An exposure chart for your pocket!

[Keith]

As a newbie photographer ... understanding and applying the 'sunny sixteen' rule has been fun and educational. To make the process easier for me I made myself a pocket sized reference chart to slip in my camera case ... pocket ... or wherever!

When I'm out taking photographs I do use my VCII meter but I also use the chart as a reference to increase my knowledge of what it is I'm actually doing. I find I'm needing my meter less and less all the time!

The two jpegs I have attached can be printed on a 5x7 or 6x4 piece of double sided photo paper ... one image each side ... fold the finished item in half and you have a pocket sized reference chart that will be incredibly useful!

If you contact me via PM and give me your email address I will send you the jpegs directly via email. 🙂

ps ... Fred Parker was the originator of these excellent tables! http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

 

[DMG]

excellent Keith I've been meaning to do somethign similar myself.

 

[alexz]

Thanks a lot Keith for sharing - appears to be quite useful stuff.
What really hooked me about it is that just few days ago shooting my first "Leica" roll of Kodak T400CN indoors at home (my daughter's portraiture) I used my M6 internal metering coupled to my zone-system judgement (manual adjustments of metered values) and guess what ? Now checking your chart I see my exposures fit quite nicely within your EX. 4-6 EV range for ISO400 film ! Chart-suggested exposures are approx. those I used in my average indoors artificial lighting and most exposures went quite good (albeit sometimes just bit overexposed by up to half stop).
That essentially means your chart holds it value very good and is a real tool assisting to a judicious photographer.
I'll print it out and keep as my reference.

Thanks a lot, Alex

 

[kully]

Cheers Keith! I've printed out Fred's tables before but never into something as nice as this.

(http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm)

 

[Keith]

Cheers Keith! I've printed out Fred's tables before but never into something as nice as this.

(http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm)

Hi Kully,

Yes ... discovering Fred's charts was a revelation for me ... and condensing them into something like this was incredibly handy.

Hey ... you still haven't sent me a bill dude! 🙂

Keith.

 

[airds]

Try Rick's http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-43.html - already to print and cut out

 

[Solinar]

I like Keith's table better than Rick Oleson. Looking it over, both the EV and the shutter/aperture combos pretty well match those I've memorized for particular settings.

 

[Jonathan_100]

Thanks Keith. I do a lot of low light work in bars and clubs. This will help a lot.

jz

 

[POSTI-Tuomo]

Well done Keith, was just about to print out the table from Fred Parker's site... you saved a lot of trouble here. 🙂

And airds, good job finding that cutout image, will be used!

Kudos to you!

 

[markinlondon]

As this year's project is learning to live without a TTL meter this has turned up at just the right time. Thanks, Keith.

 

[wordpress]

Excellent! I had it laminated, and it's exactly what I needed!

 

[FrankS]

Thanks Keith.

You can customize this chart to include the conditions you typically find yourself shooting in. For example, you could have a "Tony's Bar" exposure listed on your chart. To get these custom readings, just take a light meter reading and record it. Then place it on the appropriate line.

I've simplified my own chart and have listed only the exsposure for 400 speed film. It is what I most commonly use, but if I happen to use 100 speed, I can quickly convert by 2 stops.

 

[rxmd]

I could have used such a chart on a recent outing to shoot the full moon. [...] These shots look to be over-exposed by many stops. Opinions?

Did you intend to shoot only the moon?

The moon is a landscape in bright sunlight and should be photographed as such (i.e. by the "sunny 16" rule exposure time = 1/film speed at f/11 or f/16). Seems counterintuitive at night, but that's how it is.

Any non-lit features on Earth will be completely dark, of course, you just get the moon disc. If you don't want that and want some Earth landscape on the frame as well, you will always overexpose the moon.

Philipp

 

[rxmd]

I'm using a slide rule from a PDF at http://rohleder.gmxhome.de/manuals/tomsk1d.pdf. Convenient, fits in your pocket, f/11, f/16 and GOST scales.

Philipp

 

[Superbus_]

Great idea, seems to me very useful. I'm going to print it!

 

[POSTI-Tuomo]

This is turning out to be a golden thread, maybe it should be stickied?
Good scales for us beginners. 😱

 

[dreilly]

I've got a Fred Parker version too that I've shared before, and I'll add it here. It's nowhere as comprehensive as Keith's table (nice work) but it can made very, very small and fits onto the back of a camera with a piece of packing tape.

 

[Ororaro]

I prefer a light meter in my pocket then a chart.

 

[FrankS]

Charts are cheaper, smaller, lighter, and don't need batteries.

 

[Ororaro]

Charts are cheaper, smaller, lighter, and don't need batteries.

Come on, one can find great mini sekonics on eBay for 5 to 10$!
They are cheap, small, light, some don't need batteries. And a thousand times more accurate. But you knew all that. Ah, and they don't rip.