ISO

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willow

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Name
ian
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HI

I have a canon 350D and i was looking at the ISO range which is between 100 and 1600.
As i am really new to all these wonderful different settings,yes you guess it i have always liked the auto settings:lol: would leaving it set on ISO 400 be an ideal average setting when taking external day light photos.

Thanks
Ian

Believe me there will be more daft questions as we move along:lol::lol:
 
No, always use the lowest you can get away with.
Only raise it if you cant get the shutter speed you need otherwise.
 
Hi Ian..... Ian here.

It all depends on your other settings to be honest, obviously the closer to ISO100 you are the less noise will be present, what setting are you shooting in aperture, shutterspeed or manual?
 
TCR4x4 said:
No, always use the lowest you can get away with.
Only raise it if you cant get the shutter speed you need otherwise.
Click to expand...

:agree:

If the sun's out then ISO 100-200 will more than likely be needed.

Changing the ISO should be the last resort as IQ tends to suffer as a result of using a high ISO setting
 
How noisy are pics from the 350D at ISO400? If the noise is acceptable, why not use it? The extra stop over the base setting may reduce the chances of camera shake (and/or subject movement) enough to sacrifice a little cleanliness of image (and the noise can always be reduced in PP anyway.)
 
to understand noise try shooting at ISO 1600 and you will see how bad the interference is.

Realspeed
 
Last year I ran some experiments to achieve "noiseless" pics at high ISOs.

This was taken on a 350D at 1600 ISO then processed in Neat Image:

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This was underexposed by 2 stops giving an actual ISO of 6400:

​

So was this one:

​

They were processed using Neat Image using profiles I prepared myself.

.
 
Donki said:
Hi Ian..... Ian here.

It all depends on your other settings to be honest, obviously the closer to ISO100 you are the less noise will be present, what setting are you shooting in aperture, shutterspeed or manual?
Click to expand...

Hi

I have been shooting in P program mode to be honest, but in Shutter mode i have the shutter speed at 80 at the present time

cheers
 
To be honest I would keep it in auto if you are in program mode, if you are in day light your ISO should stay pretty low. Things to remmeber to watch out for is if your ISO is getting higher than you would like or if your shutter speed is dropping lower than it is capable for you to take the shot handheld. Again in daylight, as long as you aint in shade 100-200ISO should be fine. Best way is to try it out yourself.
 
cw318is said:
Peter as a comparison have you still got the original unedits? Just interested in how noisy it is.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Somewhere - I'll have a look through my DVDs and see if I can find them.

.
 
ISO is actually the last thing I ever use to light my photos. I hate it... HATE!
 
ISO 400 is a good bet for general use, where conditions are lit, but not great. If you have a kit lens expect to be visiting ISO 800 more often; with a fast prime it's easy enough to be on ISO 100 or 200 even indoors.

I use ISO 400 whenever I am not getting a decent enough shutter speed at ISO 100. I never even bother with ISO 200; if my shutter speed isn't good enough at ISO 100, 200 is often not adequate either. Just about any digital SLR camera is as noiseless - in practical terms - at ISO 400 as it is at ISO 100, so there really is nothing wrong with leaving it there, rather than always trying to keep to the lowest ISO and end up getting caught out.


AdamPearcey said:
ISO is actually the last thing I ever use to light my photos. I hate it... HATE!
Click to expand...

I love it. It's the simplest thing that can be done to light up a photograph and, apart from a bit of noise, it doesn't alter the characteristics of the photograph in any other way. Shutter speed or aperture is always a tradeoff - ISO isn't. Forget noise, there are noise removal programs available, and noise is never actually as bad as it is made out to be once the image is resized or printed.

Not to mention, the more you try and force your ISO down, the more flash power you'll use.
 
Last edited:
cw318is said:
Peter as a comparison have you still got the original unedits? Just interested in how noisy it is.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Well I managed to find one

This is the original:

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And this is it after processing:

​

Didn't quite get the crop right but you can see the difference.

The lack of sharpness in the original is because I always set the sharpness to 0 which also helps to minimise noise.

.
 
whilst high iso noise should always be a consideration, a slightly noisy image is better than a blurry one (because your shutter speed was too low), which to me is more important - noise should always be in the equation, but shutter speed have a much more noticeable effect on image quality - especially if your camera is handheld.

the simple rule of thumb for shutter speed for hand held is 1/focal length sec.


so, if you've got a 300mm lens, you need to aim for 1/300 sec at least for a sharp image handheld.

set your iso so you achieve this and it's one less thing to worry about.
 
cuthbert said:
the simple rule of thumb for shutter speed for hand held is 1/focal length sec.


so, if you've got a 300mm lens, you need to aim for 1/300 sec at least for a sharp image handheld.

set your iso so you achieve this and it's one less thing to worry about.
Click to expand...

Dont forget to take into consideration the 1.6 factor on a crop camera, so it will actually be more like 1/500 sec
 
very good point, tom!
 
Excellent bit of Post Pro work petersmart. :thumbs: Doesn't look like the same pic.

It may not be much help to the OP but some cameras have an Auto ISO mode which allows you to set limits as to the minimum shutter speed and maximum ISO. I tried it on my camera for the first time whilst on holiday recently and it worked a treat. :thumbs:
 
redhed17 said:
Excellent bit of Post Pro work petersmart. :thumbs: Doesn't look like the same pic.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I'm often amazed by what is possible in Digital Photography.

And the 350D is a really excellent camera even though it is getting on a bit now.

.
 
i try to steer clear of auto iso and set it manually. i can only speak for canon cameras which i've owned, but the implementation of auto iso in the 500d and 5d2 isn't very clever.

it seems to keep iso as close to 100 possible, even if that means under exposure. on a nice bright day it will be fine, on a slightly dull overcast day it will usually lead to some underexposure if you leave it to it's own devices. best set it explicitly, then you won't get any nasty surprises.
 
thats amazing Peter, just shows what good PP can do even with noise. I must say though I was looking at some unedited high ISO shots from a 60D today, big difference to my 20D in terms of IQ.
 
Thanks Guys i will have to have a play around with the setting myself.
Still all new to this like i said been using the auto settings but just want to try a few different things
Cheers
 
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