Is Auto ISO really evil?
If you frequent photography groups on social media you’ve no doubt seen posts about grainy photos with high ISO and the comments that follow about how using Auto ISO is wrong!
After all, you’re not a real photographer unless you always shoot in manual mode only… right?
Well I have a secret… I often shoot without using manual, and often I am using the (seemingly) much despised auto ISO feature. Does that make me evil? Does it mean I’m not actually a photographer?
First of all, let’s have a look at what ISO is.
Back in film days, you could get film with different ASA levels. This meant a higher ASA would be more sensitive to light and so it was better for lower light photos at the expense of added grain.
ISO is the digital equivalent of that and it works by pushing more power through the image sensor to make it more sensitive to light. All that extra power comes at a cost though… you guessed it… it adds grain/noise to the photo.
So, ISO can help us get that shot in a darker environment but it will mean the higher we go with that the more digital noise will be added to our image. This can easily with entry level cameras be so bad that it ruins the picture. Higher level cameras tend to have better capabilities to handle higher ISO levels with my Nikon D750 producing usable…
