thawkins
Well-known
I have a Gossen Luna Pro "S" meter. It works very well. I would like to learn the zone system of exposure but the instructions with the metere are vague at best. I have had no luck finding a good web site that would offer instruction. Does anyone out there have an suggestions or some simple down to earth instructions on using this meter for this system? All replys are appreciated.
Tom
Tom
PaulDalex
Dilettante artist
Hi Tom,
I noticed the same thing. When I was young I used a Lunasix for many year with my pentaprism Nikon F. Recently I bought a Lunasix F on Ebay (out of nostalgia - it turned out to be defective, but that is another story and don't want to annoy you). Before the purchase I got the manual in English in the web and I read it all included the part on the zone system.
So I turned to one of my books, Steve Simmons' Using the View Camera AMPHOTO), where one can find a decent explanation of Zone system.
Quite frankly the zone system is for those lucky photogs, that develop and print all by themselves. Otherwise it is of little utility and the concepts reduces to the ten stops range of tonality. In fact if you read an area with a spotmeter and set the exposure by the reading then (by the way the meter is calibrated) if nominal values were true (the ISO of film developing and printing process) that area would go to ZONE V or medium gray. Because in practice the assumptions are not valid, one has to find its own ISO by experiment until this happens precisely.
From this I see that the system is not for me. I do use a spot meter and decide what goes on ZONE V by setting the corresponding exposure and... crossing my fingers. Then I take a lot of contrast measures too check how many stops below are each shadow and highlight, possibly rethinking the exposure if I am not satisfied by the contrast readings. In the end if everything goes well (and in extreme cases bracketing can give more robustness to the procedure) possibly with some corrections in Photoshop, I can get satisfactory results.
Hope will help
Cheers
Paul
I noticed the same thing. When I was young I used a Lunasix for many year with my pentaprism Nikon F. Recently I bought a Lunasix F on Ebay (out of nostalgia - it turned out to be defective, but that is another story and don't want to annoy you). Before the purchase I got the manual in English in the web and I read it all included the part on the zone system.
So I turned to one of my books, Steve Simmons' Using the View Camera AMPHOTO), where one can find a decent explanation of Zone system.
Quite frankly the zone system is for those lucky photogs, that develop and print all by themselves. Otherwise it is of little utility and the concepts reduces to the ten stops range of tonality. In fact if you read an area with a spotmeter and set the exposure by the reading then (by the way the meter is calibrated) if nominal values were true (the ISO of film developing and printing process) that area would go to ZONE V or medium gray. Because in practice the assumptions are not valid, one has to find its own ISO by experiment until this happens precisely.
From this I see that the system is not for me. I do use a spot meter and decide what goes on ZONE V by setting the corresponding exposure and... crossing my fingers. Then I take a lot of contrast measures too check how many stops below are each shadow and highlight, possibly rethinking the exposure if I am not satisfied by the contrast readings. In the end if everything goes well (and in extreme cases bracketing can give more robustness to the procedure) possibly with some corrections in Photoshop, I can get satisfactory results.
Hope will help
Cheers
Paul
PaulDalex
Dilettante artist
Sorry for the typos. It reads:
...to check how many stops below/over are each shadow/highlight...
Incidentally, this fact we are discussing is an instance of one of the laws of the universe, namely that the team that writes the manuals is different from the design team. As a result manuals range from horrible to scandalous. It is outrageous for example that many manuals of pro equipment are written with the point and shoot audience in mind. And they are loaded with statements which are everything but scientific.
...to check how many stops below/over are each shadow/highlight...
Incidentally, this fact we are discussing is an instance of one of the laws of the universe, namely that the team that writes the manuals is different from the design team. As a result manuals range from horrible to scandalous. It is outrageous for example that many manuals of pro equipment are written with the point and shoot audience in mind. And they are loaded with statements which are everything but scientific.
Roger Vadim
Well-known
why don't you use the little white dome for incident metering? very reliable in most cases. and the zone system is indeed a nice tool for geting your exposure right. there is a lot of information on the web about it (and about incident metering). try google.
Sam R
Established
You the incident dome whenever possible. Make sure the same type of light is hitting the dome as the subject. Meter for he darkest thing you wish to have "detail"
PaulDalex
Dilettante artist
I don't want to resurrect a previous thread, where I expressed my opinion against incident metering. I don't care to convince anybody. After all it is a trade where each has its own secret and then only results count. However if one had exposure to courses of Control (I am a Mathematician), one should get convinced that measuring incident light does not make sense.
But do not take it as a topic for a discussion and enjoy your own methods and the nice photos that they provide to you.
Paul
But do not take it as a topic for a discussion and enjoy your own methods and the nice photos that they provide to you.
Paul
Roger Vadim
Well-known
Well, both systems combined give you a fairly good idea about the lighting situation and then of course it is a good idea to make some adjustments. when the light is "flat" incident metering works alright, esp. with negative film (beter latitude). I was working with a very technical photog (architecture, slide film and 4x5 inch). He used a reduced zone system, metering the shadows where he wanted to have min. detail (zone II) and adjusted the exposre for -2.5 exposure values (given that slide film has 7 zones). Know your zones can be helpfull not only if you develop your B/W film but also for E6 or C-41.
Expose for the shadows is an old rule, and if you don't develop for the shadows (B/W) then its good to know where your highlights are (to adjust) ...
I personaly use incident 90% of the time, gives good results in most "normal" occasions (because I'm lazy...)
cheers, Michael
Expose for the shadows is an old rule, and if you don't develop for the shadows (B/W) then its good to know where your highlights are (to adjust) ...
I personaly use incident 90% of the time, gives good results in most "normal" occasions (because I'm lazy...)
cheers, Michael
Sam R
Established
Metering off green grass is approx. 18% reflectance...Also meter on the face of a caucasiana and open up 1-1 1/2 stops. Black person close down by same factor