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Check your ISO before a shoot.

iBallz

iBallz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I blew a whole day of potentially good shots, did not check my ISO setting and now have a bunch a noisy colorless pictures.😡

Dont know how, but it was set at 3200! I know the D300 shows the ISO in the viewfinder, but not on the LCD display, it was some action shooting, and didnt pay attention to the numbers in the viewfinder.🙁
 
I just did this today at a car show, I upped it to check it out and forgot to change it back >.< Noisy panning shots 🙁

I also sometimes forget to change the white balance that's no good either 🙁
 
that should pretty much be the first thing you set, it's like choosing what film to use...
 
iBallz said:
I blew a whole day of potentially good shots, did not check my ISO setting and now have a bunch a noisy colorless pictures.😡

Dont know how, but it was set at 3200! I know the D300 shows the ISO in the viewfinder, but not on the LCD display, it was some action shooting, and didnt pay attention to the numbers in the viewfinder.🙁
Click to expand...

In the good/bad old days of film, I generally used one film and one ISO setting. It really wasn't possible to change ISO in mid-roll. But now we've realised that ISO is a useful variable on a par with aperture and shutter speed, so we can change the ISO value on the camera body rather than scroll through though nested menus.

Bad luck with losing a days-worth of pix. But look on the bright side: you'll be a lot more attentive in future... 😉
 
Ah noise isn't the be all end all. At least you weren't shooting M and not checking the metering. Then you'd have a whole bunch of overexposed pics. Much worse. 😉
 
Yeah, you didn't lose todays photos. They're just a bit noisy, that's all. To be honest, I'm starting to care less and less about noise. Forget it.
 
Try running the images in batch through some noise reduction software. You may be able to save them.

As for forgetting to change the white balance, that is just another reason to shoot RAW. White balance is irrelevant, and its in camera setting is nothing more than the default. You can change the white balance in post production, and its the same as if you changed it before you took the shot. You can't do that shooting JPG.
 
iBallz said:
I blew a whole day of potentially good shots, did not check my ISO setting and now have a bunch a noisy colorless pictures.😡

Dont know how, but it was set at 3200! I know the D300 shows the ISO in the viewfinder, but not on the LCD display, it was some action shooting, and didnt pay attention to the numbers in the viewfinder.🙁
Click to expand...


I have been mostly using auto-ISO on my D3. So far, I've been very pleased. At the least, it become one less start-up setting to worry about.
 
Yup... been there, done that. In my case, it was ISO 1600 on my D50 and ended up shooting an entire sunny day's worth of shots at ISO 1600. I was pretty upset when I discovered what I had done, but I'd have to agree with the others... you didn't really ruin your shots. Run it through some noise reduction software and you should be ok... Unless you're shooting professionally for a customer, a little noise never killed anyone. Take it as a lesson and learn to check your ISO every time before a shoot; I haven't made that mistake twice. 😀
 
cutsman said:
In my case, it was ISO 1600 on my D50 and ended up shooting an entire sunny day's worth of shots at ISO 1600.
Click to expand...

I did the exact same thing a couple months ago. Pictures were usable, but not nearly as sharp as I would've liked.

I try to always reset the settings before I shoot to avoid this.
 
Your description .. "Noisy colorless pictures" leads me to think they may be over exposed as well .. 😱

I'm not familiar with your camera, but if it allows you to set the ISO to "Auto" this is useful. The iso changes as the light changes, so theoretically each photo should be maximised.

Sorry Hmac, I've just noticed you have already mentioned the "Auto ISO" setting ... 😱
 
Bad luck with losing a days-worth of pix. But look on the bright side: you'll be a lot more attentive in future...
Click to expand...

This is true.

How come when I view the images in the CaptureNX, they look OK, but when I save them as a JPG they are really horrible.

And yes, some were a bit over exposed.🙁
 
Father Jack said:
Sorry Hmac, I've just noticed you have already mentioned the "Auto ISO" setting ... 😱
Click to expand...


I hadn't used auto-ISO before since my D2H and even D2X had more difficult-to-control noise at higher ISO -- the range for the setting was just too narrow. With this D3, ISO 6400 is excellent, so I have little fear of letting the camera get up that high.

