[Rabid Penguin]

I found this on my photography degree website, however there's no explanation so I'm not exactly sure how to read it.

Exposure Value Chart

EV TYPE OF LIGHTING SITUATION

-6 Night, away from city lights, subject under starlight only.
-5 Night, away from city lights, subject under crescent moon.
-4 Night, away from city lights, subject under half moon. Meteors (during showers, with time exposure).
-3 Night, away from city lights, subject under full moon.
-2 Night, away from city lights, snowscape under full moon.
-1 Subjects lit by dim ambient artificial light.
0 Subjects lit by dim ambient artificial light.
1 Distant view of lighted skyline.
2 Lightning (with time exposure). Total eclipse of moon.
3 Fireworks (with time exposure).
4 Candle lit close-ups. Christmas lights, floodlit buildings, fountains, and monuments. Subjects under bright street lamps.
5 Night home interiors, average light. School or church auditoriums. Subjects lit by campfires or bonfires.
6 Brightly lit home interiors at night. Fairs, amusement parks.
7 Bottom of rainforest canopy. Brightly lighted nighttime streets. Indoor sports. Stage shows, circuses.
8 Las Vegas or Times Square at night. Store windows. Campfires, bonfires, burning buildings. Ice shows, football, baseball etc. at night. Interiors with bright florescent lights.
9 Landscapes, city skylines 10 minutes after sunset. Neon lights, spotlighted subjects.
10 Landscapes and skylines immediately after sunset. Crescent moon (long lens).
11 Sunsets. Subjects in open shade.
12 Half moon (long lens). Subject in heavy overcast.
13 Gibbous moon (long lens). Subjects in cloudy-bright light (no shadows).
14 Full moon (long lens). Subjects in weak, hazy sun.
15 Subjects in bright or hazy sun (Sunny f/16 rule).
16 Subjects in bright daylight on sand or snow.
17 Rarely encountered in nature. Some man made lighting.
18 Rarely encountered in nature. Some man made lighting.
19 Rarely encountered in nature. Some man made lighting.
20 Rarely encountered in nature. Some man made lighting.
21 Rarely encountered in nature. Some man made lighting.
22 Extremely bright. Rarely encountered in nature.
23 Extremely bright. Rarely encountered in nature.

[shuttertalk]

Hey RP - I've seen two forms of this chart - one in a tabular format with EV on one axis and shutter speed on another axis, and at the intersections they give you the recommended F stop to use. The second format is as above - I think mainly used as an estimation tool. The theory is that if you start at EV15 - you would use the Sunny f/16 rule (i.e. ISO 100, f/16 and 1/100). If you go up or down the scale, you would need to double or halve the amount of light by altering either the aperture or the shutter speed.

Oh wait... found a link here:
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm#Li...ty%20Chart

[Rabid Penguin]

So the EV number listed in the chart is an approximate EV of the natural light? ie shooting at 100/16/100 in each of those situations would give the EV listed?

[ADK_Jim]

Exposure value is an number that is a measure of brightness with each EV being double or half its neighbor just like f/stops and full step shutter settings. It can be the brightness of a particular point in the scene if you are spot metering or of the averaged light if you are using an incident or reflected light meter. Light meters which use EV will have a dial which when set to the ISO of the film/sensor will translate the EV# into a range of f/stop & shutter speed settings all of which will result in proper exposure. For example f/8 @ 1/100th is the same exposure as f/11 @ 1/50th or f/16 @ 1/25th. All those settings would share the same EV#. What that EV # is depends on your ISO. It is an invaluable concept if you are shooting in the zone system. If you are shooting a digital SLR using the internal meter you no need to know how it works. If you really want to understand it, here is a detailed explanation <http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm>.

ADK Jim

[shuttertalk]

Hey good explanation Jim!

Looks like we linked to the same resource too...