ISO (usually the base ISO of the camera). If you are shooting on a bright day and then clouds start to move in, the camera starts lowering the ISO value to keep up with the decreasing exposure and you may hit the lower limit and start over exposing your pictures. So you have to be aware of your surroundings and occasionally "sweep the field" to make sure you are not bouncing the bottom limit.
Thanks so much for this!! I always keep your mantra, "let the camera control 1 setting" in mind, but I'm always either on Shutter or Aperture priority. I've never considered using ISO priority. In addition to the great advice, you got some great hummingbird shots! Hope you had a great holiday!
HELLO JP! I really enjoyed your video and what you do! Recently took your advice and did an experiment, we shoot with an Olympus E-500 with External Flash 1/250 f.8 at 400 ISO. EV Compensation is +2 points. Picture was nice, the Histogram showed image exposed properly! Did the same experiment with Auto ISO and the picture came out dark! So in my situation where we Photograph Rock Bands that are pretty much stationary with a little bit of movement by the drummer and colored LCD Stage Lights everywhere! Manual 400 ISO is the preferred setting!
I do a lot of wildlife photography with subjects that are rarely inclined to sit still, but aren't necessarily zipping all over the place. As such, I typically do manual shutter and aperture with auto ISO, enabling me to set the shutter as fast as possible and avoid motion blur while still getting a good exposure. I find this helps evade possible miscalculations by the sensor due to the shortcomings of onboard light metering when it comes to discerning between dark colors and actual darkness. However, I'm actually considering getting more comfortable with adding manual ISO, at least for certain situations, because of the excess noise that I see it causing as a result of this same problem. For example, I was recently shooting in a brightly-lit foreground with dark-colored subjects - purple martins and tree swallows - perched in front of a shaded treeline in the background. The shots came out annoyingly grainy to the point that the amount of denoising needed to eliminate it in post would markedly reduce the sharpness of the subject. I eventually examined the metadata on a hunch and discovered that the ISO on these shots had been pushed up to 3200 when the level of foreground lighting really only necessitated 1000, 800, or even less. The method I use will probably vary depending on the lighting conditions since auto ISO *has* been very helpful to me at times, but just be aware of this if you're shooting a scene that might "fool" the onboard sensor into seeing darkness. If you're using this method and are seeing a lot of noise in the final result, you may want to reconsider.
I use Auto ISO for events and since I am shooting with the R6, I’m not to worried when seeing 10k ISO! 😅 and even 25k ISO is usable👍🏼 I also like to use the Shutter Speed priority mode because there’s a minimum that I want to capture motion or freeze.
I found using the auto ISO is great when shooting time lapse. You can set the camera to get the blur needed to make the time lapse work while the auto ISO keeps the exposure constant.
Not in the traditional sense in that you need to make decisions of all 3 aspects of the exposure triangle. In this approach you are putting one aspect of the exposure triangle on auto.
@@TheSlantedLens well I was thinking more in terms of shooting film wherein the film speed is set by whatever speed of film you put into the camera. At that point, you’re only deciding upon shutter speed and aperture.
I use auto iso when shooting in low light situations as I have a crop sensor and images are still dark at a wide open aperture of f/2.8, it helps getting sharp images as it allows for faster shutter speed
What you are saying is true. But just remember. It isn't the auto is giving you better low light capability. It is that the auto is giving you a higher ISO faster.
Unless I'm shooting with strobes or there's some other unique situation, I pretty much always shoot on ISO (Nikon D850s). I'd rather control the shutter speed and aperture and have a minor variation in image noise.
Great video! Love it! Can you also touch on metering modes? Using a multi mode, landscape photography, would give good results. But taking that same multi metering to a backlit portrait what we result in a severely under exposed model.
When you are doing any kind of movement from sports to bride walking down the aisle, the light is changing and auto ISO makes it so you can shoot quickly!
Thanks again for another great video and for sharing your knowledge! When Working with a model and wanting to freeze motion in Auto ISO, am I assuming correctly that the flash would have to be in TTL?
Thanks for this very informative tips. Should you recommend me to put ISO on auto when I am shooting video too? (Specially when I am panning my camera in different directions). If I put ISO, aperture, and shutter speed all three in manual then the exposure level changes while panning my camera against the subject. How should I overcome this situation??
