Of course ISO is an exposure variable - when you are shooting digital

Great Bustard wrote:
Sammy Yousef wrote:

Put EVERYTHING in manual. Exposure. ISO. WB. Flash power.

Shoot correctly exposed at ISO6400.

Re-shoot but change ISO to 100. Make no other changes.

Boost the ISO 100 shot to 6400 and compare with the previous. If there is no difference compared to the correctly exposed shot, you're right. I think you'll find you're not.

If you want to blame the software, then find other software. If you can't, you're still wrong for all practical cases.
And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.
You basically just admitted that unless a camera is ISOless, ISO Is part of th exposure. I don't see how that can be taken any other way. You do not get equivalent exposures when changing the ISO.

Which type is more common? ISOless or non-ISOless?

I love my D70 cameras because they have a flash sync of 1/500th, but I don't go around saying you can shoot with flash sync of 1/500th on all cameras then state that it's only for certain models.
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.

As "we" have been saying, the ISO setting is a matter of pre-processing the light that falls on the sensor, and, as such, is not an element in exposure, but an element in processing.

Thus, your challenge, and my answering that challenge, is irrelevant in terms of what exposure is and isn't.
If you had taken that shot with the same ISO and reduced shutter speed by 6 stops and then brightened it with RAW editing software, you'd have the same shot, too.
I guess that makes exposure "timeless";-)
 
Sammy Yousef wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
Sammy Yousef wrote:

Put EVERYTHING in manual. Exposure. ISO. WB. Flash power.

Shoot correctly exposed at ISO6400.

Re-shoot but change ISO to 100. Make no other changes.

Boost the ISO 100 shot to 6400 and compare with the previous. If there is no difference compared to the correctly exposed shot, you're right. I think you'll find you're not.

If you want to blame the software, then find other software. If you can't, you're still wrong for all practical cases.
And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.
You basically just admitted that unless a camera is ISOless, ISO Is part of th exposure.
You do know what an ISOless sensor is, right? It means that the read noise stays the same throughout the ISO range -- it has absolutely nothing to do with exposure.
I don't see how that can be taken any other way. You do not get equivalent exposures when changing the ISO.
I want to hear you say "Wikipedia is wrong and I am right":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)

In photography, exposure is the amount of light allowed to fall on each area unit of a photographic medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value (EV) and scene luminance in a specified region.

Which type is more common? ISOless or non-ISOless?
Non-isoless, I believe. Don't know. In any case, it has no bearing on the matter (the definition of exposure) one way or another.
I love my D70 cameras because they have a flash sync of 1/500th, but I don't go around saying you can shoot with flash sync of 1/500th on all cameras then state that it's only for certain models.
OK. And?
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.

As "we" have been saying, the ISO setting is a matter of pre-processing the light that falls on the sensor, and, as such, is not an element in exposure, but an element in processing.

Thus, your challenge, and my answering that challenge, is irrelevant in terms of what exposure is and isn't.
If you had taken that shot with the same ISO and reduced shutter speed by 6 stops and then brightened it with RAW editing software, you'd have the same shot, too.
No, you'd have a rather different photo. You'd have a photo that was made with 64x (6 stops more) light. Big difference.
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

The camera controls that affect exposure are the aperture, shutter speed, and flash power -- period. Yes, the ISO setting indirectly affects these settings depending on the AE (Auto Exposure) mode you are using, but the ISO setting itself is not an element of exposure. In short, do not confuse correlation with causation (for example, thinking that the calendar is what causes the seasons).
I don't think flash power directly affects exposure anymore than the time of day or shooting location does.
Well, you'd be wrong. Exposure is determined by three, and only three, parameters:
  • Scene Luminance
  • t-stop (usually closely approximated by the f-ratio)
  • Shutter Speed
The flash power affects the scene luminance, and therefore affects the exposure.
The flash power is just the amount of light in the scene, the exposure controls how much of it makes it to the image.
If we keep the aperture and shutter speed constant, then more flash power means a greater exposure, less flash power means a lower exposure.
I feel like if you are going to call flash power part of the exposure than we should also call "how far I open my drapes in the living room during little Sally's b-day party" part of the exposure.
Well, best of luck to you, then.
 
