I remember years ago when the Auto ISO setting came to Fujifilm cameras and how so many photographers and journalists simply embraced it. Those folks probably hadn’t shot film. And I’m probably in the minority, but when I shoot in a film-like way, I often lock my ISO to a traditional film ISO. In fact, I often don’t want to shoot above ISO 400 if I can avoid it. At times, I shoot at ISO 800 or even up to 6400. But rarely is it above that. But so many photographers who shoot in natural light end up shooting in the auto ISO setting. While it makes things easier, you lose intentionality when shooting photos.
Let me be clear about that: if you’re intention is to just shoot what’s in front of you and instead capture rather than create, you’re not really shooting with intention. You’re capturing a scene as it is to be tack sharp, etc. But when you make a creatve decision using ISO, then you’re taking a more active part of the photography process.
Don’t believe me?
Isn’t it an intentional action to stop your aperture down instead of shooting wide open all the time?
Similarly, isn’t an intentional action to shoot at 1/15th of a second instead of letting the shutter go where it wants to in aperture priority?
There’s surely a time and a place for auto ISO — one of those, I believe, is with street photography. But even street photography I think is in a place where it needs to evolve. Lots of street photography these days is too tack sharp and created just for getting a reaction out of people on social media just by showing someone what’s happening. But why not slow the shutter speed down and create something more dreamy? One of the best examples of this is Olga Karlovac.
The less automatic your settings are, the more of an intentional photographer you become.