Quick post today about the “Sunny 16 Rule” . . .

Another rule of thumb that is often quoted is the “Sunny 16” rule which says that on a sunny day and with your aperture at f/16 your shutter speed should be the reciprocal of your ISO.

So 1/100 at ISO-100, 1/200 at ISO-200 etc.

This is a good rule when shooting manual exposure which you can then work away from using the exposure triangle. For example if it is a sunny day you now know that a good exposure can be obtained by;

Aperture: f/16
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/100

But if you want a much shallower DoF, say f/4, that’s 4 stops MORE light (f/16 – f/11 – f/8 – f/5.6 – f/4) so you can speed up the shutter by the same four stops to give you;

Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/1600 (1/100 – 1/200 – 1/400 – 1/800 – 1/1600)

To give you the same well exposed shot but with the DoF that you want – simples!