Understanding The Exposure Triangle - Auto ISO

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As most of you already know, the exposure triangle if composed of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Speaking of ISO, let's have a look at the Auto ISO setting.

First of all, when it comes to Auto settings, we recommend avoiding them for best results. Today's cameras are pretty advanced computers, but they still can't get the job done as good as the photographer. Auto ISO is a really cool feature that's actually used by a lot of pro photographers regularly. To be specific, it works in all camera modes, including full manual which takes us to the best part.

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In full manual mode, you have complete control over shutter speed and aperture, but you let the camera change the ISO. The reason why this is very useful is that if you're in a situation where you're following a subject from point A to point B and the light changes along the way, you're not going to have time to set the ISO manually without missing the shot. The camera will do that for you using its metering modes.

It will also listen to your commands, so if you move from a place that is well lit to a darker area and increase the aperture, your camera will automatically follow and boost the ISO. The same goes for shutter speed changes. Now this is where it can get tricky because no camera is totally safe from a faulty reading and it can take up the ISO way past what you really need. That's why most cameras have a limit you can set for boosting the ISO. In other words, you can tell your camera to keep changing the ISO as you go along, but not exceed a certain value like ISO 1600 or 3200.

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It's really a useful feature that doesn't mean you're cheating in any way. One thing to keep in mind before you start using it is that every camera behaves differently when using this function, so it's a good idea to have a look at the manual.

Here's Mark Wallace explaining Auto ISO with details in a video from Adorama TV.

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