Question about exposure?

Question

Is there anyway to work out what exposure u should set without using any kind of metering system? I just bought a TLR and it doesnt have a bulit in metering system and i don't have a seperate one. I need to know what to set my shutter speed and apature to in certain lighting situations.

Answer 1

check out the two links below. they are charts to something called exposure value. a lost art in today's automatic camera world. but great if you're stuck without a light meter. basically it breaks most lighting situations down and assigns them numbers. then those numbers are used to determine f/stop and exposure based on film speed.
you can sorta do this yourself using the 'sunny 16 rule'. to get the proper exposure on a sunny day use f/16 and a reciprocal of your film speed (or the closest you can get). so if film speed is iso 400 you'd use f/16 @ 1/500. if it's not sunny then it gets complicated. lots of calculating and guessing.
exposure value makes it much easier. it lays out all the f/stop and shutter speed combos for you. once you learn to read the charts it's very easy to use.

Answer 2

On a bright sunny day....at ASA 400 the exposure is 1000th at f/8.0.
at ASA100 that would be 250th at f/8.0. This is a pretty good rule across the board...it doesn't matter if it's a SLR or TLR. When I was shooting B&W and a camera meter would fail or someone next to me would ask it always gave a pretty close exposure. As for other situations you would need to practice and learn to make educated guesses about exposure. Inside with even lighting (like an office space) it would probably be in the neighborhood of 60th at f/4.o at 400 ASA. If you are shooting outdoors in the shadows you would probably be closer to 125th at f/5.6 at 400. Now, that said, I agree with the answer to get a hand held meter. With so many people going to digital you should be able to get a good price. My Sekonic flash meter was God when it came to exposure. If it said f/11.4 I set the apeture and nailed it....within a 1/10 stop on slides. You want an incident reading meter. This will have a small white dome over the sensor. Place the dome so that is pointing towards the camera position in the same light that is falling on the subject. Take the reading and you're good.

Answer 3

The "sunny 16" rule says that on a sunny day, you should set your aperture at f/16 and your shutter speed at the value that is closest to your film speed (ISO). To have the same amount of light hit your film, when your aperture goes up 1 stop, your shutter speed goes down 1 stop and so on. This is a rule that generally works on sunny, bright days, but then again, light varies according to the season, the time of the day, your surrounding environment, and so on. Plus, in some cases, you may need to use a wide aperture (for example if you want to take portraits with a blurry background), or a fast shutter speed (if you want to freeze movement), or take pictures on a cloudy, rainy day. In addition, you are using a TLR camera, and these rules may work best on a SLR. So, if you don't want to waste too much film, I suggest you buy a separate meter: it will be worth the cost!

Answer 4

Well, the smaller the aperture and/or the faster the shutter speed the less light will be let into the camera (better for bright sun), but you're going to waste a lot of film that way. You should be able to buy a seperate light meter at your local camera shop. (Can't estimate cost, mine's built into my camera.)

Answer 5

Yes the golden rule of photographers for a sunny day; f:16 and speed closest to your ISO.
ISO 100 then f:16 @ 1/125
ISO 400 then f:16 @ 1/500

Answer 6

Get a bunch of numbers that correspond to speed and f stops and throw them into a hat. Close your eyes and pick two. How your pictures are going to come out will be as good a guess. Go get yourself a light meter PERIOD.