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The Sunny 16 Rule (and Other Useful Suggestions)

Unicycle, Rome, 2009, photograph by Angela Kleis

Back in the olden days, portraits took a long time since they had to be carved in stone.  Then, cameras were invented.  It's hard to believe these primitive cameras used an archaic medium called film, and there was no "auto" setting, so exposure had to be set by hand.  Thank goodness we left the dark ages for digital cameras and their on-board light meters, phew!

 

Except that people still use those primitive cameras, film is still the same fantastic medium it always was, and there isn't always time to stop and take a light reading before that dog riding the unicycle gets away.  How can you be sure to get the right exposure?  (And, you ran out the door without your cell phone, what are the chances?!)

  

The Sunny 16 Rule is a method to estimate the correct exposure without a light meter:  On a sunny day, set the aperature to f/16 and the shutter speed to the 1/ISO (film speed or digital ISO setting) for a subject in direct sunlight.

 

This means that if the dog riding the unicycle is also wearing sunglasses because it's so bright and sunny, and the film loaded in your camera is ISO 100, set the aperature to f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/100 (or 1/125 if that's the lowest setting on your camera).  If the film is ISO 400, then the aperature is set to f/16 and the shutter speed is set to 1/400 or 1/500.  Pretty simple, huh?

Of course, an aperture of f/16 may not always work for your needs - and, the Sunny 16 Rule can be adjusted.  Think of f/16 as a starting point - as long as the aperture and shutter speeds are equivalent, they can be changed:  at ISO 400, with each decrease in aperture number (from f/16 to f/11), double the shutter speed (from 1/500 to 1/1000).  Taking this in the other direction, increase the aperture number by one stop (from f/16 to f/22) and decrease the shutter speed by half (from 1/500 to 1/250).  This basically keeps the amount of light hitting the film or sensor the same since the proportions between the size of the opening (aperature) and the time it's open (shutter speed) are consistent.

 

If the weather isn't sunny, there are other aperature starting points to guide you - just combine with 1/ISO shutter speed:

Bright sand or snow:  f/22

Sunny, hazy day:  f/11

Bright, cloudy day (faint shadows):  f/8

Heavy clouds/overcast (no shadows):  f/5.6

Heavy shade (shadows from tall buildings):  f/4

Hopefully this will help estimate the correct exposure starting point when using a camera without an on-board or hand-held light meter, or to even creatively adjust your DSLR. 

 

-Angela Kleis

 www.angelakleis.com

 

A Re-Introduction to Watercolor

Instructor Daniels (Right) discusses student work. Photograph by Jen Schiller.

Instructor David Daniels of the Smithsonian Associates' Introduction to Watercolor class proves art is a never ending learning process. His mastery of watercolor allows students to gain new insight from each class section and build upon their knowledge. Daniels started the class with a review of student work from the previous week, making suggestions and commentary. Students approached their assignments differently; some displayed skill in photorealistic reproductions of their original photographs while others transformed landscapes into abstract, surreal interpretations.

Student Jonathon Paul creates photorealism with watercolor. Photograph by Jen Schiller.

 

 I never fail to learn something when I sit in on one of Daniels’ studio sessions. For instance, he advises students to steer clear of fugitive, or non-lightfast, hues. Students may find that these pigments disappear from their paintings in anywhere from 50-70 years thanks to UV damage. How can one circumvent this dilemma? By using glass or varnish with UV protection (however these can get expensive). The cheaper alternative: avoid red or pink, the most common victims.

 

Another tricky thing about watercolor is value, and that’s not how much your painting is worth – it’s the amount of light or dark in a particular pigment. Understanding value can improve the intensity and composition of your paintings. How can you affect value? To lighten a pigment you add water (allowing more light to pass through), and to darken it you can add a neutral tint, a compliment, or black. Color theory holds that neutral color contains no color, so adding more of it takes away the white paper’s ability to shine through, hence, darkening value.

