Do You Use The "Sunny F-16" Principal When Shooting Color Print Film?

[DF]

I always found it worked perfect with my familiar B&W FP4 - F16/125 sec. underneath bright sun.

 

[BrianShaw]

A lot of people seem to like Sunny-16. It works but I always prefer using a meter.

 

[Tel]

It's also handy when grab-shooting and there's no time to meter, or when your meter battery dies suddenly and you don't have a spare.

 

[Chan Tran]

Sunny 16 is quite accurate but it only works when the lighting condition is sunny 16. Yes I do use it not so much strictly sunny 16 but for other conditions that are not as bright.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I started to use S16 as the only available metering with ORWO slide films and FED-2.
Two and half decades later I went film for real. DIY developing of all kind of films. BW DR printing.
I always preferred no electronics cameras and after using of HH meters to learn and memorize exposure situations I switched to S16 again.
It just matter of practice, not type of film.

 

[Wallendo]

Sunny 16 works well with color film, but I generally avoid using f16 if possible. I just make a mental note to adjust the aperture one stop for each stop change in shutter speed - I generally shoot ISO 100 film at 1/500s and f8, for example. I add one stop to exposure for light clouds, two stops for cloudy days, and three stops for heavier clouds. C-41 film generally has enough latitude for this to work well.

 

[wiltw]

If you use a meter precise to 0.1EV, you can meter a grey card and find that 'Sunny 16' is a nominal approximation, but there are times when I have measured f/16 +0.7EV and not f/16.0.

Given the fact that color neg can be overexposed by +3.0EV, an error of 0.7EV is scarcely detectable. So Sunny 16 works well with color neg. Beware of Sunny 16 with color transparency, as +0.7EV overexposure washes out so much.

1. Just now I metered with my handheld Minolta incident meter (ISO 250, 1/250 shutter), held perpendicular to the ground (as if aimed to the camera lens), and as I rotated the meter 360 degrees I detected readings between f/11 +0.1EV to f/11 +0.7EV at 1:30pm on a birght cloudless sky at 38 degrees latitude. So here right now, Sunny 16 would be underexposed by -0.3EV to -0.9EV! Color transparency would do fine, but color neg would be getting into the possibility of 'muddy color' in the shadows.
2. One hour later, I metered with my handheld Minolta incident meter (ISO 250, 1/250 shutter), held perpendicular to the ground (as if aimed to the camera lens), and as I rotated the meter 360 degrees I detected readings between f/8 +0.6EV to f/11 +0.9EV at 2:30pm on a birght cloudless sky at 38 degrees latitude. Deviation from Sunny 16 got even greater, by -1.4EV at one side, but better at -0.1EV at the other extreme.

...so in comparing #1 vs. #2, we see that even time of day change by 1 hour -- even close to mid day during the summer -- affects how well or how poorly Sunny 16 can be. In this one comparison, color neg can get even muddier colors in the shadows (#2) if we exposed to Sunny 16.

 

[Minolta93]

I have a Contina whose light meter I don't trust (and I believe the ISO dial on it won't reflect the modern ISO values since the camera is from the early '50s), so I just found the exposure guide for Ultramax 400 and I wrote it down on a small piece of paper. It recommends a shutter speed of 1/500 at all apertures, and f/16 in bright sun. For hazy light it says f/11, weak sun f/8, bright cloudy conditions f/5.6, and heavy overcast f/4.

My camera only goes up to 1/300s on the shutter so I eyeball the scene and use the exposure guidelines to shoot which are essentially sunny 16, and I'll also bracket the exposure with 2 or 3 shots. I wrote down the settings I used for each frame so when I have a look at the photos later I can see what worked and what didn't.

 

[foc]

Sometimes I use this.

And sometimes I use this.

 

[wiltw]

Sometimes I use this.

View attachment 278191

And sometimes I use this.

View attachment 278192

I can tell direction with the first, but I cannot walk away from it any distance and still know the direction. And when it is cloudy, forgetaboutthetime!
The second lets me know when Sunny 16 is at best a euphamism.

 

[Cholentpot]

I use my meter as a rough guide and primarily rely on eyeballing the scene.

Except indoors. It's going to be wide open and 1/60 the majority of the time with film slower than 800.

 

[Maris]

I always used sunny 11. Why? Because if the scene called for sunny 16 I'm only one stop overexposed and colour negative film copes with that very nicely. But if I really misjudged the light and the scene needed sunny 8 the film is only a stop under but still capable of delivering a look-able print.
Sunny 11 has a two stop safety margin. Sunny 16 is either right, underexposed, or very underexposed.

 

[removed account4]

I always used sunny 11. Why?

me too! why? because I don't live near the arctic circle and
there is a lot of pollution contaminating my atmosphere. sunny 11 is king!

