Zone system

[Trius]

So glad I understand exposure, development and the "Zone System". I gave up religious rituals for lent.

 

[charjohncarter]

There are many work arounds for roll film Zone System. I have developed my own and another RFF member has offered this idea:

http://www.zonesimple.com/

I actually tried this method (because I live in sunny California), but I still preferred my method but some of you may get a kick out of it.

 

[Nokton48]

Once a negative is adequately exposed, it is adequately exposed, and the penalties for doubling the exposure are negligible (slightly bigger grain, slightly less sharpness, both completely irrelevant with large format and substantially irrelevant with rollfilm). The risk of blown highlights is negligible: look at any manufacturer's d/log E curves.

I tend to live by this, and it always serves me well. When I come up against a repeatable scene, and it is really important to me, I always make several exposures. I increase the second exposure by a stop (usually one shutter click when working quickly). If it's really, really, really an important scene, I shoot three exposures, the third being two stops over the indicated reading.

Bingo! Now, I have a choice of negatives to review before doing the final printing. This method is great when you want maximum shadow detail in your negs. And, that can only be changed by varying -exposure-.

Works for me. It's good to have a choice.

 

[RObert Budding]

I do use the Zone System when I shoot sheet film. But the Zone System also influences how I shoot roll film. With roll film, I shoot to capture maximum information (I usually develop roll film as N-1), and I print on higher grades of paper when necessary. YMMV.