Not with video., You don't want the exposure to change while the clip is running unless you are walking from a bright situation into a dark situation. Then you ramp the exposure manually.
@@TheSlantedLens Thanks a lot for ur response. But, that’s not happening with me. If I put ISO in manual then exposure do change while the clip is running, for instance it becomes dark when the Sun is covered by clouds and brighter when the Sun is out. Whereas when I put ISO in auto mode, camera takes care of the exposure. In the situation when I am panning my camera or moving from brighter to darker places, are u suggesting me to change my ISO manually while shooting, as in using my thumb to control the ISO while shooting? If I do that then exposure do changes while cranking up or down the ISO and appears in footage. I am talking about shooting outside in nature light and moving my camera along the subject from brighter to darker places and vice-Versa.
I’ve done it and it seems to respond but, not efficiently, I found myself changing the ISO most of the time (I would say no) remember that your on purpose under exposing 2 to 3 stops when using flash, depending on distance and power of the flash. The auto ISO does not take that into consideration…. Unless I’m wrong 😅
Can you please help me with this? Whenever I use Auto ISO, as prescribed, my pictures wind up coming out either under or over exposed. I have tried using the center-weighted and wide-weighted options for focus and exposure. I have yet to find something that produces a properly exposed image.
Then you'll have shots that are noisier than they need to be. Think of auto ISO as your "shoot as low ISO as possible at any instant" setting. At every instant it is gravitating toward low ISO, raising it only as much as necessary at every instant, and it continues to try to lower it all the time. Why not prefer to have less noise? (unless noise is what you want)
Shoot auto iso and auto wb on a Nikon - I always have done - very rarely failed me. Nikon dont get enough credit for getting their metering right. Yes their AF is behind Sony and Canon but there auto modes work better. Ive owned all three brands.
Auto ISO is a game changer for event shooting when event has you shooting in ever-changing mixed light (indoor and/or outdoor). It really allows me to be more creative as I can focus more of my attention on depth of field or creative motion control. I still tend to arrive early and use a light meter to map out the lighting so I am not caught by surprise. However, I tend to shoot in full manual when shooting stage events (such as church) where lighting doesn't change during the event and I only have to compensate exposure when my distance to subject changes (inverse square). In these situations I have a set starting point based on prior engagements (e.g. recipe) and "tweak" to suit.
Sounds like you have it down. Thanks for sharing your approach!
I've been a sports photographer for over 20 years and I've been shooting Auto ISO most of that time. A couple of things to consider: being in Manual with AutoISO enabled really works great because you can specify fast shutter speed (at or over 1/1000) which freezes the athlete AND wide open aperture which separates the athlete from the background. in this scenario, the camera is still in semi auto mode because the camera can match ISO to the appropriate exposure value given the situation. One thing to look out for in AutoISO is "bumping the rail". This happens when you setup AutoISO and specify a lower limit for ISO (usually the base ISO of the camera). If you are shooting on a bright day and then clouds start to move in, the camera starts lowering the ISO value to keep up with the decreasing exposure and you may hit the lower limit and start over exposing your pictures. So you have to be aware of your surroundings and occasionally "sweep the field" to make sure you are not bouncing the bottom limit.
Excellent points. Thanks for sharing your expertise!
Thanks for sharing! Never heard of bumping the rail before, but it's great advice!!
@@JasmineApple Sorry, I'm an electrical engineer and it's an industry term.
Excellent advice, Jay! I've started doing this recently while shooting high school football and it's working quite well.
Good to hear. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thanks so much for this!! I always keep your mantra, "let the camera control 1 setting" in mind, but I'm always either on Shutter or Aperture priority. I've never considered using ISO priority. In addition to the great advice, you got some great hummingbird shots! Hope you had a great holiday!
You are so welcome! Thanks for your comment!
JP sir after long time I watch your videos I am so busy n my exam very imprmative video love from Pakistan..
Glad you liked it. Thanks for your comment!
Thank for the tip!
I just realized that my canon 7d has the feature and works as you say in manual mode!
Good to hear. Enjoy working with the different modes!
HELLO JP!