Allan Olesen wrote:
gollywop wrote:
EinsteinsGhost wrote:
Allan Olesen wrote:

Exposure simply means that a sensor or film is exposed to light. Anything else you relate to the process of getting the desired brightness is not exposure.
By the definition being promoted in these re-created threads, exposure doesn't really need a film or sensor, or any kind of sensitometry.
You continue to be in error. Check out, for example,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)

where it says

exposure is the amount of light allowed to fall on each area unit of a photographic medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph.
Actually, that is a rather specialized definition of exposure. The word has a broader meaning outside the photographic community. You can be exposed to radioactive radiation, for example. Or a piece of wood could be exposed to light.

And with the ongoing discussion regarding the meaning of exposure, I think that this is important to keep in mind because those examples show that exposure is something which happens in the moment, not afterwards. If two people are exposed to the same amount of radioactive radiation, and one of them is more sensitive and dies, that does not mean that they were exposed differently to radiation. Or, if they are both equally sensitive but one of them gets medical attention and survives, that does not mean either that they were exposed differently to radiation.
There is also the element of time and radiation intensity. You will get a worse sunburn at high noon than you will get at 4pm (a bit like aperture). It will also be worse if you lay in the sun for an hour than if you lay there for 15 minutes (a bit like shutter speed). It is all about the total energy received. Your skin is a total energy responder as is the film and the sensor diode. Of course you will also be in more trouble if you are more sensitive, but nobody would say that had anything to do with the exposure you got which is only related to intensity and time.
 
Sammy Yousef wrote:

There is a difference between boosting sensitivity during reading and boosting it afterwards. The recorded information is different and is not equivalent.
For cameras with non-ISOless sensors, that is correct. However, neither here nor there. Exposure is about the light falling on the sensor (specifically, the light per area falling on the sensor), not the processing of that light.

Would you argue that my 6D at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100 has the same exposure as my 5D at f/2.8 1/100 ISO 100 because it has twice the QE (Quantum Efficiency -- the proportion of light falling on the sensor that is recorded)?
 
gn-aus wrote:

In reading some of the replies to this and similar posts it appears that all those writers who refer to the 'exposure triangle' have all got it wrong?
That is essentially the core of the controversy. Many photographers were 'educated' with the 'help' of the exposure triangle. I don't know who invented it, maybe it was Petersen - but whatever, it has been extensively copied. And yes, it is wrong. Not just wrong, but actually quite damaging to understanding, as are many faulty educational 'aids'.
A strict definition of exposure may well exclude ISO, but for practical purposes, in the digital age, it clearly is part of the decision options.
Not so clearly, and not always. But the major point is that the exposure triangle leads to a faulty assumption, that raising ISO is the same as raising exposure, even Petersen makes that mistake, as do several 'experts' who peddle the exposure triangle.
 
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.

As "we" have been saying, the ISO setting is a matter of pre-processing the light that falls on the sensor, and, as such, is not an element in exposure, but an element in processing.

Thus, your challenge, and my answering that challenge, is irrelevant in terms of what exposure is and isn't.
If you had taken that shot with the same ISO and reduced shutter speed by 6 stops and then brightened it with RAW editing software, you'd have the same shot, too.
No, you'd have a rather different photo. You'd have a photo that was made with 64x (6 stops more) light. Big difference.
reducing the shutter speed decreases the light, but either way, I corrected for it with the RAW editor, just as those pushing the ISO do.
 
Allan Olesen wrote:
gollywop wrote:

Yes, that's all fine and good, Allan. I trust, however, the context in which all this is being offered is rather distinct from radioactive radiation, and that is rather much of a distraction.
How can it be a distraction to show that all other meanings of the word "exposure" refers to something happening in the moment, which you can not adjust afterwards?
If you're a radiographer producing x-rays in a hospital, you would expect radiometric exposure to be part of your training, since you need to estimate exposure, and you're not interested in the energy being weighted by the luminosity function. For photographers, radiometric exposure is not needed too often.
I consider that a quite important point when trying to explain to someone that exposure in the photographic meaning can't be adjusted afterwards either.
The key is in the meaning of the word 'exposure', which is the same whether you're talking photometric or radiometric.
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.

As "we" have been saying, the ISO setting is a matter of pre-processing the light that falls on the sensor, and, as such, is not an element in exposure, but an element in processing.

