STOP using the WRONG ISO!

This is how professional photographers use ISO to their advantage. ISO is a bit different from aperture and shutter speed as it does not influence the exposure of your photo, it only influence the brightness and increasing this setting comes with the cost of revealing the noise in the photo. The noise can be reduced and in this video I'll show you how to do that too along with going into detail on how I use the ISO setting as a landscape photographer and partly wildlife photographer.

Buy or sell used camera gear via MPB here:

The Composition eBOOKs:

THE POST PROCESSING COURSE:
Use the Coupon Code "MPIYOUTUBE" to get 15% OFF!

SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER - get the free Landscape Composition lite eBook:

HOMEPAGE and PRINTS

Standalone PHOTOSHOP Tutorials, DISCOUNT CODE: “mpiyoutube” for 10% off:

Get my LOCATION maps:

MUSIC:

0:00 - How Does ISO Actaully Work?
3:35 - Other genres of photography
4:52 - Examples
6:13 - ISO variance vs invariance
7:28 - Denoising
10:10 - Old cameras are now MUCH better!
12:44 - How to get PERFECTLY noise-free night photos!
16:07 - Where to save money on used gear

[MadsPeterIversen]

Hi guys, there have been a few people correcting me on the statement that "ISO refers to the sensitivity of your camera's sensor to light". You are correct. Admittedly, for the life of me, I cannot understand why I went with that word in the script because I'm trying to make the opposite point that dialing up the ISO only amplifies the brightness as stated from 1:56 - 3:06 I hope I was clear enough in that section.

[TheAccidentalPhotographer]

The car radio analogy is literally the best description of what noise in photography is that I have ever heard!

[NigelDanson]

A great summary of ISO and some amazing examples.

[brendanlynch]

Another excellent video. Just want to say Mads that you are one of the best photography educators I've come across on YouTube. You clearly have a wealth of knowledge, but more importantly you really know how to explain things. I also appreciate that you generally avoid the 'this is why you are a terrible photographer' approach that I see more and more of. Will certainly be signing up for your Photoshop course, once I can set aside the time to work through it! All the best, and thanks!

[ddki]

Excellent analogy about comparing ISO with the noise when turning up a radio.

[spidersj]

A point to clarify is that a sensor used in any model of camera is only ISO invariant (no change of noise level relative to an ISO value) within a range of ISO values, it's usually stair stepped going between increasing ISO values. The larger / wider the range of identical noise levels as you increase the ISO, the more invariant that sensor is within that ISO range.

[HR-wdcw]

I would say that the key here is to shoot at the lowest/cleanest ISO possible, but don't risk blur (unintended blur that is) in an effort to get a cleaner image. Yes it's a compromise but as someone once told me, we can fix noise, we can't really fix motion blur (at least, not usually, although there are some tools that can help with slight blur from camera shake, but when given the choice, I'd increase the ISO in exchange for a cleaner image out of camera, since denoising has gotten so good). This is not to say to use excessively high ISOs. Use the cleanest/lowest ISO you can for the situation (if you're handholding, then you may need to increase it -- if you're on a tripod, then usually shutter speed is not a concern and you can use a low ISO, assuming that nothing is moving in the scene).

As for shooting below the base ISO, I think this depends on the camera. I just checked my Nikon Z7 II and while there may be a slight advantage shooting at say the equivalent of ISO 32 vs the native ISO 64, it's not all that visible even at 800% in the shadows. So it will depend on the camera's sensor as to whether shooting below the native/base ISO is worth it or not, and in most cases you will be compromising something as a result, or room for error when using extened ISOs (lower-end) may be smaller. That being said, I do know (through testing) that I can pretty much under expose by about 2 stops from base ISO and bring up the exposure in post (to minimize noise) with no real side effects (so for example, if an exposure called for ISO 200, I could really do ISO 64 and just bring it up in post with a potentially cleaner image).