I really enjoyed your video and what you do! Recently took your advice and did an experiment, we shoot with an Olympus E-500 with External Flash 1/250 f.8
at 400 ISO. EV Compensation is +2 points. Picture was nice, the Histogram showed image exposed properly! Did the same experiment with Auto ISO and the picture came out dark! So in my situation where we Photograph Rock Bands that are pretty much stationary with a little bit of movement by the drummer and colored LCD Stage Lights everywhere!
Manual 400 ISO is the preferred setting!
Great to hear about your experience photographing rock bands!
I agree, Manual mode with auto iso is the best settings in my opinion.
That is a great solution for many things!
Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for all the tutorials this year. All my best.
You are so welcome! Happy holidays to you!
I do a lot of wildlife photography with subjects that are rarely inclined to sit still, but aren't necessarily zipping all over the place. As such, I typically do manual shutter and aperture with auto ISO, enabling me to set the shutter as fast as possible and avoid motion blur while still getting a good exposure. I find this helps evade possible miscalculations by the sensor due to the shortcomings of onboard light metering when it comes to discerning between dark colors and actual darkness. However, I'm actually considering getting more comfortable with adding manual ISO, at least for certain situations, because of the excess noise that I see it causing as a result of this same problem.
For example, I was recently shooting in a brightly-lit foreground with dark-colored subjects - purple martins and tree swallows - perched in front of a shaded treeline in the background. The shots came out annoyingly grainy to the point that the amount of denoising needed to eliminate it in post would markedly reduce the sharpness of the subject. I eventually examined the metadata on a hunch and discovered that the ISO on these shots had been pushed up to 3200 when the level of foreground lighting really only necessitated 1000, 800, or even less.
The method I use will probably vary depending on the lighting conditions since auto ISO *has* been very helpful to me at times, but just be aware of this if you're shooting a scene that might "fool" the onboard sensor into seeing darkness. If you're using this method and are seeing a lot of noise in the final result, you may want to reconsider.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I use Auto ISO for events and since I am shooting with the R6, I’m not to worried when seeing 10k ISO! 😅 and even 25k ISO is usable👍🏼 I also like to use the Shutter Speed priority mode because there’s a minimum that I want to capture motion or freeze.
Sounds good. Thank you for sharing your workflow!
I found using the auto ISO is great when shooting time lapse. You can set the camera to get the blur needed to make the time lapse work while the auto ISO keeps the exposure constant.
If you are doing transition from day to night that makes sense. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this video
You are most welcome. Thanks for watching!
Great video. One minor point: shooting in M mode with auto iso IS STILL shooting in manual mode.
Not in the traditional sense in that you need to make decisions of all 3 aspects of the exposure triangle. In this approach you are putting one aspect of the exposure triangle on auto.
@@TheSlantedLens well I was thinking more in terms of shooting film wherein the film speed is set by whatever speed of film you put into the camera. At that point, you’re only deciding upon shutter speed and aperture.
I use auto iso when shooting in low light situations as I have a crop sensor and images are still dark at a wide open aperture of f/2.8, it helps getting sharp images as it allows for faster shutter speed
What you are saying is true. But just remember. It isn't the auto is giving you better low light capability. It is that the auto is giving you a higher ISO faster.
@@TheSlantedLens absolutely, it cranks up the iso to heights I will never dare to go to manually 😅
Unless I'm shooting with strobes or there's some other unique situation, I pretty much always shoot on ISO (Nikon D850s). I'd rather control the shutter speed and aperture and have a minor variation in image noise.
Sounds like a good approach. Thanks for sharing!
Great video! Love it! Can you also touch on metering modes? Using a multi mode, landscape photography, would give good results. But taking that same multi metering to a backlit portrait what we result in a severely under exposed model.
Great thought. We will figure that out!
Awesome Tip & Also i'll keep iso auto Max range 6400 for safe zone & Clean Image Cuz Noise Reduction in Post Will Reduce Sharpness Is It True Sir .
Depends what NR you use. A cheap NR will soften but not every NR software.
It takes a bit of adjusting settings to get the noise reduction at its best.
@@TheSlantedLens I use DxO's software
If light does not change, why to change settings (ISO)? A few test shot and after that you can keep focus just a composition and so on.
When you are doing any kind of movement from sports to bride walking down the aisle, the light is changing and auto ISO makes it so you can shoot quickly!
@@TheSlantedLens but if there is no clouds and midday, the light is same in the field. A large area is under the same light.
