Sunny f/16 Chart - Am I on the right track?

[lilserenity]

Hiya,

 

I've done plenty of search and reading so I sincerely hope I don't dredge up what's already been answered here.

In fact much of what I have read helped me to get this far.

 

Background: experienced enough photographer with both manual and auto-focus on 35mm format (mostly with a Canon

EOS 3 and Olympus XA) and a big black and white fiend. The next step was to venture into medium format. To that

end I bought a Mamiya C330F with an 80mm lens which is a great bit of kit that I can't wait to get out with. It's

loaded up with some FP4+ and ready to go.

 

I understand the sunny f/16 rule well enough (and compensation for different light source etc.) and I don't have

a separate light meter so I'll rely on the old rule as it were. The thing is sometimes I will want to shoot at

f/5.6 or f/2.8 even on a slightly overcast day, rather than what the rule says (which I have simplified to)

 

Shutter speed = ISO rating e.g. 1/125th

Sunny - f/16

Slightly Overcast - f/11

Overcast - f/8

Heavily Overcast - f/5.6

Sunsets - f/4

 

So to shoot at f/2.8 during a slightly overcast day at 1/125th of a second would be heavily overexposed so I did

what I thought was right and made a spreadsheet which to me seems correct. What I want to know is: is it, am I

roughly on the right track?

 

The spreadsheet is here as a PDF:

http://www.sunshinesista.plus.com/sunny16chart.pdf

 

According to what I have roughly calculated, say I put some FP4+ in (so sunny day would be shot at f/16 with

1/125th shutter speed) but what if I want to shoot a sunset at f/11? According to my spreadsheet I have

calculated the shutter speed for a sunset at f/11 to be 1/15th sec? Inevitably there might be a little

discrepancy but I have some give with the b+w print film's latitude.

 

Another example, say I have FP4+ again, but want to shoot a portrait at f/4 on an overcast day, my chart says my

shutter speed (assuming a base of f/16 - 1/125th) should be 1/500th sec shutter speed.

 

Am I on the right track and will my ropey spreadsheet help me? I do like to use the aperture value to good

creative effect you see, and of course sometimes I will want to shoot a sunset at an aperture other than f/4 too!

 

I hope I'm making some sense here and hopefully I haven't made a hash of my spreadsheet. I found a good little

cut out exposure calculator too which I plan on using to start with but if what I have done is on the right

lines, I should soon remember things easily enough!

 

Many many thanks,

Vicky

[james_ollinger]

<p>I couldn't get the pdf file to show. I kept getting errors.</p>

 

<p>Bear with me for a moment because I will address your question directly in a moment:</p>

 

<p>A good, old-fashioned light meter with a calculator dial would be useful. Even if you don't really want to use it to

measure light directly, you get the calculator dial which gives you the combinations. The nice thing about that is you

can see the relationships in the numbers, and as you turn the knob and move things around, you see what matches

up with what, and what things match up under different circumstances. You also get to see how near and far things

are to each other, in terms of stops. It's a very valable tool to have. It's one place where old-fashioned analog meters

beat digital meters hands-down.</p>

 

<p>As I type this I'm sitting here looking at my old Weston Master IV. It's got a bad cell but the calculator dial is

terrific. The equivalencies for 1/125th @ f/16 are:</p>

 

<p>1/30th @ f/32 <br />

1/60th @ f/22<br />

1/125th @ f/16 <br />

1/250th @ f/11<br />

1/500th @ f/8<br />

1/1000th @ f/5.6<br />

1/2000th @ f4</p>

 

<p>I can't see your spreadsheet but I think your formula is jumping two stops instead of one. </p>

 

<p>Back to your original point: you can do this with a spreadsheet. You can do the math in your head if you

memorize the progressions. But I still think you'd do well to get a calculator dial, either a paper one or one off an old

meter, and use that. An analog calculator dial won't make you mentally lazy because you have to learn to use it,

and as I said before, you'll see the relationships and sooner or later, it'll become easier for you to make these

conversions in your head.</p>

 

<p>My 2 cents, anyway.</p>

[john_gleason1]

(I couldn't get your chart to open, either.)

 

You should probably be aware of the widely referenced Fred Parker site:

 

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

 

It's a very complete set of variations on the Sunny 16 rule. But I find the layout of the chart on Fred's site

to be not all that convenient in practice. For one thing, I'm usually out in the field with a single film (or,

at most two), so a chart that shows lots of different film speeds is just distracting, and not quick to use.

 

So, I condensed the information in Fred Parker's table down to a display that, when printed, will fit on a 3x5

index card. Each page covers a single ISO speed. So, you can print the table for (say) ISO 100 and 400,

laminate those pages to the front and back of a 3x5 card, and tuck it in your shirt pocket.

 

I don't need the card very often, but I usually carry one just to check, now and again. And a card with ISO

100/400 is all I ever carry.