 

-Jen Schiller

Related articles

Review: Introduction to Watercolor

Review: Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain

A Smithsonian Studio Arts Course

Blind Leading the Blind, 2005. Oil on canvas. 48"x60" (150cm x120cm). Shahin Shikhaliyev.

Artists and scientists alike are interested in studying the process of drawing. What makes one person a better artist than another? How can one practice to become a better artist? We often hear about how the right side of the brain is responsible for understanding spatial relationships, symbols, and putting bits of information together to form a whole – all essential skills for drawing. Unlike myself, left-hemisphere dominant “lefties” are gifted with linear and logical understanding, but they may lack the creative and spatial command of “righties”, which hinders their drawing ability. Logical individuals seek a concrete explanation of what is going on in the brain so that they may practice and improve upon their skill. That’s where Shahin Shikhaliyev's course, Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain, comes in. Students walk away from Shikhaliyev's  class with not only a new drawing skill but a new vision of the world.

Friday’s session focused on negative space. The concept is vital in the perceptual understanding of shapes and spatial relationships; for logical lefties, it is akin to learning a new language. Shikhaliyev placed a stool in the center of the room and asked his students to sketch the “space around the stool, not the stool”. In the instructor’s demonstration, a seemingly random collection of shapes magically emerged into a stool. As he drew, he clearly verbalized his process: “I am not thinking about the object. I am just enjoying the line, how it develops, its relation to this line as compared to that line.”

 When it comes to becoming an artist, says Shikhaliyev: “You have to create a new view of the world. You are converting the 3-dimensional into the 2-dimensional. Drawing is a very active process; even though the object exists out there, it is your vision. You are creating it.”

-Jen Schiller

Review: Introduction to Watercolor

                               A Smithsonian Associates Studio Arts Course

Blending and scotch tape demonstrations by David Daniels. Photo by Jen Schiller.

The Smithsonian Associate’s Introduction to Watercolor class met for the second time this week. Instructor David Daniels, a renowned watercolor painter and teacher known in the art world as Mr. Watercolor, fascinated students with demonstrations of his distinctive techniques. While he has painted for more than 30 years, Daniels continues to experiment with the medium, resulting in works that capture the eye and are unlike any watercolor you have seen.  “That’s what drew me to this class, and to this instructor in particular,” said student Liz Bumgarner. “His work is not as conservative as typical watercolor painters – it is more complex, brighter, and more colorful. He is more imaginative.” Bumgarner is a photographer who says she always took pictures because she “couldn’t draw”. The beauty of watercolor is that it allows people with varying skills to create aesthetically pleasing artwork with form and color rather than line.  

Mingled (wet on wet) blending demonstration. David Daniels. Photo by Jen Schiller.

Daniels’ students come from a wide range of skill levels, backgrounds, and professions – from photographers to lawyers to retirees. His easygoing teaching style was encouraging yet helpful in this environment; he supported students’ individual visions yet didn’t hesitate to suggest more effective ways in reaching these goals. He kicked off the class with a review of assignments from the previous week, then gave a brief talk on different mixing techniques (flat, graded, and mingled) and their outcomes, then instructed students on creating a glaze chart. Glaze charts are valuable tools in understanding how hues will look and dry in your painting before you commit. By making strips of every color in your palette and painting various colors on top you can see how the colors interact and have a “cheat sheet” for future paintings, sparing you time and supplies. Watercolor involves more chemistry than other painting styles because density and chemical makeup affects how the colors run, bleed and blend.  

Watercolor glaze chart. David Daniels. Photo by Jen Schiller.

“I’ve given lectures around the world,” said Daniels. “And I always say, I can teach you how to draw pretty well and I can teach you how to paint pretty well. But what I can’t give you is that spark of curiosity that causes you to ask, how do I push my painting further?” If there’s one thing in particular I took away from this class, it was the motivation to pursue that spark, to keep pushing my work further.

 

Introduction to Watercolor takes place every Monday from 10:15-12:45 from October 15 – December 10, 2012.