Thanks again for another great video and for sharing your knowledge! When Working with a model and wanting to freeze motion in Auto ISO, am I assuming correctly that the flash would have to be in TTL?
Don't use auto ISO with a flash. When you use a flash you need to be in Manual mode for everything.
Thanks for this very informative tips. Should you recommend me to put ISO on auto when I am shooting video too? (Specially when I am panning my camera in different directions). If I put ISO, aperture, and shutter speed all three in manual then the exposure level changes while panning my camera against the subject. How should I overcome this situation??
Not with video., You don't want the exposure to change while the clip is running unless you are walking from a bright situation into a dark situation. Then you ramp the exposure manually.
@@TheSlantedLens Thanks a lot for ur response. But, that’s not happening with me. If I put ISO in manual then exposure do change while the clip is running, for instance it becomes dark when the Sun is covered by clouds and brighter when the Sun is out. Whereas when I put ISO in auto mode, camera takes care of the exposure.
In the situation when I am panning my camera or moving from brighter to darker places, are u suggesting me to change my ISO manually while shooting, as in using my thumb to control the ISO while shooting? If I do that then exposure do changes while cranking up or down the ISO and appears in footage. I am talking about shooting outside in nature light and moving my camera along the subject from brighter to darker places and vice-Versa.
Thanks 🙏
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!
Nice video
Thank you! I appreciate that!
@@TheSlantedLens you’re welcome
I shoot in manual mode but also set the camera to auto iso. It’s just one less thing to worry about.
True, true, one less thing to worry about!
dear mentor.. is it possible to use auto ISO with a flash on TTL to shoot at events?
I’ve done it and it seems to respond but, not efficiently, I found myself changing the ISO most of the time (I would say no) remember that your on purpose under exposing 2 to 3 stops when using flash, depending on distance and power of the flash. The auto ISO does not take that into consideration…. Unless I’m wrong 😅
@@creatorsjourney6286 thank you for sharing this knowledge with me..
I will try a few more times to make sure how it works actually...
No that doesn't work. If you are using a flash on TTL then you should shoot manually.
@@TheSlantedLens yes sir.. thank you for the confirmation.
I wish i knew this years ago.
Never too late to start!
Can you please help me with this? Whenever I use Auto ISO, as prescribed, my pictures wind up coming out either under or over exposed. I have tried using the center-weighted and wide-weighted options for focus and exposure. I have yet to find something that produces a properly exposed image.
It sounds to me like you may have a camera problem. I would get my camera checked out if I were you.
Great info
NO ! I will NEVER stop shooting manual shutter, manual aperture AND manual ! I Always shoot fully manual.
Glad you like your work flow. The auto settings really save time.
You surely miss a lot of shots. I know I did, when I was being ridiculous and stubborn.
Then you'll have shots that are noisier than they need to be. Think of auto ISO as your "shoot as low ISO as possible at any instant" setting. At every instant it is gravitating toward low ISO, raising it only as much as necessary at every instant, and it continues to try to lower it all the time. Why not prefer to have less noise? (unless noise is what you want)
Great tips from a great photographer.....
Many thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
Shoot auto iso and auto wb on a Nikon - I always have done - very rarely failed me. Nikon dont get enough credit for getting their metering right. Yes their AF is behind Sony and Canon but there auto modes work better. Ive owned all three brands.
Good to know. Yes, Nikons are solid still cameras!
So what about in video? Same? Like if I'm filming a. Soccer game,. You couldn't possibly shoot in all Manuel,right
You will want to shoot in manual. In video you pick an exposure and stick with it.
Sometimes seeing a high ISO freaks me out lol.. I end up setting the cap at 6400
It that works well for you then that is ok.
Frowns in 5D classic.
Thanks for watching and keep on clickin!
eye - so I - SO ISO You're saying it incorrectly. Please look it up. It's been a thing for decades.
Good advice, though.
True, and yet so many of us have the habit of saying I S O.
Ive used Manual with auto ISO for years. Dont get why you say Stop using Manual??
But I only got an old but hardy 7d where noise levels just skyrockets when I get past 1000iso 😂.
You cannot use Auto ISO on older DSLR cameras.
@@TheSlantedLens there is auto iso on my 7d. But I set it to max 1600iso as anything past that is just unusable.