The TRUTH about shooting at ISO 100 that the PROS know.

You've been lied to. Not maliciously... but effectively. Somewhere along the way, someone told you ISO 100 was sacred ground. That anything higher was reckless. Dangerous, even. And you believed it. I know because I've watched hundreds of photographers cripple their own work chasing a number on a dial instead of chasing the light.

Simon d'Entremont, a professional wildlife photographer out of Eastern Canada, just dropped a video that should be required viewing for anyone still white-knuckling their ISO dial at 100. His thesis is simple and devastating: high ISO doesn't cause noise. Lack of light does.

Let that land for a second.

All this time you've been starving your sensor of light to keep that ISO number low... you've been making your photos worse. Not better. Worse.

The Volume Knob You Misunderstood

Here's what ISO actually is. It's not a light source. It's not part of the exposure triangle the way shutter speed and aperture are... those physically control how much light hits your sensor. ISO is a gain knob. A volume dial. It amplifies what's already there.

Think of it like this. You're in a room trying to hear someone whisper. Turning up your hearing aid doesn't create the whisper... it reveals it. And if the room is noisy? You hear that noise louder too. But the noise was always there. Your hearing aid didn't create it.

That's ISO. It amplifies the signal-to-noise ratio that already exists in your exposure. The noise lives in the darkness. ISO just turns the lights on so you can see it.

The Proof That Breaks the Myth

Simon demonstrated this beautifully. Two photos of the same subject. One shot at ISO 12,800 with proper exposure. The other shot at ISO 1600... deliberately underexposed by restricting aperture and shutter speed to keep that ISO low.

Then he brightened the underexposed image in post to match.

The ISO 1600 image was noisier. Significantly noisier.

Read that again. The photo shot at eight times lower ISO looked worse. Because the sensor was starved of light. The signal-to-noise ratio was garbage. And no amount of post-processing magic fixes a fundamentally light-starved exposure.

If ISO caused noise, the 12,800 shot would have been a disaster. It wasn't.

When Low ISO Makes Sense (It's a Short List)

Let's be fair. ISO 100 isn't wrong... it's just situational. Simon identifies three scenarios where low ISO works:

- Tripod + stationary subjects. Waterfalls, architecture, product photography. Nothing's moving. You can let that shutter stay open. - Flash photography. You're adding light. The sensor gets fed. - Long exposures by design. When slow shutter speed is the creative choice.

That's it. That's the list. And it represents a small fraction of real-world shooting.

Where High ISO Saves Your Work

Everything else... wildlife photography, action photography, handheld shooting, indoor work, dawn, dusk, shade, overcast days... demands higher ISO. Period.

Simon shared a Short-eared Owl photo shot on a Canon 7D Mark II from 2014. A crop sensor camera that was nine years old at the time. ISO 6400. The image is stunning.

He showed a gallery of photos all shot at ISO 8000 or above. Not just usable... beautiful. Portfolio-worthy. The kind of shots that only exist because he let the ISO climb.

Here's the gut check: a noisy photo of a once-in-a-lifetime moment beats a perfectly clean photo of nothing every single time. You can clean up noise. You cannot un-blur motion. You cannot brighten a black frame into something magical.

Three Tips for High ISO Success

1. Fill the frame. Cropping amplifies noise the same way it amplifies everything. Get closer. Find compositions that don't require heavy cropping. 2. Use noise reduction software. Tools like Topaz DeNoise and others can clean backgrounds while preserving subject detail. The technology is remarkable now. 3. Don't underexpose to protect your ISO. This is the trap. For most cameras on the market today (those that aren't ISO invariant), underexposing and brightening later creates worse noise than just letting the ISO climb to proper exposure.

The Pro Move: Manual Mode + Auto ISO

This is the bonus tip Simon saved for the end, and it's the one that changes workflows.

Shoot in Manual mode with Auto ISO.

You set the shutter speed you need to freeze the action. You set the aperture for the depth of field you want. The camera handles ISO... instantly, in hundredths of a second, optimizing exposure with the available light.

ISO 200? ISO 3200? ISO 6400? Doesn't matter. There's no artistic difference between these choices. Only technical. And the camera makes that technical decision faster and more accurately than you can.

Some photographers complain Auto ISO goes too high. Simon's response is perfect: that's like opening every window in a snowstorm, wearing shorts, and blaming the fireplace for not keeping you warm. If the ISO is climbing too high, it's because your shutter speed is too fast or your aperture is too small for the available light. The camera is doing exactly what it should... balancing an equation you wrote.

The Real Enemy

Fear of high ISO is the single biggest reason for poor photos in amateur photography. Not the noise. The fear of noise. It leads to underexposed images. Motion blur. Soft shots from camera shake. Photos that are fundamentally broken in ways no software can repair.

Noise? Noise is cosmetic. Noise is fixable. Noise is the small price of admission for capturing something real in imperfect light.

And honestly... light is almost always imperfect. That's what makes it beautiful.

So here's your mission. Next time you're out shooting, take the leash off. Let that ISO breathe. Shoot at 1600. Shoot at 3200. Shoot at 6400 and look at the results before you flinch. I think you'll find something waiting on the other side of that fear... photos you've been leaving on the table this whole time. The light was always there. You just needed to stop being afraid to turn it up. 💪

--- Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOdlDyolhr0