ISO?

Hi, I am new to photography, still learning. I have indoor lighting equipment and was wondering what you set your Iso to when your doing indoor portrait with a light system? By the way, I am using a Canon digital Rebel XT.

I normaly use ISO 100 with my lighting equipment.

Depends. If you want a really wide aperture for extreme depth of field, you might want to turn it up substantially. Otherwise, I'd try to stick to 400 or below (200 would probably be a good balance, if the lights are reasonably powerful) to avoid noise.

Thanks for the quick replies. I have 2 alien bees 800's for my lighting.

Teeny

It doesn't matter which lights you are using. You want to use low ISO's for best performance and low noise. In my home studio I shoot at ISO 100 almost exclusively and when I go out with my camera I try to work at as low an ISO as possible but I do crank it up when I have to, and as long as I am getting great exposures the noise is low.

bieber wrote in post #2804906
Depends. If you want a really wide aperture for extreme depth of field, you might want to turn it up substantially. Otherwise, I'd try to stick to 400 or below (200 would probably be a good balance, if the lights are reasonably powerful) to avoid noise.

I think you meant a narrow aperture for extreme depth of field.

Maybe he means extreme, meaning really shallow....so wide would be the correct term to use.

krazziecliff wrote in post #2806164
Maybe he means extreme, meaning really shallow....so wide would be the correct term to use.

...... but you would lower the ISO so that you could use a wider aperture.

I am taking pictures indoors in a theatre an I cannot use a flash...What should I have for ISO? 1600 Should I have my aperture at its widest opening?

Hi Schulmat, welcome to POTN!

schulmat wrote in post #2858889
I am taking pictures indoors in a theatre an I cannot use a flash...What should I have for ISO? 1600 Should I have my aperture at its widest opening?

Depends on the lens, but 1600 is a good place to start, with the lens wide-open in Av mode. If you're using a fast prime like a 50mm f/1.4 you might be able to use ISO 800 or even ISO 400 if the light is really good. Use whatever ISO setting you need to get a decent shutter speed. I use ISO 3200 quite a bit with a 70-200 f/2.8 since I need a faster shutter speed with the longer focal length.