Sunny 16 rule and snow

[Vince Lupo]

Bernard, I know the goal is about trying to help our friend carbo73 in this thread, so I don't wish to get into a 'who is right and who is wrong' here. I will defer to your good judgement.

As an aside, are you sure that open shade snow in your photo is a Zone IV? Looks more like VI to me, at least as it shows in the photo on my screen and comparing it to a zone chart. Not that I necessarily know what I'm talking about 🙂

 

[carbo73]

Wow, just got to supper and this thread multiplied itself 😉. I see that it's is a tricky type of exposition so maybe I could try the apps for the mobile, I think they have incident light metering.

Anyway, I liked this point of view:

And, if you think about it for one second, "sunny 16" (or whatever) is more or less incident light metering... without a meter. So your remark
just concurs with what I had stated.

And

Bernard, I know the goal is about trying to help our friend carbo73 in this thread

thanks, Vince

(and to all the others, also)

When I have those pics I could post some of them in this thread, in a month or so, I hope.

 

[raid]

I am glad that things are working out OK here.

 

[Ccoppola82]

Sorry, I was saying bump the development under cloud conditions with an understanding of metering the shadows and putting them in zone 3 or 4. I know where I live in Buffalo, we get HEAVY overcast and even with snow on the ground, sometimes extra development is needed to pump the snow into zone 8ish

 

[Richard G]

This thread derailed a little once a light meter was mentioned. The issue was how to use Sunny 16 in snow. There's more light than in a usual sunlit scene. And in overcast it's like a giant soft box. So the advice was to adjust by a stop as in close the aperture one stop on what Sunny 16 says, even in the lower overcast conditions. But then we got metering advice for snow, which is open up by two stops. That was not the OP's question. He doesn't have a light meter. Sunny 16 will never give you grey snow. That's why it and exposure tables are so useful. Incident metering will also not lead to grey snow, but it might not be as good as a straight exposure table.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Richard I think you encapsulated the initial discussion perfectly. My apologies for taking it into a different direction, although I do think that for more 'exact' exposures (as the OP hoped for in his second post), a light meter would be helpful. I like 'Sunny 16' (as I'm sure we've all put it to use), but I think it is a bit more 'finger in the wind' than a light meter, and I suggested this due to the trip he is taking (which he may possibly not have the opportunity to do again) and he wanted to ensure that his exposures were correct.

However, I like to think that we were all heading in the same general direction and that all of our advice had some degree of validity 🙂

 

[KenR]

When in doubt, on the trip of a lifetime, a small incident light meter like a Gossen Digisix is a small price to pay for the piece of mind knowing that the pictures will come out.

 

[Beemermark]

I know this. This is not confusing. It is straightforward.

Not to be demeaning, or sarcastic, but if the OP is asking these type of questions for a (maybe) once in a lifetime trip to Norway my advice is buy a nice digital camera and bracket.

 

[raid]

It is not demeaning. My comment was not to the OP. It was to the comments by someone else. I would also suggest to get a digital camera for such a trip.

 

[Deleted member 65559]

When in doubt, on the trip of a lifetime, a small incident light meter like a Gossen Digisix is a small price to pay for the piece of mind knowing that the pictures will come out.

For the price of a few beers in Norway 😉 yes indeed

 

[Richard G]

Richard I think you encapsulated the initial discussion perfectly. My apologies for taking it into a different direction, although I do think that for more 'exact' exposures (as the OP hoped for in his second post), a light meter would be helpful. I like 'Sunny 16' (as I'm sure we've all put it to use), but I think it is a bit more 'finger in the wind' than a light meter, and I suggested this due to the trip he is taking (which he may possibly not have the opportunity to do again) and he wanted to ensure that his exposures were correct.

However, I like to think that we were all heading in the same general direction and that all of our advice had some degree of validity 🙂

Dear Vince, you are indeed a gentleman. And I agree with you of course. I should have ended my post with "..for snow." I like an incident meter as the most helpful tool. It was interesting looking at the earth rise photo background video recently on youtube. Many thought that Jim Lovell's calling out "250 at f11" must have been a late light meter reading for Bill Anders shot of the earth rising above the horizon. No way. Must have been a table.