let's talk about auto ISO; what it is, why I recommend using it, and how to use it,
plus stick around to the end to see my personal settings. In this video, I will
be using the Fujifilm X100V for demonstration purposes, so this video
caters more for the Fuji shooters. But understand that any camera brand will
have an auto ISO feature, even if it isn't explicitly called auto ISO, so
please refer to your cameras user manual on how to use it.
first off what is ISO? Without being technical, ISO controls the brightness of
your image and also the noise in your image. Assuming shutter speed and
aperture values are fixed, the lower the ISO, the darker the image and the less
noisy it is, the higher the ISO, the brighter the image and the more noisy it
is. So what is AUTO ISO? Again without being too technical it is basically
allowing your camera, the X100V in my case, to take control of the ISO value
and the shutter speed to a certain extent. As the user, you need to set
constraints to let the camera know only to work within those parameters you set.
I can understand the relevance and importance to have complete control over
ISO, shutter speed and aperture in certain shooting conditions; and as a
photographer in general, it is imperative you understand what ISO, shutter speed
and aperture is, and how they work with one another. But having a good
understanding doesn't mean you have to be in full control at all times;
speaking primarily as a street photographer, there is nothing worse than
missing a good opportunity because you had to fiddle with the ISO or shutter
speed. As a rule of thumb, the less technical jargon you have to worry about,
the more time can be spent on the creative side of photography. Remember
the only thing cameras can't do yet is compose a great image. So that should be
the only thing you should focus on. So let's find the auto ISO setting in the
Fujifilm menu. Go into the camera icon and scroll to the second page and locate
'ISO Auto setting'. You will see three custom settings that you can configure.
For now, let's go into Auto 1. You should see three settings: default
sensitivity, max sensitivity and minimum shutter speed. Sensitivity refers to ISO
so bear that in mind. Default sensitivity is essentially the
minimum ISO setting you want your camera to be at. Assuming the scene you're
shooting is well lit, this will be the value your camera will strive to achieve.
The maximum sensitivity is the highest ISO value your camera will set itself to.
this is more important as it will dictate how your camera will adjust when
shooting in lower light situations. Finally, minimum shutter speed will let
the camera know the slowest shutter speed you would like any photo taken to be at.
This tells the camera that it is okay to be equal to or higher than this
specified speed but whenever possible, should never go below this amount. I say
whenever possible because there are exceptions when the camera will override
the minimum shutter speed value, as I will demonstrate. So for the sake of this
example, I have my default sensitivity to 160 which is the lowest ISO value the
camera can shoot at, and my maximum sensitivity is set to 3200. The minimum
shutter speed is set to 1/60th of a second. I set my aperture
manually to be at f/2. Now before you begin shooting, make sure you have the
ISO dial set to auto and your shutter speed dial set to auto. Let's shoot a
well-lit scene. So let me explain how the camera is processing this; first it will
factor the aperture, which is a fixed variable. With the aperture set it will
determine how the ISO needs to be in order to get the shutter speed to meet
the minimum requirements. In this scenario, we can see that the camera
opted for the default ISO and minimum shutter speed because the scene is lit
correctly. Now let's increase our aperture value to f/4
Now the camera has bumped up the ISO. This means that at an aperture of f/4, in
order for the camera to meet the required minimum shutter speed and
expose the scene properly, it needed to bump up the ISO, which is within the
maximum sensitivity value I set of 3200. Okay now the last scene, which I will
show you a situation when the camera will break constraints. Let's set the
aperture to something higher... say f/11. You can see that the camera has set the ISO
to our maximum limit but alas, why is the shutter speed slower than the value we
set? This is because, given the fixed aperture value at f/11, the camera
concludes that even with the highest set sensitivity value of 3200, it is
impossible to expose the scene correctly at the set minimum shutter speed. The
only way the camera can overcome this is to slow the shutter speed down even more
to compensate. Now you might wonder why it doesn't increase the maximum
sensitivity? Raising the sensitivity may have allowed the shutter speed to meet a
set minimum speed, but the trade-off would have been a very noisy and
potentially unusable image. So how do we fix this issue? If all we cared about was
getting the shot properly exposed, while meeting the set ISO and shutter speed
constraints, then the easiest thing to do is to lower the aperture value; going
from f11 to f/2 will open up the aperture blades, and allow more light to hit the
sensor. In this case, we can see that by doing this, it has allowed the camera to
meet the auto ISO setting constraints. The downside to this method is that you
will have less subject matter in focus due to the wider aperture value. If
changing the aperture will disrupt your composition, this would be the only time
when you would manually set the ISO and shutter speed. If you let the camera do
the work, it will try anything to get the exposure correct, but by going full
manual, you can override the camera with your superior intellectual judgement. An
alternative is of course to change to another auto ISO setting.
Remember Fujifilm gives you three custom setting slots, so you could
make a second setting that caters to lower light situations, and switch to it
when shooting in dark environments. This leads me to my personal auto ISO
settings, which I feel is very flexible for shooting any shooting scenario. I
only have two settings: in my AUTO 1, I have minimum sensitivity set to 160 and
maximum at 6400 and minimum shutter speed at 1/250th of a second. This
will cover a broad spectrum of lighting scenarios and also ensure I freeze
moving subjects adequately. For AUTO 2, I have minimum set to 160 and maximum set
to 12800 and minimum shutter speed at 1/100th of a second. This is for extremely
low light situations when I am shooting without a tripod. Another tip is to
assign the ISO Auto settings to a touch function, a function button, or the Q menu
for quick access. This saves you time having to dig into the Fujifilm menus
which, I admit, is a bit clunky sometimes. I really think these two settings would
be all you really need for street photography and general photography. Of
course, use this as a base to start from and figure out what works best for you.
if you've made it this far, here is a solution to a common problem people
might face when shooting in auto ISO with Fujifilm. If you have set your
default ISO to 160 but your camera refuses to stop down to 160 even in the
brightest of lighting conditions, you may need to check that your dynamic range
setting is set to 100%. If you have your dynamic range set to 200 or 400%, the
minimum ISO will be at 320 and 640 respectively. This may also occur if
dynamic range priority is turned on. I hope this short explanation has helped
you understand auto ISO a little bit more and the potential liberation it can
add to your shooting experience.
Thanks for watching guys and until next time.