Skip to main content

Sunny 16 Rule

Lesson 35 from: Fundamentals of Photography

John Greengo

Sunny 16 Rule

Lesson 35 from: Fundamentals of Photography

John Greengo

most popular photo & video

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

35. Sunny 16 Rule

Summary (Generated from Transcript)

The lesson is about the Sunny 16 Rule in photography, which states that in bright, sunny conditions, the recommended exposure settings are f/16 and a shutter speed that is approximately equal to the ISO.

Q&A:

  1. What is the Sunny 16 Rule?

    The Sunny 16 Rule is a guideline in photography that suggests using an aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed equal to the ISO in bright, sunny conditions.

  2. When was the Sunny 16 Rule more relevant?

    The Sunny 16 Rule was more relevant in the past when cameras were manually operated and relied on batteries for light metering. If the batteries died, photographers could use the Sunny 16 Rule as a backup.

  3. How do you apply the Sunny 16 Rule?

    Set the ISO to the lowest native setting (e.g., 100), set the aperture to f/16, and select a shutter speed that is approximately equal to the ISO (e.g., 125 for ISO 100).

  4. What if you want to shoot with a shallow depth of field under bright sunlight?

    If you want a shallow depth of field, you will need to adjust your settings. For example, if your camera has an ISO of 200, you would need to increase the shutter speed to the closest number (e.g., 250) and decrease the aperture to achieve the desired depth of field.

  5. What if your camera does not have the exact ISO setting mentioned in the Sunny 16 Rule?

    If your camera does not have the exact ISO setting (e.g., ISO 100), you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture to compensate. However, there may be limitations depending on the available settings on your camera.

  6. Are there cameras that can go up to a shutter speed of 32,000th of a second?

    Yes, there are some mirrorless cameras that can go up to a shutter speed of 32,000th of a second. Although this is rare, it can be useful for exposure control in situations where shooting in bright sunlight with a shallow depth of field is desired.

Next Lesson: Exposure Bracketing

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

23:32
2

Photographic Characteristics

06:46
3

Camera Types

03:03
4

Viewing System

22:09
5

Lens System

24:38
6

Shutter System

12:56
7

Shutter Speed Basics

10:16
8

Shutter Speed Effects

31:57
9

Camera & Lens Stabilization

11:06
10

Quiz: Shutter Speeds

07:55
11

Camera Settings Overview

16:12
12

Drive Mode & Buffer

04:24
13

Camera Settings - Details

10:21
14

Sensor Size: Basics

18:26
15

Sensor Sizes: Compared

24:52
16

The Sensor - Pixels

22:49
17

Sensor Size - ISO

26:59
18

Focal Length

11:36
19

Angle of View

31:29
20

Practicing Angle of View

04:59
21

Quiz: Focal Length

08:15
22

Fisheye Lens

12:32
23

Tilt & Shift Lens

20:37
24

Subject Zone

13:16
25

Lens Speed

09:03
26

Aperture

08:25
27

Depth of Field (DOF)

21:46
28

Quiz: Apertures

08:22
29

Lens Quality

07:06
30

Light Meter Basics

09:04
31

Histogram

11:48
32

Quiz: Histogram

09:07
33

Dynamic Range

07:25
34

Exposure Modes

35:15
35

Sunny 16 Rule

04:31
36

Exposure Bracketing

08:08
37

Exposure Values

20:01
38

Quiz: Exposure

20:44
39

Focusing Basics

13:08
40

Auto Focus (AF)

24:39
41

Focus Points

17:18
42

Focus Tracking

19:26
43

Focusing Q&A

06:40
44

Manual Focus

07:14
45

Digital Focus Assistance

07:35
46

Shutter Speeds & Depth of Field (DOF)

