# Does Sunny 16 Rule Work?



## warheit12 (Feb 21, 2012)

Like would it actually give me the correct exposure? In theory it sounds ok, and it seems like you wouldnt need the light meter.

I just want to no before I start using film with this idea my friend just told me about lol.


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## cgipson1 (Feb 21, 2012)

Sunny 16 will put you in the ballpark... pretty close to where you need to be. You can tweak it from there depending on conditions.


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## Big Mike (Feb 21, 2012)

Yes, the theory is good...and it should put you in the ballpark.  But it really helps if you can read the conditions well....and learn to tell how far off of 'sunny' your light actually is.  The good news is that most film has a nice wide latitude, so you have some leeway with your exposure.

What sort of camera are you going to be using.  Anything remotely modern will likely have a built-in light meter.


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## warheit12 (Feb 21, 2012)

Big Mike said:


> Yes, the theory is good...and it should put you in the ballpark.  But it really helps if you can read the conditions well....and learn to tell how far off of 'sunny' your light actually is.  The good news is that most film has a nice wide latitude, so you have some leeway with your exposure.
> 
> What sort of camera are you going to be using.  Anything remotely modern will likely have a built-in light meter.



lol I have nothing modern. An old Canon TX film camera I think its from like 1975, my photography teacher from high school gave it to me for free nicely enough. It has some kind of light meter, but I think its either broken or I just dont really understand how to read it properly. It takes really nice pictures when I do get the exposures right. So far I have been guessing and how much light I "feel" is around me, its worked alright some pictures I get the exposure just right. On others I get it slightly off but the dudes I send my film to process/print correct over and under exposure and they are just nice in general. But I want to get better at photography, its just expensive to experiment around with film. I am soon getting a DSLR, but at the moment I am stuck with this camera, but I really do like film and even when i do go digital I wont stop with film. 

Maybe at some point I will switch over to a nicer film camera.


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## ann (Feb 21, 2012)

Years ago , Kodak place similar info on the box of the film, it is strange how close the suggestion came to being correct.

I happen to use f11 instead of 16 as i like the negative that the switch creates for my equipment and process. 

That "rule" can be extrapolate up and down the scale depending on the lighting conditions and as Big Mike has suggested learning to understand the light and how you want to relate that to your work is critical to and for success


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## Derrel (Feb 21, 2012)

Yes, it does work on Planet Earth. It is however, as I understand it, only for above-ground shots, and not underwater. The Sunny 16 Rule is one of those weird intersections of a mathematical theory and simple environmental conditions. On light sand and snow, the lens must be closed down one f/stop to f/22. If clouds come out, the lens must be opened up one stop from f/16 to f/11. If heavier cloud cover develops, the lens needs to be opened to f/8. There used to be some very good illustrations of lighting conditions on the inside of boxes of film...those little drawings were excellent representations of the most common lighting conditions in everyday, real-world photography.


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## Josh66 (Feb 21, 2012)

I just took my light meter outside (it's pretty sunny right now) and set it to ISO 100, f/16.  It gave me a shutter speed of 1/90th - so I'd say the sunny 16 rule is a pretty good guide.


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## Proteus617 (Feb 21, 2012)

Sunny16 works ridiculously well.  Check out The Ultimate Exposure Computer and print out the parts of the tables that are relevant.  You could fit them on a business card.  An even better way if you have an old camera with a meter:  Play around with it for a week or so asking guessing how many stops above/below Sunny16 your subject is before you meter.  You will get good at it very quickly.


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## Proteus617 (Feb 21, 2012)

Double post.


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## Tiberius47 (Feb 21, 2012)

Check out the links in  my signature.  They'll teach you how to change between equivalent exposures.


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## Compaq (Feb 21, 2012)

I practice seeing lighting conditions in exposure values. It's easier than remembering shutter speed / aperture combinations, or remembering the sunny 16. I'm not very accurate yet, but I'm improving.


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## table1349 (Feb 21, 2012)

On sunny days it works.  Sucks in the rain and at night though.


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## KmH (Feb 21, 2012)

And if you need to use a larger aperture than f/16 just make adjustments based on stops.