 

-Jen Schiller

 

 

  

 

One Point Perspective: An Interview with Artist Leslie Nolan

Dis Six, 2011, acrylic on canvas. Leslie Nolan. Permission granted by the artist.

On my flight to DC I spoke with a man from Virginia who told me about his fascinating life, including the perils of government work in Colombia where he met his wife, Leslie.  Our chat about everything from social security to social media eventually lead to my aspirations for being an artist, and he informed me that his wife was an internationally renowned artist located in DC whose life was equally as intriguing. I was thrilled to contact her for an interview to ask her some of my burning questions. Her tips are extremely useful to all aspiring artists.

Your background is intriguing. You studied National Security Resource Strategy and worked at the US Department of State before becoming an internationally renowned artist. How did these experiences influence you?

I see a direct link between my artwork and a lifetime of keeping national security secrets, sometimes having a cover identity, and traveling in hostile areas.  My figurative work tends towards emotional ambiguity, with a variety of meanings.  This makes the artwork unusual and interesting, I believe.

You lived and worked abroad. Where was the most interesting place you lived?

Bogota, Colombia and other areas of South and Central America continue to fascinate.  I met and married my husband there.

Did Colombian culture influence your work?

 The Indian influences favor bright colors, which I've adopted. Faces are interesting, reflecting what can be a hard life. It's an exotic and sometimes dangerous place. I try to infuse my artwork with those qualities.

Did you receive any formal training in painting?

 

I studied under a number of international and national artists, taking workshops and classes here and there.

Did it change your style?

It exposed me to different styles and techniques, but the most important thing I learned was to make my own, personal artwork.  So, I try to paint my own life in every figure.  

You capture motion and gesture exquisitely. How would you describe your inspiration?

My intention is always to express a feeling, not delineate the model.  I'm interested in suggestions only, so parts of my figure paintings are purposely vague, letting the viewer fill in the blanks.

What is the most difficult thing about being an artist?

Not everyone is going to like my artwork. But I prefer that people either hate or love it, rather than be bored by it. That's the most difficult thing about being an artist, constantly pushing oneself to engage, to break new ground, to attempt what is not certain.

What advice would you give to an aspiring artist who is just starting out?

Stop taking lessons or classes. Visit lots of galleries and see what's out there. Then, hole up in your studio and think about something never seen before. Create your own artwork. Make lots of it and don't hold back. Forget what everyone else is doing. If it's something you've seen before, change it.

Do you have a golden rule of art?

If it looks like a greeting card, you've gone in the wrong direction.

 

Touchstone Gallery’s opening reception is tonight, Friday October 5, 2012 from 6-8:30pm.

For more information regarding Leslie’s art, contact:

Touchstone Gallery

901 New York Avenue

Washington, DC

202-347-2787

 

-Jen Schiller



Cameras & Cold Weather

Snow. Photograph by Angela Kleis.

Last week while on vacation in New England and Canada, I was inadvertently reminded how cold weather affects cameras and film, specifically instant film.  While it wasn't actually winter-level cold (I think it only dropped into the 40s at night), the temperature difference was enough to ruin some film. 

 

I was on a road trip, staying at a different place each night, and usually arriving pretty late.  Rather than hauling all of my bags to the room at night, the bag containing the film stayed in the trunk of the car.  The problem showed up when shooting instant film in the Polaroid the following day; the film simply didn't want to develop and the pictures were all light, faded, and, well, underdeveloped.  Even though I timed them according to the air temperature, I didn't realize that the film had been affected by the cold nightime temperatures and needed longer to fully develop until I forgot that I was counting and several minutes passed.  When I peeled apart the picture, I was certain it would be dark, though it turned out perfectly.  That's when I realized what had happened and altered my developing time accordingly.

