When I studied photography, many, many years ago, we were taught "if in doubt, bracket. Film is cheap, client's time is not".
Couple days ago the sun went sunny 11 on me. It's back to sunny 16 now. I don't know what happened. There was no cloud or anything like that that day.
Don't see why higher altitudes should read less light intensity but all my 'sunny 18' readings were taken at ground level.
Smog?
My post mentioned only latitude, not altitude. Perhaps you meant to reply to @Craig?Don't see why higher altitudes should read less light intensity but all my 'sunny 18' readings were taken at ground level.
My post mentioned only latitude, not altitude. Perhaps you meant to reply to @Craig?
I do agree with you -- if anything, I would guess there would be more light at higher elevations, not less. Presumably, the atmosphere itself -- or water vapor, dust, pollutants, etc. which are suspended in the atmosphere -- do block or scatter some light before it reaches the surface.
Here in southern Missouri, our elevation is only about 1100 ft (335 meters) above sea level, so altitude is probably not having much effect. But I am a little surprised that my few meter readings taken here at slightly above 37* N latitude seem to agree more with those reported from above 50* latitude.
Then again, when trying to apply the Sunny 16 in the real world, oftentimes one must start with an approximation. For example, I often shoot ISO 400 film, but none of my cameras offer a shutter speed of 1/400. Then there are all the "ifs, ands, and buts" with reguard to the time of day, the season, the latitude, degree of haze, etc. So no point in try to be too precise about it.
If at all possible, it saves me time and effort to just use my hand-held light meter and take an incident reading. And if my incident meter quits, then I can pull out my smart phone and take a reflected reading using a light meter app. Only if my smart phone also quits, will I ever consider using Sunny 16, or more specifically, Sunny 11, for me.
Yes, all true. I suppose if I practiced enough, all the necessary mental calculations would become easier -- possibly even second nature. But lacking that familiarity, these mental gymnastics get in the way and turn a fun activity (taking photos) into a chore.If you shoot ISO 400 you don't have to shoot f/16@1/400. You can use any combinations of aperture and shutter speed that is EV 16 and 1/3. While you shutter speed is only in full stop you can set the aperture between stops can't you? For example with ISO400 film you can do 1/1000 and f/10 which is 1/3 stop larger than f/11.
Yes, all true. I suppose if I practiced enough, all the necessary mental calculations would become easier -- possibly even second nature. But lacking that familiarity, these mental gymnastics get in the way and turn a fun activity (taking photos) into a chore.
For example, if the correct exposure is 1/400 sec at f/16, then what aperture gives the same exposure at 1/500 sec? The solution is not immediately clear to me.
In your example, you say, "with ISO400 film you can do 1/1000 and f/10 which is 1/3 stop larger than f/11" but how did you get from "1/400th sec at f/16" to "1/1000th at f/10"?
There was a brief period in my life when I could solve a quadratic equation with a pencil and paper. But once I discovered how do it with my scientific calculator, I did not see any virtue in continuing to do it the hard way. (Today, I've forgotten how to work the calculator, but one needs to solve a quadratic equation so rarely these days... ;-)
I hope I may be forgiven for any moral weakness if I just take the easy way out (for me) and resort to using one of my light meters. I realize this strategy leaves me hopelessly unprepared for the zombie apocalypse during which time batteries may become unavailable. But by then, I expect we will have other concerns more demanding of our attention than taking photos and solving quadratic equations.
I wonder how many advocates of "sunny 11" are also advocates of Zone System based film exposure determinations?
That pesky 2/3 of a stop .......
I think "sunny 11" or "sunny 16" advocates don't use the Zone system. But I may be wrong but my reasons are.
1. The "Sunny 16" rule is based on illuminance that is incident light falling on the subject. The Zone system based on luminance which is light reflected off the subject.
2. The "Sunny 16" is used because one doesn't use a meter and you must have a meter for the Zone system.
I checked again today and with nine(9 d)! different meters I get in Cologne,Germany at high noon exactly EV 15.0; remarkable.
I don't use the zone system. I went through all the gymnastics of determining an exposure, placing values etc etc and I found that I came to the exact same shutter speed/aperture that my Nikon set to matrix metering suggested.I wonder how many advocates of "sunny 11" are also advocates of Zone System based film exposure determinations?
That pesky 2/3 of a stop .......
There is much more atmosphere for the light to pass though at sea level. Humidity will play a role too, that acts like a giant softbox to diffuse and weaken the light intensity. If I'm at 2000m elevation, there is much less atmosphere to filter the light though.Don't see why higher altitudes should read less light intensity but all my 'sunny 18' readings were taken at ground level.
With TTL metering even a small gray card is workable as is light skinned hand.
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