I used to have a better sense for light. When I returned to using film for making photos, I didn’t have a camera with a meter and I was not aware of the numerous metering apps for phones.

So ‘Sunny 16‘ is was.

And it worked.

(Well, much of the time, anyway.)

In fact, the first roll of slide I ever exposed was during a walk on a very sunny May morning in 2020 was, save for a few frames, exposed as it ought to be.

As the freezer film link above shows, I do have a good stock of slide in the freezer, all 120. None of my 120 cameras have a meter, so I’ve been using an app on my phone.

Unfortunately, as the roll above hints at (the other seven frames are quite overexposed), it requires a bit more finesse and care than I had been giving it!

So on Friday after my shift was over, I loaded a roll of Ektachrome into my little Konica Pearl and headed out. To help avoid the worst of the risks, I’d meter the 100-speed film at 125 (roughly -1/3 stop) and use the spot function to take the reading off the brighter areas. It’s better to go a little under with slide than over, at least I feel that way.

And looking at the results, I’d say it was a pretty good approach to avoiding overexposure!

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