tips on taking storm pictures

[Mike Peregrine]

LOL, Mike, I've learned this lesson the hard way. I once shot 75 great photos thinking that I had ISO 100, only to find out in PP that I had it set at 800. When I had the camera hanging around my neck, the buttons on the back of my Rebel must have leaned up against my chest and changed the settings.

Noise City.

Melanie

Yeah - it's nice to see the newer cameras coming out with auto ISO. I'm sure it would end up saving my behind to have something like that. Seems like every year I learn the hard way by going on at least one chase with ISO 800 or 1600.

 

[Christopher E. Kincaid]

Yeah - it's nice to see the newer cameras coming out with auto ISO. I'm sure it would end up saving my behind to have something like that. Seems like every year I learn the hard way by going on at least one chase with ISO 800 or 1600.

Please correct me if I am wrong - seriously - but doesn't IS01600 give sharper pictures? I figure the noise can be taken care of with PS. I shot a supercell last week and I used ISO1600 and simply cleaned the noise.

Here is an example (without the noise cleaned and quality reduced):

Would a much lower ISO have given me a better picture? I am new to DSLRs so please advise...

 

[Mike Peregrine]

The bigger the ISO number, the more light-sensitive the camera's sensor becomes. So when you are in lower light situations, it's good to bump the ISO up. Most of our chasing is good at either 200 or 400 ISO, but when you get up to 800 or 1600, the extra light sensitivity makes too much noise. I'll only bump it up when I REALLY need the light to make a clear picture.

Noise = loss of data and detail. So no, it's definitely not a good idea to run with the higher ISO and clean it up later with Neat Image. Neat Image is great, but you are definitely losing pixels doing it that way.