How much light do I have?

[blackorchid]

Hey I'm about to move to a new place that has a window facing South East. Supposedly I'll have a nice place for high light plants (Catts and Dens). However, the window is opaque and cannot be opened. Therefore, I want to know what kind of plant will do well in those area, medium maybe? It look bright but there's absolutely no direct sunlight.

[BikerDoc5968]

By definition, opaque means NO light transmission...not to split hairs or start a confrontation, but maybe you mean trasnslucent, i.e., light passes through it but you can't see through it, clearly. So here is one method of determining the amount of light: if you have available a camera with adjustable (place it in "manual mode")ASA, shutter speed and f-stop, place a piece of white paper in the area that your plants will be and set the camera to an ASA of 25 and the shutter speed to a 60th. Take a "meter" reading and if it is an f-stop of about f/8, this would be about 1500 f-c, f/11 = 2800 f-c

[blackorchid]

It's sad that I don't have any instrument to measure the light and I have no intention on buying a light meter either...... So I'll try my best for a description here, yeah, it's translucent. When it's supposed to have strong direct light, it turns out to be strong diffused light, very bright, but no direct sun.

[BikerDoc5968]

I don't know about others who grow catts but I have definitly burned my share with direct sunlite!!!! And I live in Michigan!!!!! So strong indirect lighting would probably work very nicely.....I'm sure others will be around to make some comments....good luck in your new place...love to see some flowers!!!!

[SP2340]

Originally Posted by BikerDoc5968

So here is one method of determining the amount of light: if you have available a camera with adjustable (place it in "manual mode")ASA, shutter speed and f-stop, place a piece of white paper in the area that your plants will be and set the camera to an ASA of 25 and the shutter speed to a 60th. Take a "meter" reading and if it is an f-stop of about f/8, this would be about 1500 f-c, f/11 = 2800 f-c

Wow!!! That's some great advice. Thanks!

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by BikerDoc5968

By definition, opaque means NO light transmission...not to split hairs or start a confrontation, but maybe you mean trasnslucent, i.e., light passes through it but you can't see through it, clearly. So here is one method of determining the amount of light: if you have available a camera with adjustable (place it in "manual mode")ASA, shutter speed and f-stop, place a piece of white paper in the area that your plants will be and set the camera to an ASA of 25 and the shutter speed to a 60th. Take a "meter" reading and if it is an f-stop of about f/8, this would be about 1500 f-c, f/11 = 2800 f-c

That's interesting, I've been wanting to know the light level of my window without having to buy a meter. I can go into manual mode with my very basic digital camera. Some questions though. Is ASA the same as ISO? In that case, the lowest my camera does is ISO 50. So I guess the readings wouldn't be good on my camera?

[Swamper]

I wish my basic PowerShotG7 had that ability. I wish I had time to take a basic photography class. LOL

[wahaj]

hiya....this may be a case of simple maths but i can't figure it out. Lowest ISO i can set on my bridge camera is 64 as oppossed to the 25 recommeded. Does that mean I should set a shutter speed of 125/s and then take an aperture reading?

thanks

[BikerDoc5968]

For each increase of ASA (ISO), i.e., you change the f/stop by one unit. So ASA 25 to ASA 64 is one unit, leave the shutter speed at a 60th and the f/stop would change from f 8 to f 11 and if you went from ASA25 to ASA 100 that is 2 units and the f stop would go to f16

[Royal]

That's about all I know about cameras. You all are so smart.