Sunny 16...

[JeffieLove]

Let's talk about this sunny 16 rule....

I have tried it a few times outside... around noon-2 in the afternoon ... Sun high in the sky and unobscured... Aperture set to 16, ISO to 100, Shutter to 1/100... All my shots come out underexposed...

Why?

 

[Dominantly]

Your camera is broke.:er:

Examples?

 

[JeffieLove]

i deleted them because they looked like poo! lol...

I will do some tomorrow...

but whenever I do it, my light meter says -2... and blinks... which means severely underexposed lol

 

[usayit]

The sunny 16 rule was more accurate in the film days... Digital cameras and their sensors are not completely accurate.

EOS 450D

Looks to me that the XSi 100 might be measured at a lower ISO across the range.

 

[Derrel]

The sunny 16 rule was more accurate in the film days... Digital cameras and their sensors are not completely accurate.

EOS 450D

Looks to me that the XSi 100 might be measured at a lower ISO across the range.

According to the DXO Mark measurements, the XSi has inaccurate ISO settings, which is a very easy way for a manufacturer to skew the noise results favorably, by mis-labelling the ISO values, and deliberately keeping the ISO levels lower than specified, as Canon does with the XSi, calling an 1165 ISO "1600", and calling an ISO 303 "400",etc. This practice of some manufacturers is according to dPreview's testing department.

Question for you JeffieLove: did the pictures look badly underexposed on the computer, or just on the back of the camera? I mean, you said they looked like "poo"; the discrepency between the XSi's real, tested ISO level and its stated ISO is not terribly bad at ISO 100.

And, the second question--why not use the light meter?

 

[Dominantly]

The sunny 16 rule was more accurate in the film days... Digital cameras and their sensors are not completely accurate.

EOS 450D

Looks to me that the XSi 100 might be measured at a lower ISO across the range.

According to the DXO Mark measurements, the XSi has inaccurate ISO settings, which is a very easy way for a manufacturer to skew the noise results favorably, by mis-labelling the ISO values, and deliberately keeping the ISO levels lower than specified, as Canon does with the XSi, calling an 1165 ISO "1600", and calling an ISO 303 "400",etc. This practice of some manufacturers is according to dPreview's testing department.

Question for you JeffieLove: did the pictures look badly underexposed on the computer, or just on the back of the camera? I mean, you said they looked like "poo"; the discrepency between the XSi's real, tested ISO level and its stated ISO is not terribly bad at ISO 100.

And, the second question--why not use the light meter?

I had mentioned the rule to her as a quick an easy way to getting your starting point when shooting on Sunny days.

Even more then the light meter, I rely on the Histogram to show me whats really going on. The LCD is useless in a sunny environment, and depending on what and how you're meter, you can still be mislead. If you just expand the view on the LCD to shot histogram after every shot, then you can see where your shots are leaning in the spectrum.

 

[IgsEMT]

Historam is nice but on Bright or Dark scenarios it'll mislead you by showing tour either Over or under. It's a good tool though to use. Don't forget to use highlight priority or "blinkies" as they r commonly called

 

[usayit]

The easiest solution is to figure out by how much your camera is under-rating the ISO specified and compensate. I use a hand-held meter a lot and before I figured this out it would drive me absolutely NUTS! I used to put a label on the camera somewhere indicating how much to compensate.

You'll have to do that for each and every camera... individually. My M8 is spot on. My Samsung/Pentax GX-1L is under. My Canon 1DMII is close enough.. I think 1/3 stop under. I need to figure out my Panasonic G1 which is still new to me. According to the DXO mark website, its over but I was under exposing yesterday... could be user error or the fact that I was shooting through glass and fencing yesterday at the zoo.


btw... one of the neat things about the G1 that I had not realized until yesterday is that the EVF can be used to examine the image just took. This means you can look at the picture and histogram through the viewfinder even on the brightest of days without even moving the camera away from your eye. Neat!

 

[JeffieLove]

So now I am curious. If your camera is 1/3 stop under dies that mean you are generally going to want to shoot with the light meter 1/3 stop to the right?

Forgive me for the idiot question. I've been awake for 10 minutes and my brain isn't quite working yet.

 

[Dao]

I think you may not really need to worry about it too much. Just use the in-camera light meter for your shots. Check the histogram(s) afterward if needed.

If the camera meter say you need EV13, just set your camera settings accordingly. i.e. ISO100, f/5.6 and 1/250.

 

[usayit]

hahaha lol. yes... Dao's suggestion is the easiest solution. My suggestion is assuming you want to use a meter other than what is internal to the cameral.

Yes... If your camera is consistently underexposing by 1 stop, then you can compensate by over exposing 1 stop over what your external meter is reporting. In my case, I would set my handheld meter to ISO 160 when my Pentax is set to ISO 200 so I don't have to figure things out in my head on the fly.

 

[JeffieLove]

Yeah dao, I haven't figured out all that ev stuf yet....

 

[Dao]

No need to worry about the EV number for now. If you use AV mode, just set your aperture, meter (I like spot meter) the area you want the camera to expose correctly, lock the value and then AF the subject and click. In normal situation, that is what I usually do.

If you use manual mode, just need to make sure the pointer of the light meter scale point to the middle when adjusting the aperture/shutter speed.

Of course, there are situations that you may need to adjust the exposure compensation (+/-) or have the pointer point to left of right.

 

[JeffieLove]

I found one that I used the sunny 16 rule for and didn't delete...

That is unedited... ISO and shutter speed at 100 and f/16...

 

[Hardrock]

I think you may not really need to worry about it too much. Just use the in-camera light meter for your shots. Check the histogram(s) afterward if needed.

If the camera meter say you need EV13, just set your camera settings accordingly. i.e. ISO100, f/5.6 and 1/250.

I totally agree with Dao forget about the sunny 16 use your in camera meter the check the histogram and lcd screen to see if it is exposed the way you want it. Someone else already mentioned it but I believe the sunny 16 was used when cameras did not have meters. The newer age cameras are pretty sophisticated and do a pretty decent job figuring exposure. Hope this helps Good luck! Oh if you havent read Understanding Exposure you may want to pick it up.