What ISO Setting?

[Michelle Allmon]

Originally Posted by Cope

Don, I can see 800 for available lighting in a church, but is this with flash (reception) also?

I have been lately, because I don't like the heavy flash look.

[Armadillo]

From reading everyone's responce it seems that everyone has their own opinion and preference. My suggestion is try different settings at different times of day and different locations like indoors and outdoors. in other words practice, view your results and make your own conclusions. The beauty about photography is that you can experiment as much as your imagination allows you as the results the results are endless. Good luck

[LadyShutterBug]

i am all over the map depending on what i'm doing. as a general rule, i stay as low as i can given my conditions. i rarely go over 800, even at weddings.

[Patti Edens]

One thing that I haven't seen considered in this thread is the loss of color saturation with higher ISO.

I was taught that there are two reasons you want to use the lowest ISO possible -

1. For best image quality with respect to less grain (film world) or less noise (digital world) and

2. The finer the grain, the more compact the grain structure will be and consequently the higher the color saturation.

Does the second "rule" even apply to digital? This was an old film rule. Maybe if you shoot raw, you can just compensate for the saturation and it is no longer an issue - much the same way film photographers use Velvia or Provia to boost the color saturation??? I don't know any of this from experience, just from reading.

In any case, because of these "rules" in the back of my mind, I always leave my camera on the lowest ISO setting it has until I need to boost it because I need more speed.

That doesn't mean that I wait until the last minute to do so. If I walk outside and the light is low (overcast or heavy tree coverage), I will automatically boost the ISO to something with a decent shutter speed for the lens I'm using to capture a bird or critter that I might see. And when I am done shooting, I try to always remember to put the ISO back to the lowest setting.

[fran reisner]

Patti, the second rule you stated (and I remember it well) really is kind of lost when it comes to digital because it's so easy to make adjustments. The simple fact is that lower ISO will always render a better quality whether film or digital. As a film shooter I was always happy to see Kodak's constant improvements in the quality of the higher speed films. (Dang if THAT didn't free us up at weddings!!) I feel the same way about Canon's unbelievable performance at the higher ISOs. And it's just going to keep getting better! Interestingly though, with film there were times when I chose the highest speed film I could find and then "pushed it" to a higher speed just for the effect I got from the film grain. I've yet to have the desire to do that with digital but Jose is right, there's plenty of room to let our imaginations run wild. I tend to be very technical when it comes to my photography, but I always try to remember I'm an artist first. My suggestion to anyone who asks... learn to stay out of the box.

[guy]

To me it all depends on the moment really...