Nature Photography How To

This eye-opening tutorial falls into the category of "don't believe everything you've been told." The discussion involves several common myths regarding ISO that need to be debunked if you want to achieve optimum image quality in nature scene, landscape photos, and other images captured in the field.

Instructor Steve Arnold is an Australian pro whose popular YouTube channel is devoted to "helping landscape photographers level-up their shooting and Photoshop skills and create images they can be proud of." This comprehensive episode will enable you to do exactly that by understanding the dos and don'ts of choosing the best ISO setting for various subjects and lighting conditions.

Arnold debunks three common ISO rules, explains why and how these misconceptions make images suffer, and what you should do instead to achieve the cleanest possible shots. He begins with a problem that some photographers face when shooting fast-moving subjects against constantly changing backgrounds. One example is birds in flight against any backdrop other than the sky.

He explains the challenge like this: "When a bird keeps flying between light and dark areas you need a quick way to get a proper exposure without sacrificing sharpness." In short, wasting time fumbling around with camera settings could cause you to miss the peak of action.

The solution is simple: Use Auto ISO, even with your camera in Manual mode. This way you pick either the aperture, shutter speed (or both), and the camera brightens or darkens the scene automatically by determining the most appropriate ISO as your subject moves across the frame. He also demonstrates a few potential pitfalls when taking this approach, and when you should avoid metering on the sky.

Arnold also has a trick for those of you who are uncomfortable with shooting in Manual, and it goes like this: set Aperture and ISO to a fixed value and think of shutter speed as a "brightness dial" for making the photo lighter or darker. Or if you’re concerned with creative techniques, like capturing the precise amount of motion, you can set shutter speed as the fixed value and treat ISO as your brightness dial.  

At this point we've barely scratched the surface of the Arnold's recommended techniques so pay close attention as the video proceeds. Then head over to his instructional YouTube channel where there are many more straightforward episodes that will quickly improve your skills.

Be sure to watch the closely related tutorial we featured with another accomplished pro who demonstrates four "essential" techniques for capturing perfectly exposed photographs of birds when there's a bright sky in the background.