The Sunny F/16 Rule.... Explained!

I think the name for this method of photography is a bit misleading or sounds too restrictive. It's not a 'rule' as such, but more a guide to help you get the right exposure settings quickly when you perhaps don't have time to play around or use a light meter. 

The joy of this rule is that you don't just have to use it for sunny situations, it will also help you expose on a cloudy day. And, more importantly, if you get a correct exposure, there's less editing required after, trying to make up for lost detail.

So, the rule is, on a sunny day, with a front lit subject, set your aperture to F/16 and then set your shutter speed to the reciprocal of your ISO. 

F/16 ISO 100 Shutter Speed 1/100 second

or

F/16 ISO 200 Shutter Speed 1/200 second

F/16 ISO 400 Shutter Speed 1/400 second

(as you can see from the photo's below the exposure is the same despite the different settings because when you change the ISO, you adjust the shutter speed to compensate. Left is ISO 100, then ISO 200 and finally ISO 400)

If you need to shoot on a cloudy day or you want to adjust your depth of field, you can change the aperture but you have to change the shutter speed to compensate. For example;

On a cloudy day or a if a shallow depth of field is needed, if you changed your aperture to 

F/4 ISO 100, you would need to change your shutter speed to 1/1600 second and you can do this for settings anywhere inbetween. This is because, with this example, the aperture has changed by 4 full stops, so the shutter speed needs changing by 4 full stops as well. 

****Note at this point that some camera's are calibrated in third stops. So three clicks of the wheel on your camera will equate to one full stop.****

The image to the left is F/11 ISO 100 Shutter Speed 1/200. So, I have changed the aperture from F/16 by one full stop, therefore I need to change the shutter speed by one full stop from 1/100 to 1/200.

The image to the right is F/8 ISO 100 Shutter Speed 1/400. This time the settings have been changed by two full stops yet as you can see with both images, the exposure is the same.

Here is a guide for the settings in any weather condition which I hope you find useful:

Snow or Sand: F/22 

Sunny: F/16 

Slightly overcast: F/11 

Overcast: F/8 

Heavy overcast: F/5.6 

Open shade or sunset: F/4 

I hope this blog has helped you understand the rule a little better. Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you think or if you found it helpful. Now go and practise! It's an invaluable tool to have as a photographer as I have learnt in only a matter of weeks.

Millie's 1st Birthday

Decided to practise my portraits, kinda, by capturing my gorgeous niece's first birthday party. I'm definitely more of a 'documentary' photographer in that sense but I'm getting used to asking people to pose for me! Baby steps all the way, for me and for Millie! 

Food photos first!

Birthday girl in her gorgeous outfit and pushing her pram from Pops and Gaga!

Girls playing hide and seek

 

Stick a fork in me, I'm done! ;)

Millie and Mummy!

Daddy and cuddles with Opa

 

Millie enjoyed being pushed in her pram rather than pushing it herself! 

A select few out of the very many I took but I was able to put some of my newly learnt photography skills to the test. Like the 'Sunny F/16 Rule', which I'll cover in a post in a few weeks time (when there has been some more sun again!). 

Metering

Whilst I am on this course and learning, I thought I might as well pass on some of my newly gained knowledge. This module is about exposure and metering, and how to calculate the right settings. So that's what you're being treated to today, albeit a much shorter, less technical version!

There are different types of metering that you can use to get the correct exposure. I will explain them briefly here:

Average Reflective Metering

This is where the meter measures the light reflecting off the subject and gives an average reading, which gives the image a mid-tone. The meter will take into account the highlights, mid tones and shadows and give an average of them all. (This sort of metering can also be found integrated in DSLRs). This form of metering is better when there is a good mix of tonal ranges, and not so good for images where the scene has more highlights or more shadows.

Incident Metering

Incident metering is a type of metering that measures the light falling on to the subject. This is a very effective form of metering if you are, for example, shooting with snow. You can use a grey card to take a reading for this sort of metering as long as you ensure you hold the grey card up to the subject and angle it so that the light is falling on it the same as it is the subject or you can use a handheld incident meter.

Spot Metering

With this light meter, an area of the scene is selected and used as the basis for the whole scene and when using a spot meter it is normal practise to take several readings at different points to get the correct exposure. This metering is also another form of reflective metering and whilst very accurate due to taking several readings, it takes practise to master. 

18% Grey card

Camera's have in-built reflective light meters and therefore, any scene it looks at, it assumes are a mid range of 18% grey. This poses a problem if you are in snowy conditions where there are predominantly lots of highlights, as the integrated light meter in the camera will give you a reading based on the highlights but assuming the highlights are 18% grey. So if you follow the meter on the camera, you will get an underexposed image. Similarly, in very shadowy conditions, the reading you get will mean you overexpose the image. Therefore a grey card should be used to calculate the correct exposure. The '18%' refers to the reflective quality of the card and you need to hold the grey card at the same angle as the light falling on the subject to get the reading.

