Cheat Sheets Design & Media

Exposure Value (EV) Chart

Computed table of aperture and shutter-speed pairs for EV 8 to 16 at ISO 100, a lookup of typical scenes, the ISO shift rule and the 500 and NPF star-trail rules.

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Exposure value (EV) packs aperture and shutter speed into one number: EV = log2(N² / t), where N is the f-number and t the shutter time in seconds, at ISO 100. Every +1 EV halves the light, which is one stop. Any aperture and shutter pair on the same EV gives the same exposure. Work with the Exposure Value Calculator and see Exposure Value (EV) for the idea.

Shutter speed for each aperture, at ISO 100

EV f/1.4 f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22
16 — — 1/8000 1/4000 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125
15 — 1/8000 1/4000 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60
14 1/8000 1/4000 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30
13 1/4000 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15
12 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8
11 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4
10 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4 1/2
9 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 s
8 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 s 2 s

— = outside the range of 1/8000 s to 30 s

Scenes and starting exposures

EV (ISO 100) Typical light
16 Bright sun on sand or snow
15 Sunny day with sharp shadows (the "Sunny 16" rule: f/16 at 1/ISO)
14 Hazy sun, soft shadows
13 Bright cloud cover, no shadows
12 Heavy overcast, or open shade on a sunny day
8-10 Dusk, bright streets at night and well-lit shop windows
3-7 Interiors lit by ordinary lamps
below 3 Night scenes, candlelight and the night sky

Other ISOs

  • At another ISO, the same scene needs a different setting: EV_ISO = EV100 + log2(ISO / 100). ISO 200 adds 1, ISO 400 adds 2, ISO 800 adds 3.
  • Example: a scene at EV 12 (ISO 100) is shot at EV 14 when you set ISO 400, so f/4 needs 1/500 instead of 1/125.

Star trails

  • The 500 rule: the longest shutter before stars trail is about 500 / focal length seconds (on a full-frame camera; divide by the crop factor too). At 24 mm that is 20.8 s.
  • The NPF rule refines it with the aperture and sensor pixel pitch: (35 × N + 30 × pixel pitch in µm) / focal length.
  • These are estimates; pixel-level sharpness at high resolution needs shorter exposures.

Try these tools

Exposure Value Calculator

Calculate exposure value (EV and EV100) from aperture, shutter speed and ISO, see the equivalent shutter speed at every full-stop aperture.

Aspect Ratio Resizer

Center-crop and resize an uploaded image to a common aspect ratio like 16:9, 4:3, or 1:1, then download the result.

See also

  • Cheat sheet Photo, Print & Screen Formulas Cheat Sheet
    Screen size and pixel density, print resolution, hyperfocal distance and depth of field, and video file size from bitrate.
  • Glossary Exposure Value (EV)
    Exposure value is a single number that combines aperture and shutter speed.
  • Glossary Aspect ratio
    Aspect ratio is the proportion of an image or screen's width to its height, written as two numbers such as 16:9.
  • Guide How EXIF Photo Metadata Works
    What EXIF stores inside a photo, where it sits in a JPEG, how to turn GPS degrees into decimal coordinates.
  • Cheat sheet EXIF Tags Cheat Sheet
    EXIF tag IDs in hex with name, data type and meaning: camera, date and time, exposure, GPS and orientation values.
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