05:18
47

Quiz: Depth of Field

15:54
48

DOF Preview & Focusing Screens

04:55
49

Lens Sharpness

11:08
50

Camera Movement

11:29
51

Advanced Techniques

15:15
52

Quiz: Hyperfocal Distance

07:14
53

Auto Focus Calibration

05:15
54

Focus Stacking

07:58
55

Quiz: Focus Problems

18:54
56

Camera Accessories

32:41
57

Lens Accessories

29:24
58

Lens Adaptors & Cleaning

13:14
59

Macro

13:02
60

Flash & Lighting

04:47
61

Tripods

14:13
62

Cases

06:07
63

Being a Photographer

11:29
64

Natural Light: Direct Sunlight

28:37
65

Natural Light: Indirect Sunlight

15:57
66

Natural Light: Mixed

04:20
67

Twilight: Sunrise & Sunset Light

22:21
68

Cloud & Color Pop: Sunrise & Sunset Light

06:40
69

Silhouette & Starburst: Sunrise & Sunset Light

07:28
70

Golden Hour: Sunrise & Sunset Light

07:52
71

Quiz: Lighting

05:42
72

Light Management

10:46
73

Flash Fundamentals

12:06
74

Speedlights

04:12
75

Built-In & Add-On Flash

10:47
76

Off-Camera Flash

25:48
77

Off-Camera Flash For Portraits

15:36
78

Advanced Flash Techniques

08:22
79

Editing Assessments & Goals

08:57
80

Editing Set-Up

06:59
81

Importing Images

03:59
82

Organizing Your Images

32:41
83

Culling Images

13:57
84

Categories of Development

30:59
85

Adjusting Exposure

08:03
86

Remove Distractions

04:02
87

Cropping Your Images

09:53
88

Composition Basics

26:36
89

Point of View

28:56
90

Angle of View

14:35
91

Subject Placement

23:22
92

Framing Your Shot

07:27
93

Foreground & Background & Scale

03:51
94

Rule of Odds

05:00
95

Bad Composition

07:31
96

Multi-Shot Techniques

19:08
97

Pixel Shift, Time Lapse, Selective Cloning & Noise Reduction

12:24
98

Human Vision vs The Camera

23:32
99

Visual Perception

10:43
100

Quiz: Visual Balance

14:05
101

Visual Drama

16:45
102

Elements of Design

09:24
103

Texture & Negative Space

03:57
104

Black & White & Color

10:33
105

The Photographic Process

09:08
106

Working the Shot

25:29
107

What Makes a Great Photograph?

07:01

Lesson Info

Sunny 16 Rule

Alright, so this whole section we've been talking about exposure, and there's a couple of kind of special exposure concepts I wanna talk about. First is one of the basic rules that I've learned, which was the Sunny 16 Rule. This is just, it's not really even necessary these days. It was kind of necessary back in the days when I had a manually battery-operated camera. And if the batteries ever died, what would my exposure be when my light meter doesn't work. And now, well, you're not gonna be able to take pictures if your camera doesn't have battery. But just the concept of it, I think, is still relevant and good to know. And so the Sunny 16 Rule states that if you are in full sun, the exposure is f/ and a shutter speed that is about equal to your ISO. So let's walk this through and see what this looks like in the real world. Alright! It is a sunny day, and we wanna get a photograph at f/16. We want lots of depth of field, so this is a perfect example of a Sunny 16 situation. So, the fi...

rst thing that we probably wanna do in a situation like this is set our ISO to the lowest native setting on our ISO, which would be 100. Now, it is the Sunny 16 Rule, so we set an aperture of f/16, and we set a shutter speed that is as close to the ISO number as we can get. So since we have 100 selected, we would select 125. And I know on some cameras you can actually select 100, and that would be fine, but we're just going with those whole numbers for examples in this class. And so do that and you're gonna get a perfect exposure in bright, sunny weather, assuming there's no clouds, and it's not smokey, or some other situation. Like "It's a sunny day, but I was inside. "Why did I get bad exposures?" Alright, so it's under bright, sunny light. Now, that all works well and good, but what if you don't want to shoot at f/16? Okay, what if you wanna shoot with shallow depth of field under bright, sunny light? Well, you're just gonna need to do some horse trading, trading some shutter speeds for some apertures. Alright, so let's just get our numbers set up here. We'll go ahead and set our ISO of 100. We'll do f/16 just to get our numbers set right, and of course a shutter speed of for proper exposure in bright sunlight. But we wanna shoot with shallow depth of field so the background is out of focus. And so in this case, there are some cameras out there, including cameras that I own, that do not have an ISO of 100. Alright, does anybody have a camera like that? There's some cameras out there that have a native ISO of 200, alright. And so in this case, we're wanting to get shallow depth of field with a camera that has an ISO of 200. So what we're gonna have to do is go up to a shutter speed of 250, cause that's the closest number we have to 200. We're keeping our aperture at f/16, but now we're gonna want to make some changes so that we can get to shallow depth of field. And so let's go all the way down to 1.4. And what you wanna do is here, you can count up how many stops of light did we move. And when we count from 16 down to 11, one, two, three, four, five, six, we moved the aperture seven stops of light. We're letting in seven more stops of light, which means we need to close somethin' else down, let in seven stops less light. And how are we gonna do that? Well, we have alotta room to move in the shutter speed. And so we can go faster on the shutter speed up to 8,000th of a second, but that is, unfortunately, only five stops. And so we can't really do it, because we're gonna be two stops overexposed. We need to close down to something that doesn't exist. But it does exist on some cameras that'll actually go up to 32,000th of a second. It's very rare that this happens, but there's a few cameras out there that'll go up to 32,000th of a second. And there's really nothing that I can point to that you need a 32,000th of a second for in motion-stopping capabilities. But for exposure control, which is what we're talking about here, it can be valuable for people who wanna shoot in bright sunlight with a shallow depth of field, sometimes slightly handicapped by that ISO 200. So that's why there's a few of these mirrorless cameras that can go up to 32,000th of a second.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Fundamentals of Photography Class Outline
Learning Projects Workbook
Camera Keynote PDF
Sensor Keynote PDF
Lens Keynote PDF
Exposure Keynote PDF
Focus Keynote PDF
Gadgets Keynote PDF
Lighting Keynote PDF
Editing Keynote PDF
Composition Keynote PDF
Photographic Vision Keynote PDF

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.

Eve
 

I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!

JUAN SOL
 

Dear John, thanks for this outstanding classes. You are not only a great photographer and instructor, but your classes are pleasant, they are not boring, with a good sense of humor, they go straight to the point and have a good time listening to you. Please, keep teaching what you like most, and I will continue to look for your classes. And thanks for using a plain English, that it's important for people who has another language as native language. Thanks again, Juan

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES