Sunny !6 Users Unite!

[Tin Can]

I shot film without a meter from the 50's until I late 90's, slides, most still look fine on projector screen

Then I took a college course and the instructor mandated I buy a 35 WITH meter

He said my Pentax H1 was not good enough

I bought F70, motor drive!. Meter! AF...

Does anybody shoot ONLY with Sunny 16 any format

Even with giant format I....

make an educated calculation

[esearing]

I would fail miserably. I am usually an early morning in the woods shooter with mixed light on waterfalls. I could be anywhere from 4-7 stops off of sunny 16 and then I tend to shoot at f32 or f45. f22 and 3seconds would be normal for me.

As a coding exercise, I built a phone app that would help with an educated guess that even had sliders for reciprocity of my usual films, bellows factor, filter factor, and high/low Key adjustments. But Apple wanted too much to publish it and I needed to refine the inputs for more light conditions.

[jnantz]

I shot film without a meter from the 50's until I late 90's, slides, most still look fine on projector screen

Then I took a college course and the instructor mandated I buy a 35 WITH meter

He said my Pentax H1 was not good enough

I bought F70, motor drive!. Meter! AF...

Does anybody shoot ONLY with Sunny 16 any format

Even with giant format I....

make an educated calculation

I haven't used a meter in a long time, that goes for slide film too...
Fred Parker's website is pretty helpful for the uninitiated
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
John

[r.e.]

Then I took a college course and the instructor mandated I buy a 35 WITH meter

He said my Pentax H1 was not good enough

Most people who use dedicated video cameras (e.g. a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera) don't use a light meter, let alone Sunny 16. They not only don't own a light meter, in most cases they've never used one. While light meters have their defenders, many people see them as old school, obsolete technology.

Instead:
False Colour
Zebra Lines
Waveform Display

I think that it's just a matter of time before the same happens with still cameras. Some hybrid cameras are already starting to incorporate these exposure tools.


Matteo Bertoli, How I expose my BMPCC4K footage | False Colors Tutorial




EDIT: Changed example video.

[esearing]

I think that it's just a matter of time before the same happens with still cameras. Some hybrid cameras are already starting to incorporate these exposure tools

I'm still looking for the histogram and white balance on my 4x5. Maybe I need to upgrade models.

[r.e.]

I'm still looking for the histogram and white balance on my 4x5. Maybe I need to upgrade models.

Ha! At US$24 a sheet for 8x10 colour film, and for that matter $5.50 a sheet for 4x5 film, plus processing, not to mention my time, there are situations where I wouldn't think twice about bringing along my Blackmagic Pocket 4K (680g/1.5lb plus lens) so that I could use false colour as well as my Sekonic L758DR light meter. I take the Sekonic when I'm using the Blackmagic camera anyway, why not the other way around?

The whole point of taking along a Polaroid Back and Polaroid sheets, despite light meters, was to get the exposure (sometimes also composition) right in camera and save money and time. There are new ways to help achieve the same thing, with about the same bulk and, if you have the right camera anyway, at no cost.

[Ulophot]

I'm still looking for the histogram and white balance on my 4x5. Maybe I need to upgrade models.

Maybe that new Ghibellini has them...

[Daniel Unkefer]

I shoot 35mm Eastman Cinema film XX 5222 and +X 5231 and only use Sunny 16, although it's tough to evaluate once cloud cover moves in. If it's a repeatable situation I will add a stop or two stops and give myself a choice of negs. Has always worked for me. Use your eyeballs, not a meter

[Oren Grad]

Does anybody shoot ONLY with Sunny 16 any format

Even with giant format I....

make an educated calculation

Yeah, when I go out with a meterless 35mm camera and B&W negative film I usually just wing it - can't be bothered to fuss with a separate meter when I'm shooting on the fly. Occasionally with LF too, but only when I'm working in bright sunlight.

[r.e.]

Yeah, when I go out with a meterless 35mm camera and B&W negative film I usually just wing it - can't be bothered to fuss with a separate meter when I'm shooting on the fly. Occasionally with LF too, but only when I'm working in bright sunlight.

The camera that I most enjoy using is a 65 year old Leica M3. No meter, but I usually bring along my Sekonic for an occasional incident reading. It's a bit like putting my finger in the air to judge the wind direction.

I'm reminded of a 2004 post by a gentleman named John Cook, who had a wry sense of humour, in a thread about Zone VI spot meters. The sentence next to last has stuck with me ever since I first read this post:

In my highly opinionated opinion, some folks attempt to use the zone system to photograph scenes which are impossibly (read: poorly) lit. They go to excruciating lengths to spot-meter every square inch of the scene, making copious notes for later super-heroic development antics.

I was taught still photography in 1960's Hollywood, by old-timers who were heavily influenced by the lighting and metering techniques of cinematography. A universal right of passage was the acquisition of the ubiquitous Spectra 500 incident meter.

If you work outdoors at the same altitude and latitude, in the same weather conditions and time of day, you can make absolutely breathtaking photographs with a simple incident meter like the Sekonic L-398M Studio Deluxe II, currently available from B&H for $161. And after a few hundred sheets of film you won’t even need that.

If, on the other hand, you insist on making photographs of a white bride standing out in full July sun at high noon in Arizona, while simultaneously carrying shadow detail in a black cat hiding under a nearby parked automobile, you probably will benefit from a whole suitcase full of expensive equipment.

My short answer to your question is that you might not actually require a Zone VI spotmeter.

Link to the original post: https://www.largeformatphotography.i...ll=1#post74142