 

Even though it's only early October, I wanted to offer some suggestions for protecting your camera gear and film from the cold temperatures to come:

 

Batteries:  Cold temperatures drain batteries, so don't leave them in a cold car. Even a cold day of shooting will drain batteries, so carry extras in your coat pockets or close to your body, if possible, to help shield them from the low temps (and, store dead batteries there, too). When recharging batteries, be sure to get a full charge.  Those fancy DSLRs have a large power draw, so turning off unnecessary features and even turning off the camera when not in use will help conserve battery power, as well.  When not in use, remove the battery altogether and keep in a moderately warm place.

 

Condensation:  Just like with hot summer temps, cold weather brings this major annoyance to camera lenses everywhere.  The problem not only affects lenses but sensitive camera electronic components, as well.  When possible, allow the camera time to adjust to the temperature change slowly to minimize or prevent condensation from forming.  Follow the same tips for preventing summer condensation.  If condensation does form, remove the battery and allow the gear to dry out before using or taking back out into cold temps, as the condensation could freeze with disastrous results.

 

Wet Weather:  Snow, sleet, and freezing rain can all damage camera gear.  Use a clean, soft cloth to wipe away moisture as often as possible before it penetrates seals or has a chance to freeze. 

 

I hope these help!  If you have additional suggestions or tips for protecting gear from winter weather, please let us know in the comments.

 

Angela

Push and Pull Processing

Film can be flexible and forgiving in many situations, even when the camera is set to the wrong ISO and the film is not properly exposed.  Sometimes, a photographer will find themselves in a situation that requires a high-speed film for low-light events and all that's available is film best used on a sunny day.  Mistakes happen and there are ways to work around them by adjusting the time of development using two methods referred to as Push Processing and Pull Processing. 

 

Push Processing attempts to correct an underexposed roll of film by overdeveloping, either because the film was improperly exposed (the camera was set to the wrong ISO) or when a lower speed film was used in low lighting conditions (ISO 800 rather than ISO 1600, for example).  With mistakes, there's no going back, however when deliberately underexposing a roll of film, there are a factors to keep in mind.  Underexposing the film causes a loss of detail in the darker shadow areas of the image while preserving detail in the mid-tones and highlights, and overdeveloping increases the contrast and grain that can affect overall image quality.  Together, this can result in highly-contrasted images and grain, good in some causes but less than ideal in others.  To get around this, expose the film for the shadow areas.

 

Pull Processing helps correct overexposed film by underdeveloping it.  This option is generally used to correct for accidental overexposure (forgetting to set the camera's manual ISO setting), to reduce grain, or to compensate for high-contrast lighting to control shadow detail.  By contrast to push processing (pun intended), overexposing the film causes highlights to blow out and lose detail.  Underdeveloping adjusts for this by preserving detail in these lighter areas and decreasing the grain in the shadows and darker areas of the image. 

 

Since situations, film, developers, exposure, and photographers are all variable factors, push and pull processing guidelines are offered as starting points, only, and differ by film manufacturer and other published data tables.  A general guideline to establish a starting point is to underexpose by 1 stop and overdevelop by 1 stop.  Kodak recommends to increase the development time by 2 minutes for each stop of underexposure (pull processing) and to decrease the development time by 1 minute for each stop of overexposure (push processing).  Digital Truth offers factors by which the normal development time should be increased for each exposure stop. 

 

Before attempting push or pull processing, be sure to check with the film manufacturer for recommendations. And, remember that push or pull processing affects the entire roll of film even if some frames were exposed properly. 

 

-Angela

Film Speed Scale (aka ISO)

A film's speed refers to its sensitivity to light and is indicated by a value based on a standardized scale.  The establishment of the current ISO (International Standards for Organization) film speed system is the result of several evolutions of sensitivity scales invented since photography's earliest days to measure and standardize the characteristics of a film's light-sensitive emulsion.

The first scale used a series of highly-pigmented squares which expressed sensitivity in degrees, known as the Warnerke system, named after Polish inventor Leon Warnerke.  As new emulsions and light sources were developed, new systems of measuring emulsion sensitivity were created.  Most involved mathematical formulas based on logarithmic scales derived from the minimum exposure required to produce a visible darkening of the emulsion when developed.

