ISO Extremist or what?

With my Canon Rebel I am applying a pushed approach in full sun. And I am not pretending anyone is going to make the same. It works for me with this camera and the 24mm.

As we know ISO sensitivity is one of the three fundamental parameters together with time and aperture; together with these two parameters it forms the Triangle of Exposure.

On the basis of this theory, it is common practice to increase the ISO sensitivity not only in low light contexts, but also in those in broad daylight. By increasing the ISO sensitivity wecan take a correctly exposed photo using much faster shutter speeds. Thanks to this, we can take pictures in contexts where you need a very fast shutter speed to freeze the action.

Unfortunately, increasing the ISO sensitivity involves a series of effects that could damage the final quality of the image obtained by causing digital noise to appear. Digital noise is nothing more than the appearance in the final image of a diffuse graininess that determines a loss of detail on the details (also called light noise), or a series of colored artifacts (green and magenta) that modify the overall color rendering image (also called color noise).

With that said, I can assure that noise is not a real issue when it comes to Street Photography, and what is defined in digital noise for me is a grain not so unpleasant for the whole frame. If you think that many add some grain in post production, then I tell you this is more natural. As for the loss of detail on the details it is something that I can also tolerate because I don't do macro photography.

Currently I can see how by shooting in shutter speed priority alows me to have a consistence of aethetics of the images produced, and I dominated the speed and the ISO, leaving the opening to the automatic choice I am always ready. So recently I am using 3200 ISO. Yes, you read good, 3200 ISO for street shots in broad daylight. This allows me to have the camera always ready no matters if in full light or in the shadows.

When I had the Leica X2 I used it most of the time at 1600 ISO: with that camera set in black and white I was very close to what the result is with a TRI-X film. With the same concept and approach for my color street photography now I am using 3200 ISO. I don’t have anymore a blurred photo. I have a camera always ready for street shots. And that's all that matters.