Time to crank up all the way to 100 gazilion bazilion ISO

Kekwa
I've never been bothered with iso on my d3000. I let the camera do its job and I just mess with aperture and shutter speed according to available light, as mentioned by this guy. Been doing that since the beginning as it just make sense. Never had complaints with the quality.

As dude mentioned, nowadays any picture can be touched up in post processing. But to get there, you need a picture first.

Actually you need to know the noise floor and dynamic range of the iso also

Sometimes got intrinsic iso

Sometimes from iso 100 to sub 1600 all based on iso 100. So the noise floor is same when you adjust for underexposure correction. That means if you take a shot iso100, underexpose , fast shutter, it's the same when you bring up the shadows Vs a iso 800 shot, of the same scene

Then you realise some camera might have a 1600 iso that's suddenly better Dr and noise floor than 1500 because 1500 is based off 100. Sometimes it goes the other way as well

So it's not so simplistic

I shoot and compared at ISO from 100 to 25600 before.

ISO100 is the cleanest and sharpest.
Post processing the higher iso still cant beat it.

Many here dont know that at higher ISO not only noise will increase but your dynamic range will drop also.

There is an ancient tool last time that people use to negate camera shake at low shutter speed, its called a tripod.
So unless im shooting moving objects, i almost never use higher ISO.

Higher ISO is fine if you dun pixel peep though....

This post has been edited by COOLPINK: May 27 2025, 04:51 PM

I never ever touch iso until last steps adjust all my dslr or phone settings. unless i dare to break my photo or video quality.

This post has been edited by Seybold: May 27 2025, 04:51 PM

some situation darker shot is unavoidable. so

for example:

1. i need to freeze the motion of moving people (in my case i need at least 1/400s, but i ended with 1 stop faster 1/800s)
2. already max out the aperture (f1.8)
3. already max out the native iso (ISO 5000)

this was the sooc jpeg with 2.5-stop under exposure:


it's important to shoot raw so that can post-process later to make unusable photo to usable:



bare in mind that this photo was taken with small sensor camera Olympus E-PL5 that was introduced in 2012, so most camera that is newer than this and bigger sensor than this can produce better post-processed result.

Professional shot~

it's just a random shot of street photograph.

what i want to point out are:
1. don't be afraid of shooting in high iso
2. don't be afraid of shooting your photo under-expose if you need to freeze the motion
3. don't shoot in jpeg only, shoot in raw+jpeg. you might able to save many great photos by post-processing

my a7rv selamber je iso 12800

On the other hand, if there's no reason to shoot at high ISO... no need to do it. I rarely go above 1600 anyway.

i got Lumix LX3, i use auto jerrr, now that the batt is kong, and the screen cacated, my samsneg exynos flagship camera to capture the Moment > noiseless

of course the lower the better if possible.

nowadays my camera IBIS dah koyak, so i can't handheld shoot slower than 1/250s.

This guy only tokok know little but big mouth.
Each camera behaved differently there are no single better way. At the end you have your own requirements and ai noise reduction work so well nowadays that iso hardly matter anymore.

For me I just stick with 100 because I always shoot more than 1 sec on a tripod anyway.

Dont care about iso if you shoot raw

You crank iso in camera or in lightroom same result

Then use lightroom raw denoise. Its almost magical

Thanks for sharing tips!

Auto is the best but sometime in tricky situation, need to learn how to shoot semi manual


Lol, agree with 100.


Yup

Yeah..exactly what i wanna say. If Full Frame latest camera, it is more forgiving to crank up the ISO compared to say, an older APSC sensor camera.


"noisier image is better than blur image."
This advice is a very good advice. And since, I mostly photograph street, i will try to keep my ISO as low as possible to minimise noise but in low light environment, it is easier for the photos to turn out blurry. For street photography, u don't have the luxury of controlled lighting so you must be more flexible and willing to crank up the ISO when necessary.

I normally set 3 auto ISO settings, one for day, one for low light, one for extreme low light and i change the auto ISO settings accordingly.

This post has been edited by lerijiso: Jul 28 2025, 05:28 PM