ISO 100, 1/90, f/16, is the same exposure as ISO 100, 1/740, f/5.6.


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## GeorgieGirl (Feb 22, 2012)

Proteus617 said:


> Sunny16 works ridiculously well.  Check out The Ultimate Exposure Computer and print out the parts of the tables that are relevant.  You could fit them on a business card.  An even better way if you have an old camera with a meter:  Play around with it for a week or so asking guessing how many stops above/below Sunny16 your subject is before you meter.  You will get good at it very quickly.



Loved this. Thank You!!!!


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## Arpeggio9 (Feb 22, 2012)

I got Minolta srt 201 recently and the light meter was way off. Unusable pretty much, so I decided to do without in camera light meter. I made me one of these which is based on sunny 16 rule and shot 3 rolls so far. 95% of shots were right on exposure wise. What's more, I am faster at getting a shot because I am thinking about light all the time and adjusting accordingly without looking at light meter and depending on that. I think I actually prefer it this way.


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## fokker (Feb 22, 2012)

Just FYI, your camera's light meter probably isn'tbroken but rather just needs a new battery.


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## Mot (Feb 22, 2012)

It is surprisingly good in most cases. I used Lomo cameras quite a lot over the Summer and, of course, they don't have light meters. I even surprised myself with my judegment of light, I found at first I was over-exposing by around a stop so I had to adjust my in-brain exposure compensation. Good, accurate-enough exposures since then!

Some Kodak boxes still have the guide in them, I think it's the cheap colour-plus stuff.


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## Arpeggio9 (Feb 22, 2012)

fokker said:


> Just FYI, your camera's light meter probably isn'tbroken but rather just needs a new battery.



I got MRB625 1.35v brand new from ebay as soon as I got the srt. I got a working light meter to compare it to. Not even close, fortunately .


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## Josh66 (Feb 22, 2012)

I was actually a little surprised how close the Sunny 16 rule was to my light meter.


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## djacobox372 (Feb 23, 2012)

Yeah it works... It doesnt take much practice to teach yourself to meter at least as well as the stupid automatic metering your camera provides.


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## dxqcanada (Feb 24, 2012)

warheit12 said:


> It has some kind of light meter, but I think its either broken or I just dont really understand how to read it properly.



Match circle (aperture) to needle (shutter speed).
If the needle does not move ... then (as Fokker mentioned) the battery might be dead.


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## Ysarex (Feb 25, 2012)

Compaq said:


> I practice seeing lighting conditions in exposure values. It's easier than remembering shutter speed / aperture combinations, or remembering the sunny 16. I'm not very accurate yet, but I'm improving.



This is the right answer! It's too complicated to try and mentally juggle light condition plus shutter speed plus f/stop. It's much easier to learn light condition plus EV number. The shutter speed and f/stop combinations become a single EV value. Therefore sunny 16 is EV 15 for ISO 100. Back in the glory days of Kodachrome 64 sunny 16 was just EV 14 for glorious color.

Back in the glory days when photography simply worked and worked simply cameras had EV locks. On your Hasselblad or your Rolleiflex you set exposure by setting the EV value that you read directly from the meter -- shutter speeds and f/stops then locked together for that EV. I still break out the Rollei now and then. This chart is on the back of my Rollei:







Those are EV numbers laid out in a grid with "scene modes." Pick the scene from the picture and then find the EV value that matches your ASA (ISO) and set your exposure. Next step, memorize the chart -- it's easy. I memorized that chart decades ago with another 1/2 dozen scene modes added on.

I spend many hours on the water in a canoe. I like to take a camera along but I'm reluctant to take an expensive digital camera. So I take my old pocket Retina (I still have film in the freezer). If my Retina goes for a swim, well... I'll be sad, but not devastated. It has no light meter but it does have an EV lock. I look at the light condition, remember my chart and set the exposure by setting the EV value -- piece of cake.

Joe


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## GeorgieGirl (Feb 25, 2012)

Joe this chart is of the charts!!! I do recall the visuals of the standing shadows from back in the day. Thank you...I am going to print this out.


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