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

[Cholentpot]

You guys should get a room.

And you can have a chair.

 

[Sirius Glass]

And you can have a chair.

No thank you.

 

[wiltw]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

 

[Chan Tran]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

I would rather not use a smartphone as meter. I much rather guess.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

I would rather not use a smartphone as meter. I much rather guess.

+1

 

[Cholentpot]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

The smartphone apps never worked for me.

 

[wiltw]

The smartphone apps never worked for me.

I just picked a free one at random to install...its reading matches my Minolta Spotmeter, both aimed at 18% grey card.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I just picked a free one at random to install...its reading matches my Minolta Spotmeter, both aimed at 18% grey card.

I know that this is a bit radical, but I use my cell phone for telephone calls. Remember they came before texting.

 

[Cholentpot]

I just picked a free one at random to install...its reading matches my Minolta Spotmeter, both aimed at 18% grey card.

Min telling me which one? I've used a half dozen across a few phones and they've never played ball.

 

[wiltw]

I know that this is a bit radical, but I use my cell phone for telephone calls. Remember they came before texting.

I use it for that old fashioned stuff, too!
I also use it to summon Uber, navigate around strange new locations, check on flights departing/.landing at an airport, and even finding where I last parked when I have forgotten which row! And find something to eat. And find the cheapest gasoline. And it even finds public restrooms, even in foreign cities.

 

[wiltw]

Min telling me which one? I've used a half dozen across a few phones and they've never played ball.

Light Meter - Free, by WBPhoto

 

[Cholentpot]

Light Meter - Free, by WBPhoto

Thanks

I use it for that old fashioned stuff, too!
I also use it to summon Uber, navigate around strange new locations, check on flights departing/.landing at an airport, and even finding where I last parked when I have forgotten which row! And find something to eat. And find the cheapest gasoline. And it even finds public restrooms, even in foreign cities.

I use Instagram as a photo notebook. I take a photo of the camera, list the film and date loaded and then when I finish I add the date when I finished. It's a great reference for when I develop and scan.

 

[faberryman]

Thanks



I use Instagram as a photo notebook. I take a photo of the camera, list the film and date loaded and then when I finish I add the date when I finished. It's a great reference for when I develop and scan.

It is interesting to me that you go through all that rigamarole with your phone and the internet, and yet don’t use a light meter.

 

[Agulliver]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

I do have a couple of light meter apps on my phone and have used them....but it's actually a bit of a hassle to get the phone out, use my fingerprint or draw a pattern to unlock it....open the light meter app....etc. So I use it more to back up my own estimates when lighting conditions aren't too bright rather than as a default method.

Yes, it works 80% of the time. And is probably never more than one stop out compared to a proper meter. But it is a bit of a hassle using it. same reason I have a micro cassette recorder at work, far less hassle making voice notes than my phone. And easier to navigate the recordings on playback.

 

[Cholentpot]

It is interesting to me that you go through all that rigamarole with your phone and the internet, and yet don’t use a light meter.

Because none of these meters have worked with either of my smart phones. Maybe I've had bad luck, maybe the models of phones I get are incompatible, maybe there's a global conspiracy against me to specifically target my exact phone. Whatever the reason, app based light meters glitch out on me and plain don't work at all.

I'll delete the half dozen I have and start over and try again for the umpteenth time to get a working meter on my phone.

And update, my phone crashed.

 

[faberryman]

Because none of these meters have worked with either of my smart phones. Maybe I've had bad luck, maybe the models of phones I get are incompatible, maybe there's a global conspiracy against me to specifically target my exact phone. Whatever the reason, app based light meters glitch out on me and plain don't work at all.

I'll delete the half dozen I have and start over and try again for the umpteenth time to get a working meter on my phone.

And update, my phone crashed.

I have had an incident meter and a spot meter since before only Captain Kirk had a cellphone, so I don’t use an app with my cellphone as a light meter, mostly because my cellphone is shall we say an earlier model, and the battery only lasts about an hour, and I need to reserve the battery life in case I have to call in the forest rescue team if I fall off a cliff or something. I did try an app once and it seemed pretty accurate. I don’t remember the name of the app.

I would probably use Sunny 16 before a cellphone app just on principle, though I couldn’t say what exactly that principle is. I just know If I were taking a light reading using a cellphone app, I’d probably check my email while I was at it, and forget what I was going to take a picture of.

 

[Cholentpot]

I have had an incident meter and a spot meter since before only Captain Kirk had a cellphone, so I don’t use an app with my cellphone as a light meter, mostly because my cellphone is shall we say an earlier model, and the battery only lasts about an hour, and I need to reserve the battery life in case I have to call in the forest rescue team if I fall off a cliff or something. I did try an app once and it seemed pretty accurate. I don’t remember the name of the app.

I would probably use Sunny 16 before a cellphone app just on principle, though I couldn’t say what exactly that principle is. I just know If I were taking a light reading using a cellphone app, I’d probably check my email while I was at it, and forget what I was going to take a picture of.

I really only need a lightmeter when I'm working with lights. I've been keeping an eye out for one, however being a Guesstimate kind of fella I'm not really up to snuff on what to look for.

 

[pbromaghin]

I do use it, but not very well.

 

[Peltigera]

I see a number of 'I use Sunny 16 if I don't have a working meter...'
Do folks realize that when you have a smartphone, all you need to do is install a lightmeter app?

It is one more thing to be holding and it does not have a strap so very vulnerable to being dropped. I drop enough things as it is.

 

[faberryman]

I really only need a lightmeter when I'm working with lights. I've been keeping an eye out for one, however being a Guesstimate kind of fella I'm not really up to snuff on what to look for.

I use a Sekonic L-308 as an incident meter and a flash meter. It is lightweight and fits in your shirt pocket.

 

[Cholentpot]

I use a Sekonic L-308 as an incident meter and a flash meter. It fits in your shirt pocket.

Thanks, now I need to find one at a price that won't scare me.

 

[radiant]

I don't use because Sunny 16 conditions are totally rare in Finland

But I'm pretty sure my iPhone app (lumu) is much more accurate than any guessing games..

 

[wiltw]

Because none of these meters have worked with either of my smart phones. Maybe I've had bad luck, maybe the models of phones I get are incompatible, maybe there's a global conspiracy against me to specifically target my exact phone. Whatever the reason, app based light meters glitch out on me and plain don't work at all.

I'll delete the half dozen I have and start over and try again for the umpteenth time to get a working meter on my phone.

And update, my phone crashed.

I have found that many/most lightmeter app for smartphones have no means of calibration. The program which I randomly chose, and which I provided to you, has a calibration adjustment, which I did use to make it match my Minolta Spotmeter. Otherwise I don't know what programmers assume about sensitity of random smartphone sensors, which is probably where the errors begin for most programs.

 

[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....

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.

.

I just did another set of readings with Minolta Autometer Vf incident meter, on a bright sunny cloudless sky at 1:30pm at Latitude 38
Readings varied by angle, with meter held perpendicular to the ground as if 'aimed at the camera lens'... f/8 +0.8EV to f/11 +0.7EV

 

[foc]

I use a Sekonic L-308 as an incident meter and a flash meter.

+1
I have used the L308B as an incident meter for 20+ years, in the studio and on location, and never had a problem. Highly recommended.