Sunny 16 sort of

Greetings everyone

 

A question regarding the sunny 16 rule.

I have a Zeiss iKON Nettar with a Vario shutter. The only shutter speeds are 1/25, 1/75 & 1/200 + B.

I have loaded a roll of FP4 (125 asa),

I am getting slightly confused, obviously if I had a shutter speed of 1/125 it would be easy to use Sunny 16.

If I set the shutter to 1/200 and open the aperture 1 stop to f11 would that be correct for a sunny day? Then I could increase the aperture for subsequent weather conditions.

Many thanks in advance

I'd say that 1/200th at f/11 is close enough and well within latitude of the film. You could slightly adapt your processing to treat the FP4 as a ISO100 film in development, even if the differences will be small.

Most B&W films have ISO latitude of at least +/- 1 f/stop, so you should be fine.

Thank you for that. I'll give it a try.

Also to consider is that by now 1/200 might actually vary between 1/100 and 1/180 or so, depending on how many times it has been set and released in the last few days. Also outside ambient air temperature could affect shutter speed.

So......all your shutter speeds could vary, usually on the slow end, by 30~40%.

"A question regarding the sunny 16 rule."

 

- Sunny 16 isn't a rule. It's not even a very good guide.

 

Outside of the tropics, clear sunlight can vary by over a stop throughout the year, and even more due to atmospheric and weather conditions.

 

1/200th @ f/16 will be near enough to 1/125th @ f/16 given the age and probable inaccuracy of the shutter.

I will give it a try at various speeds and apertures and make a note of each. I will see when the film is processed.

 

Thank you all

Most B&W films have ISO latitude of at least +/- 1 f/stop

 

True

and many color negative and especially "chromogenic B&W" films have even wider latitude.

 

Here is the first page of an article on the subject from Modern Photography 1988-04.

 

It was slide film that needed accurate metering, and most surviving CN films probably do even better than these long-gone films...

I read that Kodak Ektar 100 color print film has a narrow usable range, less than a stop in either direction. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Actually "Sunny 16" is a good guide conceptually...that is if one remembers the concepts governing the intervals, AND makes adjustments for their locality (ie some parts of the world it is Sunny 11, others it is Sunny 16+. 2-3 times/yr I test it (and my eyesight/judgement) by incident metering and match the results against Sunny 16.

Also the direction for the sun relative to the subject. Today if I look north sunny 16 if I look south sunny 22.

Also the direction for the sun relative to the subject. Today if I look north sunny 16 if I look south sunny 22.

I have always used it as an alternative to an incident meter reading, so it always, in my practice, is the light falling on the subject facing the position of the camera. Seems to work well without a lot of additional adjustments.

I concur with James Bryant and Stephen Lewis - the "Sunny 16" or "F/16 Rule" is very handy and also a functional guide: both for Film and Digital.

 

Certainly it is NOT a 'rule', and it IS a 'guide' - but my point is that I disagree, that it is not a good guide.

 

I think that, over time, this 'rule' has been 'simplified' and in that simplification, much of the detail of the 'rule' has been lost and today the 'rule' simply is not understood in its original meaning and purpose.

 

(Specifically) When I studied for my Diploma of Photography, (that was in the1970s), the 'rule' (in full) as it was taught had these elements (my CAPS now for emphasis:

 

"The F/16 Rule states that for a FRONT LIT SUBJECT in FULL SUN photographed between TWO HOURS AFTER SUNRISE and TWO HOURS BEFORE SUNSET in a location between THE TROPICS OF CAPRICORN and CANCER, the exposure will be F/16 @ 1/ASA: for SIDE LIT and TOP LIT - OPEN one stop; for BACK LIT - OPEN two stops; for Subject on BRIGHT SAND or SNOW or WATER - CLOSE one stop; for SLIGHT OVERCAST - OPEN one stop; for HEAVY OVERCAST - OPEN two stops"

 

The text went in to discuss the elements/descriptors of "'FULL SUN", "LIGHT OVERCAST etc. For example "FULL SUN" is "HEAVY and DISTINCT SHADOWS". "LIGHT OVERCAST" is "SOFT and INDISTINCT SHADOWS and "HEAVY OVERCAST" is "NO SHADOW"

 

Obvious by the wording, this 'rule' was primarily meant to be applicable to Portrait Photography, but it can easily be applied to many other genres simply by observing the direction of the sun.

 

Certainly the ‘rule’ back in 1970, took into account the latitude of most Negative Films, but my experience was that it was a good rule for Kodachrome 25 and Kodachrome 64, having used the ‘rule’ quite often when using a camera with no light meter.

 

WW

Every Kodak film box had something like this as an exposure guide. On the whole worked pretty well.

 

Even with as narrow latitude film as Kodachrome, the old "1/125 at f/8 to f/11" worked pretty well for daylight since ISO 32 gave greater saturation.

I think many of us are saying something similar to "it is a good guide, but you need to apply the computer located between your ears" to achieve reliable consistent results. Isn't it funny - the same is true for effectively using an exposure meter. Modern in camera exposure meters have done much of that work for us with matrix, weighted, and selective metering.patterns

I think many of us are saying something similar to "it is a good guide, but you need to apply the computer located between your ears" to achieve reliable consistent results. Isn't it funny - the same is true for effectively using an exposure meter. Modern in camera exposure meters have done much of that work for us with matrix, weighted, and selective metering.patterns

Well said bud, set your ISO, shutter speed and focus then all have to get right is your fstop, use it all the time.