 

The full table covers ISO 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200. It exists in the form of a PDF file. If you'd

like a copy, just email me.

[john_gleason1]

I forgot to mention: Each page of the table I described has a little ruler at the top, showing equivalent shutter speed/f-stop combinations.

[SCL]

When I started in photography everybody memorized the sunny 16 rule. For those who were mathematically challenged, we always suggested they merely set a sunny 16 scene on their camera and play with the shutter speeds or f stops until they had the progressions down pat. No need to memorize anything other than the basic shutter speed and aperture progressions on one's camera beyond the sunny 16. Is that repetitive...yes, but it sinks in after a couple of tries. Let's see: ISO 400, so sunny 16 would suggest 1/400 at f16. But my scene is overcast with no shadows...so I increase my exposure by about 3 stops...moving either my shutter speed, aperture or both. Say I moved my aperture to f5.6, but I want to shoot at f2.8 for artistic purposes, so I set 2.8...and adjust my shutter speed an equivalent number of stops to 1/1600. The nice thing about it for beginners is that it is visual, besides being mental.

[lilserenity]

There is some fantastic information, thank you so much for your responses. I will try to answer you each in turn at lunch time but whilst I can, I have reuploaded the PDF, sorry it was corrupt. Not sure why? Anyway, hopefully this will now work:

 

http://www.sunshinesista.plus.com/sunny16chart.pdf

 

Once again many many thanks, quickly though I would be interested in your index card John, that would be super kind of you to share that with me. I am aware of Fred Parker's page and I have read it numerous times and it's been invaluable in helping me understand many of the basic principles before now and indeed in informing me making my table up.

 

I've done a similar thing, with a table for ISO 100/125/160, ISO 200/320 and ISO 320/400. Mine's been set up to only do shutter speeds between 1sec-1/500th as that's what my C330 can handle, as well as bulb.

 

Thanks again and I shall reply properly in a few hours,

Vicky

[aaron_muderick]

It took me a very short time to get the rule into my head and start making great photos. After all the endless discussion on various message boards about how slide film needs exact exposure, I was quite pleased that I could eyeball a scene and get great results. Nowadays I can eyeball the exposure for most any scene. A very useful tool to learn.

[john_chambers]

Check out the Black Cat exposure guide. It's inexpensive, fun, and will encourage you to experiment.. like for example with night time shots. I am not associated but I do have one.

 

http://www.blackcatphotoproducts.com/guide.html

[backswamp]

I too made my own chart from Fred Parker's tables. His is very complete, mine has just what I need and is taped to back of a 1940's Voigtlander folder.

 

The Black Cat exposure guide looks amazingly similar to the dial of a Weston Master light meter. If you can pick up an old Weston Master, Master II, or Master III on some auction site you'll get the same information and you may or may not get a working light meter to boot. (There's also a Master IV and a Master V, but I don't know if they have the same scale.) Of course, I wouldn't recommend paying too much for an unknown condition light meter. The Black Cat product is pretty reasonably priced if all you want is the scale.

[profhlynnjones]

Here's the BEC, or sunny 16, or sweet 16 of photography.

 

1. Northern or southern temperate zone

 

2. Mid spring to mid fall

 

3. Cloudless or just a few clouds

 

4. 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

 

5. Frontal lighting, f stop of f 16, a shutter speed of 1/film speed

 

6. Side lighting, add 1 stop

 

7. Back lighting, add 2 stops

 

8. Open shade (this means sky light only), add 3 f stops

 

9. If you are in a southerly part of the zone (Texas, N. Mexico, Arizona) you may need to stop down 1 stop.

 

10. If you are in a northerly part of the zone (upper Maine, Vermont, etc., or lower Canada, you may need to open up 1/2 to 1 stop.

 

If you are in an industrialized country and in a large city, the lighting in public buildings with flourescent lights will yield an exposure with ASA/ISO 400, of 1/30th at from 2.8 to 4.0 or there about.

 

You need to know the above in case you are getting bizarre exposures from you camera or meter.

 

Lynn (in this case, Prof. Lynn)

[b_b34]

<p>Hi,<br>

These are old post but I am fairly new to all of this and am getting SO much out of all of your posts... thank you to ALL of you!<br>

Just needed to say that :)</p>

[b_b34]

<p>Hi,<br>

These are old post but I am fairly new to all of this and am getting SO much out of all of your posts... thank you to ALL of you!<br>

Just needed to say that :)</p>

[MTC Photography]

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18225257-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="593" /></p>

[glen_h]

<p>Pretty neat, but most cameras don't have a 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50 or 1/100 shutter speed.</p>

<p>Though last week I was using a Mercury II, with 1/20, 1/30, 1/40, 1/60, 1/100, 1/200, 1/300, and 1/1000. Similar to Leica, the numbers aren't uniformly spaced and the knob rotates when the shutter is released.</p>