I’ll go one further, this is actually my strategy when photographing subjects moving through vastly different regions of exposure (bright highlights versus shade):
Figure out my minimum shutter. For my subjects that’s typically 1/1000, 1/2500 tops. Then, figure out what aperture I want to work at, given distance, lens, subject size, etc. let’s say that’s f/5.6 minimum. Set these and don’t touch them going forward.
Now, take a test frame with those settings fixed, in the shaded area to find your ISO. You do shade first because it’s least forgiving and you want your camera using that as a base. Then move to your bright area, and change only ISO to accommodate. The swing could be huge but it’s generally just 3-4 clicks of a dial. You don’t need a subject to do this, you can judge based on inanimate objects of relatively similar tonal value.
And that’s it. Spend the rest of your day just turning that one dial, counting to yourself “1, 2, 3, 4” each time you turn the dial. You could even set up custom User banks or whatever so it’s a single button.
Or… if you prefer, you can go shutter priority and auto-ISO with highlight protect.
I’ll go one further, this is actually my strategy when photographing subjects moving through vastly different regions of exposure (bright highlights versus shade):
Figure out my minimum shutter. For my subjects that’s 1/1000. Then, figure out what aperture I want to work at, given distance, lens, subject size, etc. let’s say that’s f/5.6 minimum. Set these and don’t touch them going forward.
Now, take a test frame with those settings fixed, in the shaded area to find your ISO. You do shade first because it’s least forgiving and you want your camera using that as a base. Then move to your bright area, and change only ISO to accommodate. The swing could be huge but it’s generally just 3-4 clicks of a dial. You don’t need a subject to do this, you can judge based on inanimate objects of relatively similar tonal value.
And that’s it. Spend the rest of your day just turning that one dial, counting to yourself “1, 2, 3, 4” each time you turn the dial. You could even set up custom User banks or whatever so it’s a single button.
Or… if you prefer, you can go shutter priority and auto-ISO with highlight protect.
Aug 18, 2025 at 08:12 AM
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