[Daniel_Champion]

Have you ever heard of sunny 16?

Its a rule to always get a good exposure, and it worked quite well in my first days with a camera.

Its simple, on a sunny day, turn your camera to manual and put this settings:

1/125sec ; f:16 ; ISO 100

If the sky is clouded or raining you can start playing with the f number, move it down by one or two stops and see the differences in light and depth of field!

For me it was a good way to start shooting manual.

[Tamora2602]

Have you ever heard of sunny 16?

Its a rule to always get a good exposure, and it worked quite well in my first days with a camera.

Its simple, on a sunny day, turn your camera to manual and put this settings:

1/125sec ; f:16 ; ISO 100

If the sky is clouded or raining you can start playing with the f number, move it down by one or two stops and see the differences in light and depth of field!

For me it was a good way to start shooting manual.


Great to hear that a principle my father taught me about 40 years ago when all we had was Manual shooting and focus (with his old Pentax ME) and fixed ISO (film) still comes round...at the end of the day you can't change the simple physics of how light behaves

[MrB]

In the digital age, with a camera even in manual mode, rules such as this one seem unnecessary.

The starting point should be an ISO value appropriate for the available lighting, then see what exposure the camera's metering system suggests for the scene.

From there, adjust according to the effects desired - aperture for depth of field control, shutter speed with regard to motion, ISO to control noise reduction or to enable higher aperture or shutter speed values.

Maintain the correct exposure that the camera suggests by adjusting one or two of the three (aperture, speed, ISO, as appropriate), or compensate the exposure as needed, e.g. for a backlit subject.

For any shot, review the image on the camera's LCD and, if necessary, adjust the settings and re-shoot. There is also the histogram - a very useful tool for indicating the under/over exposure of shadow/highlight areas.

I suppose the only rule for me would be - make use of the available technology!

Cheers.
Philip

P.S. Anyone who wants to can play around with these controls and effects here:

http://camerasim.com/apps/camera-simulator/

[Daniel_Champion]

(...)

Great to hear that a principle my father taught me about 40 years ago when all we had was Manual shooting and focus (with his old Pentax ME) and fixed ISO (film) still comes round...at the end of the day you can't change the simple physics of how light behaves

That's absolutly true. My first camera was a yashika electro 35, 8 years ago. and it felt so right to start learning the true basics and techniques of photography instead of buying a digital dslr. Cameras now-a-days are great, no point of not saying it, but all the basics and techniques about light and exposure don't change over the years.

[MrB]

Cameras now-a-days are great, no point of not saying it, but all the basics and techniques about light and exposure don't change over the years.

Of course that is true, Daniel.

The Sunny 16 Rule was suggested as a starting point for exposure in a camera without a way of measuring light. On a digital camera (or a film camera with a light meter), there is little point in suggesting that the starting point should be anything other than the exposure offered by the metering system.

Moving on from the starting point is where the basics and techniques of photography become important, because they involve the understanding and use of the exposure triangle - the inter-relationship of the aperture, shutter speed and ISO values, and the visual effects of each one on the captured image.

Cheers.
Philip

[Daniel_Champion]

You are right Philip but for people like me, who started with a film camera, it was quite usefull. and there's still a lot of interess in film cameras so even for people having digital, this could help them to start playing with film without getting to expensive. But light meters in digital cameras are becaming really good this days, no doubt in that!

[MrB]

Daniel, in my youth I also started photography with basic film cameras, although I can't remember how I did it!
When I started working, I eventually moved up to a Pentax MX (~1980?) - that has a very good metering system.

Cheers.
Philip

[DerMc]

I also used the sunny 16 rule as a starting point, but my rule was slightly different, but the same....
The rule said that on a sunny day, set the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to the "same as", the ISO value.
f/16 at ISO100 with 1/100 sec shutter
f/16 at ISO200 with 1/200 sec shutter
f/16 at ISO400 with 1/400 sec shutter
f/16 at ISO800 with 1/800 sec shutter
it introduced a bit more understanding when using Manual setting

[Daniel_Champion]

I also used the sunny 16 rule as a starting point, but my rule was slightly different, but the same....
(...)
f/16 at ISO100 with 1/100 sec shutter
(...)
it introduced a bit more understanding when using Manual setting

Yes DerMc is exactly the same rule, but back in the days old cameras had shutters speeds like 1/60 ; 1/125 ; 1/250 ... at least the cameras I know, so you should always use the nearest shutter speed number to match the film you are using as you said!