Maximum ISO for routine use

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Steve in Oz

Senior Member
I've just spent a few days in Bali with my new D7200 and one thing I've had a bit of fun with is the full automatic, flash-off setting. I went into some low light situations where I though an exposure would have been pretty much impossible with a film camera, just pressed the button and said 'okay camera, get me an image' - and it did!

I got some nice shots in dimly lit restaurants and piano bars, and when I went back and checked the details, the camera was working at ISO12800 but not producing enough noise for the pic to really look 'noisy' in a way that badly affects the pic. For someone like me who thought of 400ASA as 'fast film' back in the day, that's quite something.

It got me to thinking, having grown up shooting film I habitually start at ISO100 and only increase the sensitivity if I can't get a suitable shutter/aperture combination, but the digital medium might allow me to re-think that. Every situation is different, but is there an ISO you generally won't routinely go above because the noise (I remember it was once called 'grain') starts to affect the image?
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Steve in Oz said:
I've just spent a few days in Bali with my new D7200 and one thing I've had a bit of fun with is the full automatic, flash-off setting. I went into some low light situations where I though an exposure would have been pretty much impossible with a film camera, just pressed the button and said 'okay camera, get me an image' - and it did!

I got some nice shots in dimly lit restaurants and piano bars, and when I went back and checked the details, the camera was working at ISO12800 but not producing enough noise for the pic to really look 'noisy' in a way that badly affects the pic. For someone like me who thought of 400ASA as 'fast film' back in the day, that's quite something.

It got me to thinking, having grown up shooting film I habitually start at ISO100 and only increase the sensitivity if I can't get a suitable shutter/aperture combination, but the digital medium might allow me to re-think that. Every situation is different, but is there an ISO you generally won't routinely go above because the noise (I remember it was once called 'grain') starts to affect the image?
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As I see it if I use the wrong aperture and the depth of field is too shallow or not shallow enough and something that should be in focus is not, or vice versa, the shot is toast. If there's too much motion blur where there shouldn't be, or vice versa the shot is also toast. If there's too much digital noise however, I can remove it (at least in large part, NIK Tools Dfine does a very, very good job). This being the case, I let the ISO go as high as it needs to get the shot with the aperture and shutter speed I want. There are times I do want to control ISO, and when I need to, I do that but, typically, ISO is the least of my worries.
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
With the D7200 in the poor light we have been having its been 6400 lately on auto ISO,this is for bird photography and if i think its going that high and there is no white in the subject i will possibly set +1 ev,i have no idea why but it seams to give better results.
 
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Blacktop

Senior Member
mikew said:
With the D7200 in the poor light we have been having its been 6400 lately on auto ISO,this is for bird photography and if i think its going that high and there is no white in the subject i will possibly set +1 ev,i have no idea why but it seams to give better results.
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That is quite the feat for a DX cam.
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I would love to stick with the base ISO but most of the time the camera would be in the bag,not the greatest quality but a 6400 sample.

DSC_3208.jpg
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I haven't gotten real good at PP and so noise can be a pretty irritating issue! But eventually I'll have a computer that can handle the better PP programs. Until then, I'll keep working to improve with the tools I have at hand! Lol:D
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
I haven't gotten real good at PP and so noise can be a pretty irritating issue! But eventually I'll have a computer that can handle the better PP programs. Until then, I'll keep working to improve with the tools I have at hand! Lol:D
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I never do noise reduction as such,i may brush some in on the background in camera raw with noise reduction or brush the background with the blur tool in Elements,but when i use noise reduction on the main subject i dont like what it does.
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I'm using Raw Thearope (not sure of the spelling) and I haven't learned how to separate the subject from the background let alone if it even has brushes to use.lol :)
But I have learned how to reduce some noise, at a cost of some sharpness if over done.: (

Once I get a new computer, I will switch to something like Lightroom and or Photoshop!:D

mikew said:
I never do noise reduction as such,i may brush some in on the background in camera raw with noise reduction or brush the background with the blur tool in Elements,but when i use noise reduction on the main subject i dont like what it does.
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Not familiar with the tools in RT but if they are just round brushes,enlarge the image then just brush the background with NR,cutting carefully up to the main subject.
 
cwgrizz

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
mikew said:
Not familiar with the tools in RT but if they are just round brushes,enlarge the image then just brush the background with NR,cutting carefully up to the main subject.
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Raw Therapee doesn't have brushes or anything like that. I use it some, but not a lot. My experience with it is that it is a general color/exposure/WB etc. correction software for the RAW images. It does have Noise reduction and many other things, but unlike other software, I haven't found a way to isolate parts of a photo to work on. jSee would be the one who could probably be more definitive on what it is capable of doing.
 
Danno

Danno

Senior Member
When I was using the D3200 noise was so difficult to deal with. Now wit th 7200 I have more choices. I can maually set the iso or use auto iso set with the limit at 6400. That along with the Nik Define tool it is just really flexible with this camera.

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I stick to base ISO - 100 most of the time. It is only in low light (with no flash) that I use 400 and 800. Beyond that I cannot recover shadows, so I have to be more careful of lighting and get the scene properly exposed (at time slightly over exposed).

For Birds and Insects I prefer using flash but have at times used auto ISO for very high speed shots (> 1/2000 at F8), as long as it is bright light it is fine.
 
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