High ISO settings

What would be the downside to using high ISO settings?

I took some practice shots in our church today, so I have an idea of what settings I need to use at my son's communion. It was an overcast day and the only way I could get reasonable results without using flash were on ISO 3200.

Now, hopefully, on the day ( in May ) it will be lovely and sunny and nice and bright in church, but just in case. If I use a high ISO and frame the image so as not to need any (or much) cropping, should I be able to get decent quality prints?

If it makes the difference between getting the shot and not, then use as much ISO as you need. Particularly in situations like this, you'll be much happier to have some slightly noisy shots than no shots at all.

I'm not sure which camera you have, but if it's a K10 or a K20 I'd be inclined to go for TAv mode. Set your aperture/shutter combination and let the camera give you the ISO it needs. This lets you take advantage of fleeting changes in the light to drop the ISO whenever you possibly can without risking missing a shot.

The downside to high ISO is increased noise and loss of some detail.

But of course the downside to not using it, when the light is low, is blurry pictures or the need to use a tripod. Noise may be preferable to that, and it can be made to look more like film grain if the colour or chroma noise is reduced with post processing (this reduces/eliminates the ugly digital speckly multi-colour look). Reducing overall noise too much though will reduce sharpness and detail too much.

I think Mongoose and iceblinker have said it all. But just as a thought....
If weather conditions turn out bad, and you are forced to go the high ISO route, turn it to your advantage.
Think black and white with grain the size of golf balls. That can turn out in very moody atmospheric pictures,
which on their own should print out very well.

Martin.

This might be grandmother teaching one to suck eggs. If so, ignore me. My students usually do!

One last thing to watch out for. If it is nice and sunny, the dynamic range between sunny and dark will be quite great, and using auto exposure might result in either burnt out highlights or very under-exposed images. I would advise that you shoot in RAW (or RAW+) format and check the histogram as often as you can.

Best wishes and good luck on the happy day, Kris.

Thanks for the tips guys.
You are right, of course, a noisy shot is better than no shot. I was about to say I might be able to use flash..will I ever learn? I'll be at least 15 to 20 meters from the altar.

I hadn't thought of going mono Martin, that might work. Again Kris, I should be always shooting in RAW, but don't But as you say, it'll give me more options later.

I'm going to write up some notes for myself, as I'm sure I'll forget something on the day.

The best advice I can give with high ISO: DON'T UNDEREXPOSE. You might even want to overexpose a little. It will help a lot with the noise.

At an unrepeatable event like this the HUGE advantage digital has over film is the histogram feature to check exposure. Shoot to the right and you'll get some good shots.

Just an idea and I've no idea if it work so I ask you wise guys here .
Could you just use an a little bit of flash to get down the iso but without that the photo feels unnatural. The subject would be a bit brighter compared to the background but that would be quite a good thing because you want the focus on that, right.
Any thoughts or experience?

Yes, and Slow Sync mode can help with this.

Just a word of warning for Silkypix users about exposing to the right: Don't go too far because the results then can look washed out no matter what you do with the settings, especially with low-contrast high-key subjects, even when no highlights are blown.

A strong flash could handle 15 metres. Also you could have a slave flash or 2 closer to the front. Of course flash might annoy the h... out of everyone!

Annoy? I'd probably be excommunicated!
(and thrown out of the church!)

My only flash is an AF160. If I can get a seat close enough to the front and others use their flash, then I'll use mine.

Hi

I am looking for some advice for shooting in low light. As mentioned in a posting on another topic I take photos for a local theatre group. I have been using my istD with either a SMC F 100-300 f4.5-5.6 for close up work and for more general shots a SMC 35-70 f3.5-4.5 lens.

I have been saving straight to Jpeg and pushing the ISO up to 1600 on the istD using the spot metering setting. Most of the shots are with the 100-300 lens (with a monopod) with just stage lighting and I think I have got a fair degree of success if a little grainy at times.

I have now up graded to a K20D, not so much for increased pixel count but the CMOS chip giving noise reduction plus the ability to push the ISO much higher and the bonus of image stabilisation and the TAv feature. I expect there is a lot more on the K20D that can help me with so any advice would be gratefully received.

I have been interested in the comments about shooting in RAW or RAW+ in conjunction with checking with the histogram. What sort of pattern should I be looking for on the histogram to maximise the quality of the shots?

I might even give it the monochrome treatment a try as well next time.

Andrzej

The pattern depends on the scene you are photographing. What is relevant is how far from the ends of the scale that pattern is on the histogram. First of all and most importantly, when possible (it isn't always), you don't want any of it going off the scale. Data at the extreme left end indicates something in your image is totally black with no detail. Something on the extreme right means a highlight is blown - pure white with no detail.

Then we come to noise. Due to characteristics of the analogue sensor and circuitry, noise in the dark areas is reduced when exposure is increased to shift the data towards the right. But don't go so far that any highlights are blown (unless you don't mind sacrificing them). Check the histogram and/or the flashing highlights warning.

Just a thought... have you actually asked if you can use flash? Its been my experience that some churches/priests are much more accommodating than others.