Experience with Sunny 16

[Leigh B]

Sunny 16 was devised in an era when smog and haze were not major problems.

I always start a session with an incident light reading, then adjust as needed for the subject and changing conditions.

- Leigh

[Sirius Glass]

Sunny 16 was devised in an era when smog and haze were not major problems.

I always start a session with an incident light reading, then adjust as needed for the subject and changing conditions.

- Leigh

I liked it better when the air was clean and words were dirty.

[Stephen Benskin]

I use sunny 16 to keep me "grounded".

I always compare my meter readings with sunny 16 - that way I'm likely to catch the sort of errors that slavish reliance on machines can lead to.

Interesting fact: Calibration of the exposure meter is based on Sunny 16.

[MattKing]

Interesting fact: Calibration of the exposure meter is based on Sunny 16.

Yes, but the setting of the meter (primarily EI) is subject to human error.

Choosing what to point the meter at is subject to human error.

Actually reading and interpreting what the meter says is subject to human error.

And meters do malfunction sometimes.

[Stephen Benskin]

Everything humans are associate with is subject to human error.

[DSkjaeve]

Sunny 16 and a meter in jacket pocket to occasionally see if I'm on the right track.

[RalphLambrecht]

i hope the sun is also calibrated to sunny 16 ,oe,e are in...

[thegman]

I have found with negative film, Sunny 16 is perfect, and my exposures turned out fine. It's gets harder the darker it gets in my opinion. In broad daylight, I find it very effective. I'm in London, and I did the same in Hawaii, results were just as good.

[Bill Burk]

i hope the sun is also calibrated to sunny 16 ,oe,e are in...

Ha good one Ralph!

And the change in 1960, did it have anything to do with space?

I bet scientists at NASA were anxious to get the negatives developed from the walk on the moon to verify if the sunny 16 rule applied there too.

[Leigh B]

i hope the sun is also calibrated to sunny 16 ,oe,e are in...

The "Solar Constant" bears that name for a reason. The sun's energy output is quite uniform.

The f/16 correlation should be accurate at mid latitudes for subjects illuminated by direct sunlight
without intervening attenuation, like high clouds, haze, smog, etc, and without abnormally high
ground-level reflectivity (sand, water, etc)..

- Leigh