I set the max ISO to 6400 and the minimum shutter speed to 1/30th sec. I generally shoot aperture preferred, so IOW when I stop down far enough for the shutter speed to hit 1/30th, the ISO starts going up. The better the camera's noise characteristics, the more useful auto-ISO is. It ought to be a very useful setting for an excellent camera like the D300 too.
 
Hmac said:
I set the max ISO to 6400 and the minimum shutter speed to 1/30th sec. I generally shoot aperture preferred, so IOW when I stop down far enough for the shutter speed to hit 1/30th, the ISO starts going up. The better the camera's noise characteristics, the more useful auto-ISO is. It ought to be a very useful setting for an excellent camera like the D300 too.
Click to expand...

Just curious, how do you like the D3? Being able to set it at max ISO 6400 must be a huge advantage.
 
Hmac said:
I hadn't used auto-ISO before since my D2H and even D2X had more difficult-to-control noise at higher ISO -- the range for the setting was just too narrow. With this D3, ISO 6400 is excellent, so I have little fear of letting the camera get up that high.

I set the max ISO to 6400 and the minimum shutter speed to 1/30th sec. I generally shoot aperture preferred, so IOW when I stop down far enough for the shutter speed to hit 1/30th, the ISO starts going up. The better the camera's noise characteristics, the more useful auto-ISO is. It ought to be a very useful setting for an excellent camera like the D300 too.
Click to expand...
I find using the Auto ISO on my camera (Leica V-Lux1) it sets the ISO just high enough to give me adequate DOF at a reasonable shutter speed. Obviously the lower the ISO the lower the noise and the better the saturation and sharpness. As I mentioned in the previous posting, the quality of each photo is maximized ... 🙂

Good shooting with your D3

FJ
 
Phatpat said:
I did the exact same thing a couple months ago. Pictures were usable, but not nearly as sharp as I would've liked.

I try to always reset the settings before I shoot to avoid this.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. First thing I do before heading out ....

1) Format All Memory Cards
2) Reset Camera
3) Charge All Batteries

I once had an entire day of a 3 day motorcycle show shot overexposed by 2 stops. Thankfully this was the first day and I had 2 more days to redo the shots.
 
Over Achiever said:
Just curious, how do you like the D3? Being able to set it at max ISO 6400 must be a huge advantage.
Click to expand...

It's a truly astonishing camera. The lack of noise, even at ISO 6400, just amazes me. The AF is amazingly accurate, although I'm still trying to figure out the best settings for given situations. The ability to have customized shooting banks is great in that regard. Even individual lenses can be micro-adjusted and the settings stored in case any particular lens is front or back-focusing to any degree. So far, I haven't found anything I don't like about it except its weight and its price.
 
iBallz said:
I blew a whole day of potentially good shots, did not check my ISO setting and now have a bunch a noisy colorless pictures
Click to expand...

I did this once also. I was thinking while I was shooting "wow I'm able to shoot at 1//2000th. This is great" Then thought again -- No Way.

If the shots are good, they are still usable just not for large prints. 3200 ISO can work on web-sized images. The process of down sampling removes noise. Every 2x reduction is like cutting the ISO in half.

In photoshop do the color and exposure adjustments and then after that down sample the image to (say) 800 pixels across. It will look good on an electronic screen
 
ChrisA said:
I did this once also. I was thinking while I was shooting "wow I'm able to shoot at 1//2000th. This is great" Then thought again -- No Way.

If the shots are good, they are still usable just not for large prints. 3200 ISO can work on web-sized images. The process of down sampling removes noise. Every 2x reduction is like cutting the ISO in half.

In photoshop do the color and exposure adjustments and then after that down sample the image to (say) 800 pixels across. It will look good on an electronic screen
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I was upset with myself because I accidentally took a whole bunch of pictures at 1600 ISO on my trip to Ithaca last month. Perhaps I might be able to salvage some of them.
 
iBallz said:
I blew a whole day of potentially good shots, did not check my ISO setting and now have a bunch a noisy colorless pictures.😡
Click to expand...
If you push the ISO button, the ISO should appear in the display on the camera shoulder as well (I'm extrapolating from the D80 😉).
 
How bout forgetting to switch back to AF, and getting a group shot with a CEO of a big corp blurry. DOH. I need a bigger viewfinder, or glasses. 😡
 
Been there, done that. I try to remember to reset my camera back to my standard starting point after each shoot. And format the card after each import. But I sometimes forget...
 
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