The sunny 16 rule is a good rule-of thumb to remember when you need to estimate the exposure of a shot. The rule states:
“Set you camera’s aperture to f/16, then set the exposure time to the nearest reciprocal of the film speed (1/ISO).”
So, say you are using an ISO (film speed) setting of 100, you would set your aperture to f/16 and the exposure time to 1/125th of a second, which is the closest to 1/100 that you can achieve.
Or say you are using an ISO setting of 400, set the aperture to f/16 and the exposure to 1/400th or 1/500th of a second, which ever you can achieve with your camera.
The Sunny 16 rule is based on the fact that the sun is equally bright everywhere outdoors between 10 am and 5 pm.
So why would you not just rely on you camera’s light meter? Simply because most light meters base their readings off reflected light and the rule uses incidental light there for compensating for very bright and very dark subjects which can be difficult to expose correctly.
Variations:
This rule can be modified to fit just about any outdoor lighting situation you may encounter just by adjusting your aperture (f/stop) setting based the definition of the shadows you see.
Sunny 16 Rule
Other Applications:
One thing that people have problems with is shooting shots of the moon. The moon is nothing more that an object bathed in bright sunlight. No different that a car sitting in the road during the day. If you apply the “Sunny 16 Rule” your results will come out much better than relying on the light meter in your camera.
Professional photographers swear by the sunny 16 rule. It is a baseline standard of photography and the start of understanding the most important aspect of photography, light. By committing these to memory you can quickly set you camera based on available light and your photo quality will see a marked improvement.
*This is part of my series to introduce people to the world of photography. My hope is to help current DLSR camera owners to stop relying on the auto setting of their camera and unlocking the photographic potential of what they hold in their hand.
Richard Call is a Nashville, Tennessee based photographer whose work has been published locally as well as internationally and can be seen at richardcallphotography.com.
Facebook | @rcphoto
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