Thus, your challenge, and my answering that challenge, is irrelevant in terms of what exposure is and isn't.
If you had taken that shot with the same ISO and reduced shutter speed by 6 stops and then brightened it with RAW editing software, you'd have the same shot, too.
No, you'd have a rather different photo. You'd have a photo that was made with 64x (6 stops more) light. Big difference.
reducing the shutter speed decreases the light, but either way, I corrected for it with the RAW editor, just as those pushing the ISO do.
Apologies -- I misinterpreted "reduced shutter speed" and was thinking the exact opposite. In any case, the photos in the link above were shot with the same camera and exposure, thus the same amount of light and thus the same noise.

Your idea of reducing the shutter speed, and thus reducing the light, would make for a much more noisy photo.
 
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

The camera controls that affect exposure are the aperture, shutter speed, and flash power -- period. Yes, the ISO setting indirectly affects these settings depending on the AE (Auto Exposure) mode you are using, but the ISO setting itself is not an element of exposure. In short, do not confuse correlation with causation (for example, thinking that the calendar is what causes the seasons).
I don't think flash power directly affects exposure anymore than the time of day or shooting location does.
Well, you'd be wrong. Exposure is determined by three, and only three, parameters:
  • Scene Luminance
  • t-stop (usually closely approximated by the f-ratio)
  • Shutter Speed
The flash power affects the scene luminance, and therefore affects the exposure.
Many things affect scene luminance, even down to the color of the subject. If I put up a shade or use a reflector, I change luminance. If I wait an hour for the sun to change position, I've affected scene luminance. Singling out flash makes no sense.
The flash power is just the amount of light in the scene, the exposure controls how much of it makes it to the image.
If we keep the aperture and shutter speed constant, then more flash power means a greater exposure, less flash power means a lower exposure.
As does shooting at night vs during the day. Is the Sun part of the exposure settings? Is time of day or the weather?
I feel like if you are going to call flash power part of the exposure than we should also call "how far I open my drapes in the living room during little Sally's b-day party" part of the exposure.
Well, best of luck to you, then.
If I open my drapes, does that not affect scene luminance?
 
Sammy Yousef wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
Sammy Yousef wrote:

Put EVERYTHING in manual. Exposure. ISO. WB. Flash power.

Shoot correctly exposed at ISO6400.

Re-shoot but change ISO to 100. Make no other changes.

Boost the ISO 100 shot to 6400 and compare with the previous. If there is no difference compared to the correctly exposed shot, you're right. I think you'll find you're not.

If you want to blame the software, then find other software. If you can't, you're still wrong for all practical cases.
And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.
You basically just admitted that unless a camera is ISOless, ISO Is part of th exposure. I don't see how that can be taken any other way. You do not get equivalent exposures when changing the ISO.
Basically he said nothing of the sort. The ISO setting on an ISOful camera is something that you need to take account of, because it affects the performance of the camera. But if you want to tweak the last n'th out of your camera, then the way you should be working is making exposure decisions independent of 'ISO' then setting the ISO control to the optimum setting to match your exposure (which often won't be the position where the selected exposure is nominal for that ISO setting)
Which type is more common? ISOless or non-ISOless?
Difficult question. Most probably ISOless. The vast majority of CCD cameras were/are ISOless, and a good few of the newer CMOS.
I love my D70 cameras because they have a flash sync of 1/500th, but I don't go around saying you can shoot with flash sync of 1/500th on all cameras then state that it's only for certain models.
I've never shot a model who could move that fast.
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

And here we are with a camera that has an ISOless sensor:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37235114

If we did the same with a camera that had a non-ISOless sensor, the pushed ISO 100 photo would be more noisy.

As "we" have been saying, the ISO setting is a matter of pre-processing the light that falls on the sensor, and, as such, is not an element in exposure, but an element in processing.

