Photo Tip #6-The Sunny F/16 Rule
Learn what the “Sunny F/16” rule is and how to use it (From the wikipedia: “On a sunny day set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO/ASA or file speed.”) For example, on a sunny, cloudless day, if you’re shooting at ISO 100, set your camera to F/16 and your shutter speed to 1/100th of a second for proper exposure. Try using the F/16 rule without checking the meter in either your camera or a hand-held light meter. After you have set it manually, then allow your camera (or light meter) to meter the subject and see how close you can come by “guessing” at proper exposure.
Training yourself to shoot in manual mode, without the help of a meter (or your camera’s built-in meter) will teach you a lot about lighting and help train your eye to see various lighting conditions.
Author
interesting! :)I never heard of this F16 rule before, I'll test that out!
Author
It works, I use it all of the time.
If it's a bit cloudy, "reduce" it to f/11 or f/8 and it will works. Of course, you can adjust your aperture/shutter settings after metering if you want a different look as well.
G'luck with it.
Author
Thanks for the tip! I think I heard about this a long time ago, but forgot. I'm going to try it out the next time there's full sunlight.