[scotty]

I've revisited some old images with Adobe's Denoise and the different made was incredible Mads and definitely belays any fears about bumping up the ISO. Alyn's video on invariant camera was really informative and definitely a recommwatch for anyone wanting to know more about this subject

[kdj.imagery]

I shoot with a Nikon D7200 camera and it has pretty decent dynamic range. When I shoot with my Tamron 150-600 lens in manual mode with auto-ISO (max to 2200), a trick I've learned is by using -0.7 to -1.0 exp. comp lowers my ISO down a little and I can bring back some shadow details in post.

[damiensky]

Probably the best analogy I have ever heard, and I am into loud hard amplified amp running, subwoofers with a 3000 watt sound system in my camper van kind of guy !

[youarenotrede]

I did a graduation shoot for my friend's daughter this summer, and the first 20% or so of shots I took I had absent-mindedly left it on ISO 3200 (I'd forgot that my brother was using my camera to take pictures indoors at a party we were hosting, and thought I was on 100). I was mad at myself when I saw all the noise in Lightroom when I was editing them and hit the "Denoise" button thinking it wasn't going to do anything. POOF it all went away, as though I'd taken the shot with my ISO all the way down. My mind was blown.

[dashonedashtwo]

Gday mate,
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been trying to get my head around this and I now finally get it! Thank you 🙏🏾

[galacticnemesis]

Hi Mads thanks for the refresher. Very easy to understand for us technically challenged photography artists. Aperture for the depth of field required artistically. Shutter speed to freeze or blur motion as required artistically. ISO to control brightness usually only required if the previous settings cause clipping on the histogram that may result in the inability to reclaim detail in post. Great balance between technical, artistic and just enjoying the experiences. Great channel. Practical, valuable and inspirational content. Thank you.

[MeAMuse]

Out of all the setting ISO really doesn't matter... because out of the three shutter speed and aperture allow you to make creative decisions about the picture you are taking, ISO does not... it only decides how much noise you have to have. Make your creative decisions first and then change your ISO to fit that. Of course you can make alter your creative decisions and play with different apertures and shutter speeds to try to get an optimal image with less noise, but it's important to get 'The Shot' first. If I am "freezing" action, I am often starting at 1/2000s for a shutterspeed (anywhere up to like 200mm), and then if I want to ensure DOF so that my subject is in focus even if I am moving fast (e.g. driving in a vehicle), F8 is usually good. From there I can get 'a shot' after getting that you can experiment. Do you reduce shutter speed to 1000? Do you try at F4.... do you do both and allow you to quarter your ISO.... well thats all stuff you can do once you have the shot, and once you have your creative constraints in place. Recently when shooting humming birds, I needed to keep the shutter speed at 1/2000 because it gave the right amount of detail, but also some movement in the wings.... aperture slowly got wider and wider.

[richardhart]

Great video, thanks Mads. I didn’t know about stacking into a smart layer and then blending. Great tip! I use On1 for denoise and I think it works better than LR.

[huulongphotography]

Your shares are wonderful. Your store will help more people take better photos.

[superzero]

Vintage and older digital cameras aside, the de-noise software only emboldens my conviction to stick with the µ4/3 system platform, as it already produces great image quality, for challenging scenes, one can simply de-noise in post. Which results in a relatively smaller overall kit for a half the cost, or a third at best, coupled with the latest technologies…

🤔

[timrosenburgh]

Another great video Mads.
A very interesting tutorial on ISO. with great examples.
Look forward to the next one.

[raphaelcoelho]

I'm an engineer. There is a mistake on the video. Although in analogic photography the ISO is the sensitivity to light, in digital it's not the case. ISO at digital is merely a gain on the sign generated. The final brightness of the salts (proportional to the chemical reaction advance) is affected by the apperture, time o exposure (both affectig the amount of photons reaching the film) and iso (which is the capability of the film to absorve those photons. However, the sensitivity of a sensor never changes and once it is high you get iso invariance and iso or post gain are equal (in results not in practical usage as higher iso could make it possible to see dark at composition). Films really change the iso make them to capture more or less light during the exposure. Besides, the iso variant is not only better to increase on location but also the amount of noise will vary depending on different ranges. Some of those sensors produce non linear results and strange and stargged noise distribution too

[artiedoc]

Well done Mads ! Nice analogy with the “Car Radio volume noise” 👏👏…