Zone System

[pauld111]

I am reading up on the Zone System and finding it interesting. I have one question thus far, does this system still hold benefit to a photographer even if he/she does not develop their own film?

 

[KenR]

Yes because an understanding of the Zone System helps you understand the relationship between exposure and the response of the film.

 

[Frank Petronio]

Sure, I use a lab and have my B&W film developed "normal" unless it's an extreme situation. But I can still use Zone System concepts in determining my exposure for both color and B&W film.

Granted I haven't done the film speed tests and I scan my negatives, but I still know that Zone 5 is middle grey and that my Portra 400NC will hold detail to Zone 8.5 to 9 and I can still get a little shadow detail out of Zone 2.5. If I didn't have an awareness of how many stops of range I have to work with, and just trusted my meter, there are a lot of situations where I'd be off by several stops.

Even with my slop factor, this way I am only half-stop "off" in most situations.

I think a lot of experienced photographers use these aspects of the Zone System without even realizing that it is the Zone System. It doesn't matter what you call it, you need to have a approximate idea of your film's range and the scene's range, and figure out how to compress or expand the scene's tones into your film's ability to capture them.

And yes, "In the Day" I did the whole works with a densitomer, Selectol-Soft, Plus and Minus development, etc. All good training no matter what.

There is an old Fred Picker book on the Zone System that explains it all very clearly and simply. Some of the other texts are way to nerdy and complicated.

 

[pauld111]

Thanks guys, especially Frank - that explains it nicely for me. I will look out for the Fred Picker book.

 

[sparrow6224]

A couple more thoughts, rarely discussed when the Zone system comes up: Adams and his friend developed this idea for doing 4x5 and 8x10 single sheet developing so on roll film the uses must all be oriented toward one uniform (usually normal) develop approach for the whole roll of film. But teh Zone System is a way of seeing that mimics the way (b&w mostly) film 'sees'. It's final goal, and Adam's great obsession and his masterly achievement, is the ideal arrangement of values within the photograph. He was a photographer whose work was about light and absence of light in all degrees that such could be captured on film. So, while it's often useful to expose your film at a middle gray level that will allow the fullest dynamic range in the photograph, it is also sometimes valuable too to sacrifice one end for the other in order to achieve the photograph you want -- the one that you've visualized. If there is one thing Adam insisted on his teaching it was that the final photograph should match what you, the photographer, has visualized for it, not what is merely there. Most of his photographs looked quite different from the original scene that gave rise to them.

 

[charjohncarter]

To answer your question: yes. I meter for the shadows (zone III or about) and then stop down 2 stops (to put the final exposure in zone V). Unless the lab totally messes up the developing you will be fine.

 

[Darshan]

It doesn't matter what you call it, you need to have a approximate idea of your film's range and the scene's range, and figure out how to compress or expand the scene's tones into your film's ability to capture them.

+1.




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