Sunny 16

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Sunny 16 is a light metering guideline that says proper exposure on a sunny day is f/16 at a shutter speed that is the reciprocal of your film speed. The exposure is reduced by one stop for sun+clouds, another for cloudy and so forth, e.g.:

Condition	Aperture
Bright sun	f16
Hazy sun +clouds	f11
Cloudy	f8
Overcast, Dull	f5.6

For example, for a film speed of 100 ISO/ASA, a speed of 1/100 or 1/125 would be selected. For 200 ISO/ASA, 1/200 or 1/250, and so on. The closest match to the speed of the film to shutter speed being desired, depending on the speeds available.

Weather Symbols

weather symbols on the shutter speed ring of a Cosmic Symbol image by AWCam (Image rights)

Sunny 16 is sometimes formalised onto a camera as weather symbols. The shutter speed and aperture controls are marked - one with the film speed and the other with sunny/cloudy (etc) symbols.

Glossary Terms