bestphotolessons

If you need a quick way to set exposure outside on a sunny day, you can use the Sunny 16 rule. This is good if you are using a really old camera with no meter, or are shooting a difficult picture that is white on white or black on black.

Set the shutter speed to the equivalent to to the ISO setting (either film or digital) and the aperture to f16.

If your ISO is set at 100 - then set your shutter speed to the nearest available speed. On my Canon - which does 1/3 of a stop at a time - there is a 1/100th of a second shutter speed which I used for the photo below. Some cameras use 1/2 stops and many older cameras do whole stops. Just go to the nearest shutter speed.

If the sun is behind the subject, you can try opening up two stops to f8. If in shade, you might try opening up by three or four stops.

Also check out this cool Exposure Calculator.