 

[Cholentpot]

I always used sunny 11. Why? Because if the scene called for sunny 16 I'm only one stop overexposed and colour negative film copes with that very nicely. But if I really misjudged the light and the scene needed sunny 8 the film is only a stop under but still capable of delivering a look-able print.
Sunny 11 has a two stop safety margin. Sunny 16 is either right, underexposed, or very underexposed.

Me too! I generally use Sunny 11 and sometimes 'f/8 and be there' never failed me.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have used sunny 16 with color slide film and found it to be very accurate, at least between Hawai'i and New York. If clouds are passing on a sunny day, I'll add two stops for cloud cover and just toggle between sun and clouds without need for checking a meter.

 

[Sirius Glass]

A lot of people seem to like Sunny-16. It works but I always prefer using a meter.

It's also handy when grab-shooting and there's no time to meter, or when your meter battery dies suddenly and you don't have a spare.

I use Sunny 16 if I do not have a meter with me and sometimes as a sanity check on the lighting conditions.

 

[MattKing]

Sunny 16 serves as my check reference. If I have a good idea of what the Sunny 16 exposure suggests, it helps me avoid screwing up a meter reading.
I also enjoy walking up to people with really big DSLRs and saying to them something like "looks like f/11 at 1/500 if you are using ISO 250".
I may not get the "how did you know?" look every time, but when I do ....

 

[runswithsizzers]

Sunny 16 does not usually work for me Everytime I try to check it, my light meters tell me to use f/11. And when I use the light meter, the negatives look good. So, for me, unless the lighting is very simple and predictable, I check the scene with an incident reading. I have used a Gossen Luna Lux SBC in the past, and now, a Sekonik L-308s, and I trust either of those more than "Sunny 16." Plus, with an incident reading, I don't have to do any mental gymnastics to convert Sunny 16 to my actual shutter speed and aperture.

 

[mshchem]

I have a couple Minolta IV F incident meters. These have served me well for 25 years. Sunny 16 is very accurate, but the incident meter is so nice to use for shaded or partially shaded objects.
If my slides don't look right I check my 1st Developer in my E6 scheme.

Fortunately our Sun is pretty consistent. Hopefully it stays that way

 

[Cholentpot]

Sunny 16 does not usually work for me Everytime I try to check it, my light meters tell me to use f/11. And when I use the light meter, the negatives look good. So, for me, unless the lighting is very simple and predictable, I check the scene with an incident reading. I have used a Gossen Luna Lux SBC in the past, and now, a Sekonik L-308s, and I trust either of those more than "Sunny 16." Plus, with an incident reading, I don't have to do any mental gymnastics to convert Sunny 16 to my actual shutter speed and aperture.

I'm the last guy to excel at mathematics. It's not a complicated conversion using Sunny 16 it's even easier than using the Chord Wheel for music.

Sunny 16 serves as my check reference. If I have a good idea of what the Sunny 16 exposure suggests, it helps me avoid screwing up a meter reading.
I also enjoy walking up to people with really big DSLRs and saying to them something like "looks like f/11 at 1/500 if you are using ISO 250".
I may not get the "how did you know?" look every time, but when I do ....

Sometimes I use a small 'obsolete' DSLR just as a meter. Throw a 40mm pancake on it and you have a very compact and cheap fully functioning meter and spot meter.

 

[Ces1um]

I've used sunny 16 but I don't use it often. I tend to shoot in the woods so the foliage cover throws it all out of whack. It's gotta be sunny where you're shooting for the sunny 16 to be relevant. It ain't sunny in the forest.

 

[Cholentpot]

I've used sunny 16 but I don't use it often. I tend to shoot in the woods so the foliage cover throws it all out of whack. It's gotta be sunny where you're shooting for the sunny 16 to be relevant. It ain't sunny in the forest.

5.6 and you're good.

 

[macfred]

For me (located in GER) it's Sunny 11.

 

[wiltw]

If you shoot color neg, with its latitude of -2EV to +3EV with scarely perceptable difference in the final print, it is impossible to say "Sunny 16 is accurate". Sunny 16 is 'workable with acceptable results', when shooting color neg.

But as I measured and posted in Post #7, Sunny 16 is a good nominal start point, but may not always work (for perfect exposure) even on the same day depending upon the time and depending upon which direction you are shooting with the sun overhead on a cloudless sky.

Look at all the photos taken over the years with box cameras that had no adjustment to shutter or aperture, yet many photos came out in spite of the inability to adjust to for clouds, etc. or even the beach.

 

[Chan Tran]

I have 2 good meters but I only use them at home. When I go out I never bring them with me. If the camera has meter I would use it. If not I just guess the exposure.