Tuesday 14 October 2008

Exposures - what film taught us

I haven't been good at keeping this blog up-to-date. Recent conversations have brought up the subject of today's entry: what we used to do in the days of film to judge exposures. The rule was known as the "Sunny 16 rule", and is as follows:

f/16 for a sunny day
f/8 for overcast
f/4 for a setting sun

The shutter speed will be determined by the ISO of the film. So if we were using ISO 100, then we could be using 1/100 or 1/125. If we were to use ISO 400 then 1/400 or 1/500; it's essentially a reciprocal.

Even on a digital body that can account for the exposure, knowing the equivalent for manual exposures will help on the technical side of photography.

1 comment:

Alexander Blacker said...

Good old "Sunny 16 rules" here in Sweden its called a different things, i have to check what its called.


On one of my older cameras, i have an exposure card that came with it and the rules says right there.

But this is a good rule of thumb to have in mind, good stuff Ed!