Auto ISO Question

[BulkHedd]

I am brand new to the D40 and to dSLRs. I'm going to be taking photos of trick-or-treaters at my Grandmother's house Friday night. I was reading through some other forums and, for a similar situation, someone recommended using the kit lens on aperture priority, wide open (3.5) and for no flash to use Auto ISO with the max set at 800.
When I set the camera on "A" I can't set Auto ISO. I found how to go into the custom settings and set the max ISO to 800. Is that all I need to do? I see in the viewfinder that it says "AUTO ISO".

I was planning on trying some shots with no flash and some with the built-in flash with a film-canister "diffuser" in place just to see how it works. The available light is going to be pretty low.

Any thoughts? I'm pretty much a novice. I understand a bit about shutter speeds and aperture but really all I have ever shot are "snapshots".

Thanks!

[philwojo]

I don't know how the D40 works, but you should really read up on aperture and shutter speeds and better understand those, it will really help you in the long run.

For aperture, the way I learned it is this, the lower the number the bigger the hold that the light can come through on the lens. So if you have a bigger hole, you can take pictures with less light. So at F/2 the opening on the lens is very large and a lot of light can get through. At say F/18 or F/22 the opening is very very small and not a lot of light can get through.

Now, you take that "F" number and if it is lower you can use a faster or quicker shutter speed because you are letting in a lot of light, so you don't need the shutter to stay open very long. But if you get up in to the high F numbers, like F/22, where there is only a small amount of light getting through, then you need longer shutter speeds.

Then you throw in ISO and that confuses things even more!!

I am no expert, not even close, but I hope that helps. There is a lot of great information on this, but the sooner you learn how it all works, the better your pictures will be. I know that has been the case for me, things have improved tons since I've learned how all this interacts when you try to take a picture.

Phil

[philwojo]

I guess I should have stated this also, try some shots tonight, play around with it, see how things turn out. Don't wait until that time, then you won't know what is going to happen and you might miss the shot.

It's digital, it's basically free to shoot and see how it turns out, so do it and figure out what works the best.

[BulkHedd]

Thanks for the response, Phil. I do understand, technically, about f-stops, shutter speeds and ISO. It's just putting them into practice that I don't have much experience with.
I have been reading so much this week about the D40 and dSLRs that my head is swimming.
I was just wondering about how to set up the Auto ISO with max ISO and see if that would be the best option for low-light indoor Halloween shots.

Yeah, I plan on trying some shots tonight but the lighting will probably be worse at my Grandmother's house.

[philwojo]

I wish I could help with that part, but I have a D50, and I can't set max ISO.

I use Auto ISO though and let it choose what it wants. The Max is just saying, don't go above ISO=800 (in your case), so you don't get to much "noise" in your picture.

I'm sure others can help you out more with this.

Phil

[fionndruinne]

I've a feeling you're going to have to use ISO 1600 some of the time. I set my programmable button to ISO a long time ago, and have never changed it. That's the best way I've found to be flexible and quick with ISO values. In low light your camera will probably select the largest aperture setting automatically.

[BulkHedd]

So are you saying I shouldn't use auto or set the max to 1600 instead of 800?

[philwojo]

The worst that will happen if you set it to 1600 for max is that you get the picture but it has some grain in it. I think a picture with grain is better than no picture at all.

If you are looking for perfect pictures, then maybe go 800 max.

Did you try and test shots last night?

[fionndruinne]

If you set auto ISO with 1600 max, then it is likely that very many of your low-light shots, if not all, will be ISO 1600. It's really very easy to switch between 800 and 1600, using the lower value when you think you can get away with it. Experiment, perhaps take some shots at both values and see what you get.

[Rooz]

If you set auto ISO with 1600 max, then it is likely that very many of your low-light shots, if not all, will be ISO 1600.

only if the exposure demands it. if the d40 is anything like the d80/ d300 then you can pick a minimum shutter speed aswell so unless it performs poorly, (slowly), then it will only pick iso1600 is it needs to maintain your selected shutter speed.

