sunny 16 rule

picture from : Markus Hartel street photography

I was doing a research on how to get the correct exposure for Canon ae-1 and to my luck, I found out that in photography, there is a simple method to estimate the correct daylight exposures without a light meter.


The method is known as the Sunny 16 rule or Sunny f/16 rule. 


The rule applies as follows : In bright sunlight, set the lens opening to f/16 and the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO.

In simplest word, on a bright sunny day, and you're using a camera with ISO 100 film or setting, set the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/100.

"The rule is quite easy to remember – if you’re taking a photo in bright daylight set the aperture to f/16 and set the shutter speed to be as near as possible to the same number as the film speed." - Markus Hartel

This Sunny 16 rule is really helping for an amateur like me!