Palm Metering

An excellent string to your bow if you know about palm metering because you literally have it to hand in any given situation, seeing as your palm is attached to your arm! It is similar to grey card metering but you must remember to increase the exposure by one stop (more or less, depending on if you have fairer or darker skin) to compensate for the difference in brightness between your palm and the grey card. And again, you need to angle your palm so that that the light falling on it is the same as the light falling on your subject.

So there you have it! A crash course in the different types of metering to help you get the correct exposure in as little takes as possible.

As part of this learning curve, I was also asked to calculate the dynamic range of my camera* (from darkest to brightest recording of object). Once you know the dynamic range of your camera, you can use this to correctly judge what exposure you will require for your scene but assessing the highlights and shadows and thinking about how much or how little detail you want to keep in the image. After taking lots of images, I was able to see how many 'zones' my camera has and what it's dynamic range is. From that, I was then able to make this I had to come up with a zone ruler which I can now use to help me with future work; I know the settings for the zones below and can use this knowledge when assessing my subject.

*Just FYI, my camera has a dynamic range of 10 and the human eye has a dynamic range of 15!

I hope you have found this post useful. As always, would love to hear your thoughts on it, or suggestions. :-)

The Photography Institute

So yesterday I showed you some V images I took about a year ago, well here are some more recent ones...... I've recently embarked on a new photography course with The Photography Institute (hence the lack of blog updates lately!!!) so my posts for the foreseeable future will be the work I have submitted as part of the course. First up, here are the 3 images I shortlisted to submit. You can chose whatever you want to take a photo of but using techniques learnt. Always keen to get my 'V' in, I decided to take photos of him for assignment 2 (first module did not require a submission); we had to find an object of any kind around the house and think of a 'different' way to photograph it. 

This was the image I decided to submit, the following two are the other ones I was considering. I decided on this one because I liked the 'mood' of it most. I like it being dark and mysterious, I love the warmth of the photo after using a red backdrop and I love the reflection in the glass (which was what was at the forefront of my mind when initially thinking about the photo). I got 8/10 for my overall assignment score which I'm very proud of. Would love anyone and everyone's thoughts on the images! Which is your favourite?

V is Watching You

When I watched 'V for Vendetta' for the first time (years ago) I liked it and disliked it all at the same time. The character V was a figure I really related to. Someone at a loss with the current political system and it's flaws and corruption. But, on the other hand, was scared by how similar the story was to the way government is run nowadays. I had, at the time, discussed with my boyfriend about where we might find some V masks that we could use to take photos with and then, low and behold, a group beat me to it! But have no fear, as soon as I saw you could buy them, I had two on order! Now V is Watching You. So, a post that may divide opinion I suppose. My love for the mask, others hate for what it represents. Still, thats what art is all about, right?! Here are a few images I took about a year ago, tomorrow, I will share my first submission for my new photography course. :)

Portraits!

I'll be honest, I am not massively confident with portraits. Give me a point and shoot camera at a party and I'll happily snap away but I suppose much like people being put off by seeing an SLR thrust upon them, I am equally put off at the doing the thrusting of said SLR! I'm much more comfortable in my own little bubble, doing my own little thing! Anyway, you never get anywhere if you don't take yourself out of your comfort zone. As my mum says, face the fear and do it anyway!





 Here are some attempts at me doing portraits about a year ago, be warned, they are not at all good! I always felt like I didn't know how to direct my subjects or get the angles I wanted but have been practising and have learnt a lot so I think you'll be able to see the improvement with my most recent shots!

And here are some of my more recent shots. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Light trails

I really love long exposure shots and I have missed doing them! I love all the different effects you can create from doing them, the different moods you can impart on an image by using long exposure, the colours, the lines, love it all! There's a flyover near my house that I've had my eye on and with the long nights nearly behind us (we hope), there's not much time left! So here are a few of the shots from other night!

 And playing around with temperature settings on the camera...

New Logo!

So you may have noticed I have a new logo! What do you think?! It was designed for me by my friends husband so thank you very much Matt! 

I have changed it slightly this week in aid of comic relief. And luckily due to the simplicity of the design I will be able to change the colour in aid of, well, anything really! Hope you like it and be sure to keep checking in on me here so you can see the various different colours I will be using on my logo to highlight causes I feel strongly about! 

Night life around London

Went out a few weeks ago with my photo buddy Keith around London to catch it at night. It was pretty cold and very wet but it was fun and actually the wet added to the feel of the night because the lights all reflected in the puddles and raindrops. Here's a few that made the final cut!