[BulkHedd]

I didn't have a lot of time last night to test things out. I ended having to use the flash tonight. It was just too dark inside. I'm not entirely happy with the pictures, partly because it's just difficult to shoot small children in a small room but also there is something about the pics that just don't look quite right to me. Maybe it was caused by the "diffuser" I used (an old opaque film canister). They seem plenty sharp to me but the color just doesn't look right.

Here are a couple (again, I am very much an amateur):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3238/2990233191_535d7197d6.jpg

And another:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2990233377_ba11877060.jpg

[Rooz]

wb may be a tad off. what is the exif on these ?
bump your iso up to around 500, drop your shutter speed down to 1/50s and you'll be golden.

[BulkHedd]

I thought I had to use a shutter speed of 60 for flash.

EXIF on the first one:
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/600 second = 1/60 second = 0.01667 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 38/10 = F3.8
# Exposure Program = aperture priority (3)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 200
# Exif Version = 0221
# Original Date/Time = 2008:10:31 17:43:37
# Digitization Date/Time = 2008:10:31 17:43:37
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Compressed Bits per Pixel = 4/1 = 4
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/6 = 0
# Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 37/10 = 3.7
Max Aperture = F3.61
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# Light Source / White Balance = tungsten / incandescent (3)
# Flash = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected
# Focal Length = 220/10 mm = 22 mm
# User Comment (Hex) = 0x41,0x53,0x43,0x49,0x49,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20
User Comment Character Code = ASCII
User Comment =
# Last Modified Subsecond Time = 50
# Original Subsecond Time = 50
# Digitized Subsecond Time = 50
# FlashPix Version = 0100
# Colour Space = sRGB (1)
# Image Width = 1704 pixels
# Image Height = 1752 pixels
# Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
# Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
# Scene Type = directly photographed image
# Colour Filter Array (CFA) Geometric Pattern = 0x00,0x02,0x00,0x02,0x02,0x01,0x01,0x00
# Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
# Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
# White Balance = manual (1)
# Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 = 1
# Focal Length in 35mm Film = 33
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
# Gain Control = n/a (0)
# Contrast = soft (1)
# Saturation = normal (0)
# Sharpness = normal (0)
# Subject Distance Range = unknown (0)


Second one:
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/600 second = 1/60 second = 0.01667 second
# Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 35/10 = F3.5
# Exposure Program = aperture priority (3)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 200
# Exif Version = 0221
# Original Date/Time = 2008:10:31 18:44:03
# Digitization Date/Time = 2008:10:31 18:44:03
# Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
# Compressed Bits per Pixel = 4/1 = 4
# Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/6 = 0
# Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 36/10 = 3.6
Max Aperture = F3.48
# Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
# Light Source / White Balance = unknown (0)
# Flash = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected
# Focal Length = 190/10 mm = 19 mm
# User Comment (Hex) = 0x41,0x53,0x43,0x49,0x49,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20, 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20
User Comment Character Code = ASCII
User Comment =
# Last Modified Subsecond Time = 30
# Original Subsecond Time = 30
# Digitized Subsecond Time = 30
# FlashPix Version = 0100
# Colour Space = sRGB (1)
# Image Width = 2344 pixels
# Image Height = 1592 pixels
# Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
# Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
# Scene Type = directly photographed image
# Colour Filter Array (CFA) Geometric Pattern = 0x00,0x02,0x00,0x02,0x02,0x01,0x01,0x00
# Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
# Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
# White Balance = auto (0)
# Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 = 1
# Focal Length in 35mm Film = 28
# Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
# Gain Control = n/a (0)
# Contrast = soft (1)
# Saturation = normal (0)
# Sharpness = normal (0)
# Subject Distance Range = unknown (0)

[Rooz]

shoot in manual mode and you can wind the shutter speed down. your colour is a bit off cos your WB is incorrect.

Light Source / White Balance = tungsten / incandescent (3)

[BulkHedd]

What should the WB have been? The lights there were all incandescent bulbs.

[accord2003]

Since you are using flash, perhaps the WB should be Flash as well. You can try setting it to Auto or shoot RAW. you can adjust afterwards.

[Rooz]

yes, WB should be flash cos it is your primary light source. if your balancing it with ambient a little more, then as accord said, use AUTO and maybe warm it up a little in post.