Does the sunny 16 rule really work?

I borrow a light meter from college when shooting with a bronica, however it

is not always possible to get it.does the sunny 16 rule work or is it a load

of rubbish?, Cheers, Dan

It works as a rough estimate, but don't rely on it for critical photographs.

The Sunny 16 Rule is a guideline-a starting point-and nothing more. It's up to the photographer to determine if its application is appropriate for the situation.

Daniel, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, no?

It works for me, and when I have the luxury of shooting only front-lit subjects on a sunny

day, I'll set the Sunny 16 exposure (not necessarily at f/16, but you know what I mean) and

go with it. But if it's shadow detail you're most interested on the same sunny day, I need to

open up more.

Sunny 16 works very well. You still need to understand and interpret the situation correctly to get what you want (the same applies for a meter).

Yes, assuming the conditions. It will get you into the ballpark of proper exposure as well as the average in-camera light meter in my experience, at least for print film where there is some latitude. Not as good as a handheld reading and a trained eye would.

 

Kodak's 'existing light' (ie low light) rules work, too.

 

 

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Don E

With the latitude of today's print films, the Sunny 16 rule works better than ever before. Not so good with slide film, where exposure is much more critical. Cheers.

I took a photo class and used Sunny 16, worked fine.

 

-Mario

Something to learn besides Sunny 16 is that there's only about 4-5 steps between sunlight and sunset. Once you realize that, with practice you can guesstimate pretty accurately, esp. with B/W film. I use that method often, when shooting in daylight.

Well if sunny 16 were perfect the world might have spent less money and time developing buying and using these sophisticated light meters, both in-camera and hand-held.

 

Its a start-point for an intelligent guess, that's all, and as such it will tend to be most useful where either the user or the application isn't teribly critical. So as others have said, much more likely to give the right answers in relatively simple lighting situations using neg film. I wouldn't want to use it with slides, but I do find it somewhat useful as a sense-check on my mental calculations from spot-metering.

I shot slides for years (and still do, alongside digital), and for my money, "sunny 16" does work. There are a couple things to look out for: it has to be at least an hour after sunrise or before sunset, and there can't large expanses of reflective material (like snow) between the camera and the subject. I still use "sunny 16" as a starting point for digital (if it is actually sunny), fire a test shot, and check the histogram. I can't think of a situation where that hasn't worked.

 

If you're shooting into the sun, or trying for a "glint" or silhouette, then all bets are off, but for a standard, sunlit exposure, it works for me.

Sunny/16 works perfectly whhen the illumination on your subject is LV 14.6439, or 69888 lux if you prefer those units.

 

The trick is in training your eye to recognize that light level (roughly, "bright sun") and adjust accordingly when the light level differs from that.

 

It's certainly not a load of rubbish, but it's just part of a larger approach, not a hard and fast rule.

I would not want to waste precious film (and processing, especially in medium format) with guestimating exposure. If you use professional you should get the best results possible and this means perfectly exposed captures. Get a modern incident light meter (e.g., Sekonic) and learn how to use it.

Whatever light measuring system you use needs intelligent interpretation. Your eyeballs are free, meters are made and sold by people trying to get your money. Google "ultimate exposure computer" website for a discussion. IMHO

The Sunny 16 rule works fine...however people's perception of conditions is often not as good as they think it is, leading them to discard the tenants of the rule. The other critical factor, IMHO, is that the film speeds aren't necessarily what is printed on the box...you need to determine the speed which works best in your camera (variance in shutter speeds in each camera, and development methodology). BTW the same is true if you use a meter...there is a learning curve as you start to learn about reflected and incident light.

Dan, As long as it is within about 2 1/2 hrs. of celestial noon and there is no haze blocking part of the sun's light, it is exactly right. A hand held reflected meter (as well as all TTL camera meters before Matrix/multi-segment meters) are right only 30-40% of the time. An incident reading (as well as today's Matrx/Multi-segment TTL camera meters)when taken properly is almost always correct and will give you a pretty good exposure every time. Also Kodak's suggested exposures for different outdoor lighting situations should be taken seriously as well.....Jim

Since light is infinitely variable, it doesn't always work. Since film and digital capture have some latitude in their tolerances, it works quite well a lot of the time. Since perfect exposure is a personal judgement, it will work perfectly only some of the time.