Shooting Below Native ISO - Good Idea or Bad?

Testing and discussing the effects of shooting below the native ISO of your camera in video. How is dynamic range, noise, and image quality altered?

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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - The Question
0:59 - Dynamic Range
4:41 - Zebras & Clipping Point
6:24 - Test Scene (ETTR)
8:20 - Highlights/Shadows
10:01 - Test Scene (Neutral)
10:36 - Noise Comparison
12:00 - Conclusion

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#iso #tutorial #camera

[LucasHuang]

This is the type of content I live for on this channel:
the most random, in depth thing that no one else will ever probably look into but yet super helpful/important to know
& honest cereal reviews are great too :D

[AaronTremblay]

Canon shooter here: we can go below native ISO, it shows a little “L” next to the ISO. I’ve experienced the same thing, I’ll lose stops in the highlights. But, if my scene doesn’t have any bright highlights, or is naturally a darker scene (night shot, moodier, or whatever) then purposely going below native definitely gives cleaner images on the R5. The C70 doesn’t make as a big of a difference because the DGO is pretty good at keeping clean shadows anyhow. This was all just by eye though, so I’m thankful for your testing with some real equipment and science!

[dunnadidit]

Solid explanation dude! That’s super interesting about the cleaner shadows at the “extended”settings

[WasabiNoise]

Thanks! This was very helpful. Most people just like to repeat what they hear, but it's really nice when someone actually takes the time to study and test what happens, thanks for sharing!

[iKIMshuffle]

You’ve been a big part of my camera journey and thank you! I find myself back to your channel when caught with technical questions in the middle of the night.

[coxchandler]

"If you turn down the ISO below a native ISO, you don't recover highlights." Learned something new today - thank you!

[Blackternity]

My understanding from the photography standpoint is this:
The Native ISO (100 for photo) gives you regular Highlights and Shadows.
If you go below native in the extended Range you clip your Highlights MUCH quicker but you gain clean shadows.
Basically "shifting" your dynamic range to allow heavier shadow recovery if needed with the compromise of clipping highlights way sooner.

[MattRamseyTube]

Spot on - I always remember: the native and above require you to give the camera less light, preserving the highlights; and the below-natives make you give the camera more light, cleaning up the shadows. Both useful at the right time--thanks for the tests!

[BuildItMakeIt]

This is great. I feel like when I am in my shop filming I have started going below native for my last couple of video and felt like I was giving something up, but now I know in the nice controlled environment it is totally worth it and actually simplifies my filming a lot.

[kevinengland]

This answers so many questions for me. I would just drop below native whenever it was too bright and it was driving me crazy trying to figure out why some shots had a lower white point. I have always appreciated your videos, but this one got me to subscribe to your channel.

[proguncorn]

It's basically EI, using lower ISO means lower EI baked into the image. The analog gain remains same at native when shooting at lower ISO. You compensate for lower ISO's darker image by opening iris and lowering shutter, resulting an overexposed image but already corrected that overexposure for you when recorded, so it may have better shadow information (lower noise) but less highlight information (clipping faster).

[jillianroselovesfilmandchurros]

I love how you speak to your audience :) Thank you for figuring this out/sharing for us! :D

[CTOLARSSON]

Great video, I was always curious about this. You answer all my questions mate, amazing

[MikeAzul]

Thanks so much for your in-depth tests! I was just wondering this very topic this week!

Now i know below native i don't recover highlights! Less dynamic range in the highlights but less noise in the shadows.

[JaySea]

Question: So in a situation where its harsh sunlight barreling down on a hot wedding ceremony. Your 9 stop VND is maxed out and your still over exposed. Instead of lowering ISO, would you say cranked the shutter (or situationally cranking aperture if you want that look instead) would retain the dynamic while keeping the native ISO is best?

[alisterchapman]

One thing not discussed is if shooting log and using a LUT or colour managed workflow the LUT or other colourspace transform is going to expect certain things to be a certain levels. For example as the nominal "correct" exposure for S-Log3 puts white at 61% and you will clip at 94% most LUT's will have a highlight rolloff that starts at 61% input and map 94% input to 100% output. But if you record at a lower than base ISO the clip point becomes lower, so the first issue is the LUT's output won't ever reach 100%. Assuming you expose so the mid range is similar to "normal" then the rolloff range from the LUT will also be much reduced (white gets closer to clip, so rolloff range is reduced). Whether you grade before or after the LUT to get back to a 100% output you will need to stretch out the highlights which is not ideal. For the best results you will want LUT's that are designed for the altered and reduced input range.

[mattwruff]

This is a very educational video. At 63, I still learned something, Well Done, Gerald!

[cameronkrause]

well, I am an old film and paper guy, so when I come across this, it surprises me that anyone has broken it down to this point. I remember Ansel Adams and his Zone System analysis, and pushing and pulling film to gain control of contrast and detail in the shadows and highlights.Digital has far more latitude, but there are some similarities. Ansel Adams had hoped to live long enough to see the things that you are talking about, but he only saw the beginnings of the digital revolution. But anyway, this is really good work!

[MotiveSeekers]

I was lost for a lot of this video, but got it at the end... thank you for this deep dive and explanation, it was really helpful. My take-away is:

1. I don't absolutely need to use ND's while shooting outdoors in SLOG
2. I'm gonna start using my zebra's to aim for nailing exposure for skin in SLOG, so in theory, even when going below the native ISO, I should still get good exposures as long as I have a good range on the lower zebra limit.

[getmarked]

There is one thing I dont understand.. I shot dark scene with my R6. First at 800 ISO, second at 10 000 ISO.. all settings the same but the 10 000 ISO was obviously pushed to the right. When I brought the exposure of the 10 000 ISO clip down to 800 ISO exposure level in post.. it was much cleaner! Almost noise free and more color information.. what is going on?! HELP!