Going meterless on film?

[silkyfeet]

i own a nikon f apollo, om1n and rz67. i got to a point where i could read light extremely well but then came the the sekonic 558 and ive become this insecure reader of light. so so weird. for me the sekonic has been a crippling tool. its important some thing like flash ratios etc.

 

[Bike Tourist]

I metered carefully when I shot transparencies. When I occasionally switched negative film the latitude was so great I didn't meter. Like being on vacation! I've never tried it with digital but it could be fun to try.

 

[olifaunt]

I just do this, from the Kodak Portra Technical data sheet http://imaging.kodakalaris.com/sites/prod/files/files/products/e4050_portra_400.pdf, except I usually add a stop of extra exposure for insurance (so in sun I'll do F8 1/1000). I do the same same for Trix. but I also judge by vision for shadows and clouds, backlit subjects, etc. I always wear sunglasses in daytime, so I have learned to judge light with those particular sunglasses. If I ever lose them, I'll have to learn light over again.

Bright or Hazy Sun on Light Sand or
Snow
1/500
f/16
Bright or Hazy Sun (Distinct
Shadows)
1/500
f/11*
Weak, Hazy Sun
(Soft Shadows)
1/500
f/8
Cloudy Bright
(No Shadows)
1/500
f/5.6
Heavy Overcast or Open Shade‡ 1/500
f/4

 

[David Hughes]

The trouble with these simple charts is that they rely on the latitude of the film to fudge the issue. If you look at the (?) Victorian grand father of the "Sunny 16" rule you'll find it talks about bright sunlight in June. And June's daylight is not the same as December's, as we all might just have noticed.

The rule then was to use the reciprocal of the H&D speed at f/8. I'd like to track the papers down but it's complicated. In October 1937 a magazine published an article about H&D speeds and a reader wrote in quoting a RPS paper of 1920 that was a reprint of something else but he (the reader) quoted the (?) RPS's "Sunny f/8" rule and that's all I know.

FWIW you can use the sunny 16 rule in May, June and July and amend it to sunny f8 in November, December and January. The rest of the time use f/11 but that's just my version of it but it's based on everything I've seen about exposure without a meter including versions by Zeiss, Leica, Kodak, FED, Welcome, Johnson's and so on. This is not a popular opinion, btw...

Regards, David