limit the Auto-ISO

[Gishy]

Hi to all,
I have the D500 camera and Nikkor 200-500mm lens that i use it for birds photography.
I work with the option M and Auto-ISO.
I limited the ISO to maximum 800 but sometimes i get dark photos for example if i take a picture of black eagle in the middle of a tree .
I do not know if the limitation to 800 is O.K or its recommended to limit higher value.
Do you familiar with this issue?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hark]

Hi to all,
I have the D500 camera and Nikkor 200-500mm lens that i use it for birds photography.
I work with the option M and Auto-ISO.
I limited the ISO to maximum 800 but sometimes i get dark photos for example if i take a picture of black eagle in the middle of a tree .
I do not know if the limitation to 800 is O.K or its recommended to limit higher value.
Do you familiar with this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Gishy, ISO 800 is way too low for birds. If that bird flies off, you will want a fast shutter speed (maybe 1/1200" to 1/2000") to capture the bird without blurring it plus a usable aperture that shows some depth to the image. When you are shooting on the long end around 500mm, your depth of field will be pretty shallow. So f/6.3 to f/9 would be the ballpark I'd suggest.

The thing is when you use these apertures and shutter speeds, your ISO has to be high enough to compensate for a properly exposed image. My bodies are either capped at Auto ISO 5000 or 6400. When you reach your max (capped) ISO, and if you require additional exposure, your images will appear underexposed once you hit your limit.

For stationary birds, just lower your shutter speed to one that is fast enough for hand holding.

 

[Gishy]

Gishy, ISO 800 is way too low for birds. If that bird flies off, you will want a fast shutter speed (maybe 1/1200" to 1/2000") to capture the bird without blurring it plus a usable aperture that shows some depth to the image. When you are shooting on the long end around 500mm, your depth of field will be pretty shallow. So f/6.3 to f/9 would be the ballpark I'd suggest.

The thing is when you use these apertures and shutter speeds, your ISO has to be high enough to compensate for a properly exposed image. My bodies are either capped at Auto ISO 5000 or 6400. When you reach your max (capped) ISO, and if you require additional exposure, your images will appear underexposed once you hit your limit.

For stationary birds, just lower your shutter speed to one that is fast enough for hand holding.

Thank you.
But for higher ISO don't you get a Grainy picture?

 

[cwgrizz]

Thank you.
But for higher ISO don't you get a Grainy picture?

It is possible, but the D500 is good (as I have been told) with higher ISO settings. A slightly noisy photo is better than a blurry photo from low shutter speed. Look at the bird section forum and you will see what settings others are using for your combination of camera and lens. You will probably be surprised at what you find.

 

[mikew_RIP]

You have to keep pushing the ISO until you hit the limit your happy with, not saying ime happy with this but my Z50 at ISO 20000

DSC_0059 by electric.mike, on Flickr

 

[mikew_RIP]

Just another example i did for fun, Z50 at ISO 32000, within reason you will get less noise/grain with a correctly exposed high iso than an under exposed image brought up in PP.

DSC_0380 by electric.mike, on Flickr

 

[PhilM_TX]

The D500 really does quite well at elevated ISO's, as compared to other Crop Sensor DSLR bodies. The Z (Mirrorless) bodies like Mike referenced above tend to perform even better at higher ISO levels.

Here's one with a D500 @ ISO 2200 & it's fine. I'm usually ok with approx. 3200 on a D500, but prefer lower. Sometimes, I'll go higher if that's what it takes.

Noise reduction software makes all the difference. To my knowledge (and personal experience), Topaz DeNoise AI is about as good as it gets, at least for now.

 

[Dawg Pics]

If you are taking an image of a dark subject in poor lighting and you are forced to raise the ISO there will be noise in the image. You will certainly get noise if the image is way underexposed, and you have to bring up the shadows or exposure in post processing. Sometimes you just have to wait for better lighting if you don't want to increase ISO and you are at the lowest shutter speed and largest aperture you need for the shot. You can also increase the EV if needed.

Can you post an example of the image, so we can see the EXIF data and the environment. We can better assist you if we see what you are doing. Also, are you shooting RAW or jpg?

Go out and shoot images and raise the ISO and see what you get. Use the EV as well. You will be able to see what you can tolerate. Then you can limit your ISO if you want based on what you are shooting and how you are editing the images.

 

[Dawg Pics]

I found this article for you. It might help you out.
https://www.naturettl.com/how-to-photograph-wildlife-in-low-light/

 

[Gishy]

If you are taking an image of a dark subject in poor lighting and you are forced to raise the ISO there will be noise in the image. You will certainly get noise if the image is way underexposed, and you have to bring up the shadows or exposure in post processing. Sometimes you just have to wait for better lighting if you don't want to increase ISO and you are at the lowest shutter speed and largest aperture you need for the shot. You can also increase the EV if needed.

Can you post an example of the image, so we can see the EXIF data and the environment. We can better assist you if we see what you are doing. Also, are you shooting RAW or jpg?

Go out and shoot images and raise the ISO and see what you get. Use the EV as well. You will be able to see what you can tolerate. Then you can limit your ISO if you want based on what you are shooting and how you are editing the images.

Thank you.
I work with NEF format. and took the photo in +1.7 EV

 

[hark]

Thank you.
But for higher ISO don't you get a Grainy picture?

It is possible, but the D500 is good (as I have been told) with higher ISO settings. A slightly noisy photo is better than a blurry photo from low shutter speed. Look at the bird section forum and you will see what settings others are using for your combination of camera and lens. You will probably be surprised at what you find.

Fair enough question. Yes, there will be grain at higher ISO's. Knowing how to deal with it and how to handle it when editing is key. As Walt mentioned, would you rather miss a photo opp due to not using optimum settings?

Here are a few of mine from January all capped at Auto ISO 5000. And the body is a D7200 - not quite as good as the sensor on the D500. I could have lowered my shutter speed, but the eagles kept taking off to search for food. There were around 5-6 eagles total. The first 2 images are the same eagle.

 

[Danno_RIP]

@Gishy, with the 200-500 f5.6 I use an f stop of 5.6 to 7.1 and never had an issue with my 7200. It helped me in the low light and the trees.

 

[BackdoorArts]

About 80% of what I shoot is birds with the D500. I find that 4000 is about the limit where an all dark background can become a little too noisy to deal with. That said, I've grown accustomed to using the brush tool in Camera Raw to apply both noise reduction and a lowering of Texture to the areas that aren't the bird which allows me to better show what it was I'm shooting.

Here's one from this weekend straight out of camera with no adjustments applied. ISO 4000 and definitely usable. This is a full frame shot and the noise will be exacerbated if you need to crop in significantly, but it's still usable.

 

[Dawg Pics]

Thank you.
I work with NEF format. and took the photo in +1.7 EVView attachment 326036

Pretty subject. No wonder you were trying to get the shot. I am sure somebody will come along and critique this for you. Thanks for posting it with the information.

 

[nikonpup]

good software can do amazing stuff. Lightroom. D610 tamron 150-600mm 1/1000 f6.3 iso 4000

 

[BackdoorArts]

View attachment 326050View attachment 326051
good software can do amazing stuff. Lightroom. D610 tamron 150-600mm 1/1000 f6.3 iso 4000

To be fair the D610 is full frame and 24MP (which is effectively less than 10MP in the cropped portion) so it should be at least as good at high ISO. I actually find it and the D750 to be about a stop better than the D500 once you cross ISO 1600, but again that's to be expected with the larger pixel sizes.

 

[canuck257]

When the light is poor and you "need" to get the shot the D500 does pretty well. Shot before dawn at ISO 8000 as they were wandering back into the trees.