 

In the 1930s, Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation and General Electric introduced film rating systems, both of which applied to the photo-electric exposure meters they manufactured.  These two systems led to the development of the ASA (American Standards Association, now ANSI) scale, which established both an arithmetic speed scale and logarithmic grades of film sensitivity representing the doubling of a film's speed with each full exposure stop.

 

Also established during this time was the DIN scale, a German logarithmic measurement of sensitometry, which used a base 10 logarithm multiplied by 10, and expressed in degrees.  According to the DIN scale, a 3-degree (3°) increase doubles the film's light sensitivity.

 

In 1974, both the ASA and DIN systems were combined to form the current ISO standard, which defines scales for speeds of black and white (ISO 6), color negative (ISO 5800), and color reversal (slide) film (ISO 2240) using the arithmetic and logarithmic scale combination.  The ASA's arithmetic scale corresponds to a doubling of film sensitivity by a doubling of the film speed number value (on the box and film canister).  The logarithmic scale of the DIN system also indicates an emulsion's light sensitivity, is expressed in degrees, and often accompanies the ISO rating (and, has nothing to do with temperature).  The two scales are expressed together as follows for a film with a speed rated at ISO 100:  100/21° (ASA/DIN)

 

Comparing films of different speeds, we can see how the scales work together and represent two historical methods of measuring the light-sensitivity of photographic emulsions:   50/18°  versus  100/21°  versus  200/24°  versus 400/27°  (the arithmetic value doubles as the logarithmic scale increases by a factor of 3 to indicate a film's speed).

If this concept seems overwhelming and cumbersome and difficult to absorb, think about it this way:  just as we use measurement systems to quantify weight (ounces, pounds, grams), volume (pints, gallons, liters), distance and length (inches, miles, meters), temperature (celcius, Farenheit), and even time (seconds, minutes, hours), the film speed scale offers a standard way to express the light sensitivity of photographic emulsion so we can properly exposure our film for beautiful pictures. 

-Angela

Film Techniques Behind the Instagram Filters

Original (left); Instagram Earlybird Filter Version (right). Photograph by Angela Kleis

 

I don't often use Instagram, but when I do, I often wonder about the filters - where do they come from?  What are they named after?  Which film effects are they mimicing? 

 

A few, like X-Pro II, Earlybird, and Lomo-Fi, are easy to guess since their names describe the processes (sort of).  Filters with names like Hefe, Brannan, and Poprocket aren't intuitive - they don't provide any information about the process or effects - and, I, behing the curious type, want to know.  And, I was set to write a whole post about it.

 

1000Memories blog created this chart and did all the work for me.  Each of the filters used by Instagram are inspired by specific camera and film combinations which are handily detailed in this chart, some of which I have discussed at various times over the past three years. 

 

Take a look through the chart to learn more about the filters and their actual process inspirations.  Next time someone asks how you acheived a specific effect, you'll be able to explain it in more detail.

-Angela

Real-Life Camera Obscura

Back in November, I wrote about photographer Abelardo Morell and his camera obscura work.  Essentially, he turns entire rooms into a reflection of the outside, using the physics of light to combine interesting landscapes with the interior of rooms which overlook them.  This has continued to fascinate me and imagine my surprise when exploring Artomatic, I find a camera obscura on the 11th floor.

While the scenery may not be as dramatic as the Eiffel Tower or the canals of Venice, standing within and experiencing a real-life camera obscura was one of the neatest things I've ever seen.  The installation belongs to Photo Gathering, a group focused on large format and alternative photographic processes, which meets at VisArts in Rockville, Maryland, on the first Thursdays of the month.

With nearly 200 artists on Artomatic's 11th floor, it's easy to miss an exhibit - look for the door with the black fabric in room 274.  Artomatic 2012 closes for good this Saturday so hurry!!  The camera obscura only works during the day and there are many, many more exhibits to see in just four short days.

- Angela