Aviation photography and the Sunny16 rule

Hey guys!

Now that I have some new gear to experiment and learn with I wanted to make more use of the manual mode on my camera. I've read all about the Sunny16 rule, in-camera metering and the likes.

I was now wondering if the Sunny16 rule is any good for aviation photography (i.e. fast moving objects) and if you guys have any other techniques for accurate metering and crisp sharp shots.

I am all about trail and error myself but since the weather is not that great, read bad, in Amsterdam spotting is not really happening any time soon. And some pointers from experts are never wasted.

Thanks in advance!

Twan

This post has been edited by Twan van Baaren on 4th December 2011 - 22:51

Hi twan,

The sunny 16 rule can be very usefull in Aviation photography, i use it a lot! I tend to over expose my rule with 1/3 mostly, and offcourse depending on the light situation, but a 1/3 overexposure of the rule gets me "exposed to the right" (histogram wise) RAW images which contain more detail than underexposed shots

And remember, weather that is bad at Amsterdam can give the breatest results, specially with fog, mist, backlight etc...:)

Regards,

Andras

Hi Andras,

Thank you for your reply! I was beginning to think that Sunny16 was not used in Aviation Photography as situations are never similar or the same for very long.

If I understand correctly you use the Sunny16 rule + overexposure by 1/3. As I am new to photography I don't really understand how to overexpose by 1/3. Do you use the e/v correction and set it to +0.3 or do you use the aperture to manually overexpose the shot by 1/3?

Sorry if this sounds stupid. Just trying to learn :P

And I currently don't bother trying to take photos when it's foggy. I am still having trouble in well lit situations :P

Thanks again for your reply!

Regards,

Twan

No question is stupid in my book :)

The sunny 16 rule usually only works in M mode. I'll give you an example:

1. ISO 100 = 1/125th and Aperture f16 (following the rule) next step would be;

2. ISO 100 = 1/250th and Aperture f11

3. ISO 100 = 1/500th and Aperture f8

4. ISO 100 = 1/1000th and aperture f5.6

Now you could overexpose with a lower shutterspeed or a smaller aperture-value. Usually you would want a higher shutterspeed to exclude motionblur (unsharpness by moving) so you choose a smaller aperture (1/3 of a stop) value to get a bit more light... (but a higher aperture value will get you less softer shots..:)

So in case of line 3, I would choose f7.1 instead of f8 (7.1 is the 1/3rd value of a stop moving from f8 to f5.6, 6.3 would be 2/3 and a full 1 stop would get you at 5.6 = which already moves the shutterspeed into 1/1000th being line 4 :)

Following this sofar?

Regards,

The increments can vary depending on the light situations. You are right that light circumstances can change when moving your lens from left to right following an a/c. It will be good thinking to examine the circumstances at various angles. The camera would make changes in Tv or Av mode which sometimes gets under or over-exposed results. But your camera metering will be overruled by your Manual setting, no matter what the reading is. Practice will get better results in time :) I hope you can get some info out of this Twan :)

Regards,

Thanks for your very clear explanation. I should have known that e/v compensation doesn't apply in M mode.

I think I get it. To overexpose and get a bit more detail (exposed to the right) and maintain the fast shutterspeed that is necessary to keep motion blur to a minimum you should open the aperture 1/3rd of a stop:

ISO 100 = 1/500th = f8 will become;

ISO 100 = 1/500th = f7.1

My new Nikon D5100 has not seen real bright sunlight in it's short lifetime so I will need some experimenting on how it behaves exposure wise.

Hi Twan,

It's not a standard given value the 1/3rd setting, sometimes it's more (or less), experiment with the basic rule settings and see what it brings you :)

Regards,

I will do that!

I guess the Sunny16 rule is more a guideline then a rule. So I will use it as a starting point and correct the exposure from there.

Regards,

Twan

I give you another example:

Camera setting: 1/640s f/7.1 at 300mm ISO100

The Sunny 16 rule would be 1/500s at f8 ISO in bright sunshine.. In this case a 1/3 increment gets you at the given settings of 1/640s at 7.1... According to the rule your camera was set a bit faster and compensating with a bigger opening... It's is set by the rule (1/640 is 1/3 of a stop faster then 1/500...do you see the comparison?)

Oh, and this setting is from your Quatar shot, which is exposed correctly :)

I would like to urge a small note of caution with this subject, the Sunny 16 Rule may be a tried and accepted method but it has a serious flaw.

One item not stated is the actual performance of the lens itself. It is no use having a perfectly exposed image if it is let down by an under performing lens, so I would urge anyone to evaluate their lens first and determine what is the most sharpest aperture on the lenses that they use and go with that.

f16 is to the upper range of most lenses performance.

It is not too difficult to find something with a bit of detail, I used a tree at a local airport, set the camera up on full manual and zoomed through the range taking shots at various apertures and f8 came out the best. (f.16 was quite soft and the lens was not a cheap one either.)

The difference in apertures, gives me three stops over f.16, which makes a big difference in low light situations.

I totally agree with you Wallace, :) This Sunny16 rule (which is a inheritance of the analog age) has it pros en cons, and for Twan it will bring practice which -if performed regularly -also gives him a good insight of the capabilities of his own equipment. The sweet spot of the lens used is absolutely an important part, thanks for pointing that out Wallace :)

Regards,

As I am not really in the position to take photos everyday and test my equipment and photographing skills on a daily basis I want to learn as much as I can for the rare times I do plan a spotting trip to AMS. So my time there is not wasted.

(It actually is never wasted because of all the beautiful planes, their awesome noise and the lovely smell of burned rubber and kerosene :P)

But it is always such a let down if you download the files to your pc and more than half is rubbish. So I'm hoping to avoid that next time by being prepared.

But on topic:

I currently own a Tamron SP70-300 VC USD lens and a Nikon D5100. I usually take my photos with an aperture between f/10 and f/8. I find that f/8 gives me the best results. Although haven't really tested it with the method Wallace described above.

With this info at hand, do I take f/8 as a starting point for the Sunny16 rule instead of f/16? Or am I getting it all wrong?

Well, you are thinking correctly, your "sharpest results" are in that range, so look for settings which get close to your sweet spot... This will take some practice. The rule is a guidline like Wallace said, so this means if you want to take some panning shots, you will probably end up at f16 at least..:) Its utopia to wanting to get all your shots at f8, it just not works that way..

But i think you will get the hang of it, you sound like you understand this theory..:) good luck and show us some results:)

Regards,