Thus, your challenge, and my answering that challenge, is irrelevant in terms of what exposure is and isn't.
If you had taken that shot with the same ISO and reduced shutter speed by 6 stops and then brightened it with RAW editing software, you'd have the same shot, too.
No, you'd have a rather different photo. You'd have a photo that was made with 64x (6 stops more) light. Big difference.
reducing the shutter speed decreases the light, but either way, I corrected for it with the RAW editor, just as those pushing the ISO do.
You can't do. The amount of light in the photo has effects other than the 'brightness'.
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

The camera controls that affect exposure are the aperture, shutter speed, and flash power -- period. Yes, the ISO setting indirectly affects these settings depending on the AE (Auto Exposure) mode you are using, but the ISO setting itself is not an element of exposure. In short, do not confuse correlation with causation (for example, thinking that the calendar is what causes the seasons).
I don't think flash power directly affects exposure anymore than the time of day or shooting location does.
Well, you'd be wrong. Exposure is determined by three, and only three, parameters:
  • Scene Luminance
  • t-stop (usually closely approximated by the f-ratio)
  • Shutter Speed
The flash power affects the scene luminance, and therefore affects the exposure.
Many things affect scene luminance, even down to the color of the subject. If I put up a shade or use a reflector, I change luminance. If I wait an hour for the sun to change position, I've affected scene luminance. Singling out flash makes no sense.
Who's "singling out flash"? As I said, scene luminance is one of the three elements of exposure, and the camera's flash will affect that particular element.
The flash power is just the amount of light in the scene, the exposure controls how much of it makes it to the image.
If we keep the aperture and shutter speed constant, then more flash power means a greater exposure, less flash power means a lower exposure.
As does shooting at night vs during the day. Is the Sun part of the exposure settings? Is time of day or the weather?
The scene luminance is one of three elements to exposure.

I feel like if you are going to call flash power part of the exposure than we should also call "how far I open my drapes in the living room during little Sally's b-day party" part of the exposure.
Well, best of luck to you, then.
If I open my drapes, does that not affect scene luminance?

Yes (well, assuming it's not dark outside). Did I say or imply otherwise?
 
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:
tkbslc wrote:
Great Bustard wrote:

The camera controls that affect exposure are the aperture, shutter speed, and flash power -- period. Yes, the ISO setting indirectly affects these settings depending on the AE (Auto Exposure) mode you are using, but the ISO setting itself is not an element of exposure. In short, do not confuse correlation with causation (for example, thinking that the calendar is what causes the seasons).
I don't think flash power directly affects exposure anymore than the time of day or shooting location does.
Well, you'd be wrong. Exposure is determined by three, and only three, parameters:
  • Scene Luminance
  • t-stop (usually closely approximated by the f-ratio)
  • Shutter Speed
The flash power affects the scene luminance, and therefore affects the exposure.
Many things affect scene luminance, even down to the color of the subject. If I put up a shade or use a reflector, I change luminance. If I wait an hour for the sun to change position, I've affected scene luminance. Singling out flash makes no sense.
The flash power is just the amount of light in the scene, the exposure controls how much of it makes it to the image.
If we keep the aperture and shutter speed constant, then more flash power means a greater exposure, less flash power means a lower exposure.
As does shooting at night vs during the day. Is the Sun part of the exposure settings? Is time of day or the weather?
I feel like if you are going to call flash power part of the exposure than we should also call "how far I open my drapes in the living room during little Sally's b-day party" part of the exposure.
Well, best of luck to you, then.
If I open my drapes, does that not affect scene luminance?
Yes, anything that affects the light falling on the subject affects scene luminance and therefor exposure. I'm a bit surprised that anyone would think it doesn't.
 
bobn2 wrote:
gn-aus wrote:

In reading some of the replies to this and similar posts it appears that all those writers who refer to the 'exposure triangle' have all got it wrong?
That is essentially the core of the controversy. Many photographers were 'educated' with the 'help' of the exposure triangle. I don't know who invented it, maybe it was Petersen - but whatever, it has been extensively copied. And yes, it is wrong. Not just wrong, but actually quite damaging to understanding, as are many faulty educational 'aids'.
A strict definition of exposure may well exclude ISO, but for practical purposes, in the digital age, it clearly is part of the decision options.
Not so clearly, and not always. But the major point is that the exposure triangle leads to a faulty assumption, that raising ISO is the same as raising exposure, even Petersen makes that mistake, as do several 'experts' who peddle the exposure triangle.
 
bobn2 wrote:

Yes, anything that affects the light falling on the subject affects scene luminance and therefor exposure. I'm a bit surprised that anyone would think it doesn't.
Yes, ... but ... let us not conceal the existence of our photomultiplier image-sensor any longer. The flyback transformer fits right into the camera body packaging. Doubles as a handy defibrillator ... :P
 
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