Today’s Post by Joe Farace
My friend Mark Toal is a fan of the Auto ISO setting found on most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras but up until recently I was not. I even wrote a post about why I didn’t like this feature. The main reason why I didn’t like Auto ISO is because most of the software used by DSLRs and mirrorless cameras seem to favor higher ISOs (and subsequently higher noise) than I thought was necessary. But with more experience with newer cameras since that original post I’ve changed my mind, mostly because of the efficient way that these newer cameras handle noise.
Over time, it became clear to me that when shooting under challenging lighting and where you don’t have time to put the camera on a tripod—or maybe one is not allowed to as in today’s featured image—and you have to work fast to get the shot, Auto ISO removes one piece of the exposure puzzle. Such as when shooting in the dark, moody lighting found in the Gallery of the Vehicle Vault in Parker, Colorado (below.)
How I made this shot: Camera was a Nikon D780 and VR 24-120mm f/4.0 G lens at 70mm, with an exposure of 1/50 sec at f/11 and ISO 8000. This image was cropped slightly, tweaked in Vivenza and then, maybe I cheated, ran Dfine to eliminate any noise. There didn’t appear to be very much in the original RAW file, but sometimes, like my dear old Dad, I’m a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy.
Did my friend Mark did convince me that I was wrong about Auto ISO? I would say ‘yes’ because there’s nothing better than the school of hard knocks to make a photographer have a reality check. So now, I’m more of a fan of Auto ISO that before and I’m not going back to my old ways when shooting in questionable and changeable lighting conditions. BUT when the weather is bright and shiny, I still prefer to pick my own (lower) ISO setting.
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Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies are available from Amazon for $21.50 and used copies starting around five bucks.