Zone systems and Chinese Painting

[Yvon]

Not sure there is any connection, but it is an interesting comparison though.

Adam divided visible grey into 11 scales, from 0 to X.

In Chinese painting, people use water mixing with ink to produce different scales of black. Strictly I cannot tell how many scales of blacks there are, it all depends on what mode you are trying to create in the painting.

Show one example here:
http://bbs.sssc.cn/viewthread.php?tid=405721

This artist is Wu Guanzhong, famous for his ink painting.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Not sure there is any connection, but it is an interesting comparison though.

Adam divided visible grey into 11 scales, from 0 to X.

In Chinese painting, people use water mixing with ink to produce different scales of black. Strictly I cannot tell how many scales of blacks there are, it all depends on what mode you are trying to create in the painting.

Show one example here:
http://bbs.sssc.cn/viewthread.php?tid=405721

This artist is Wu Guanzhong, famous for his ink painting.

Well, nine, originally. The genius of the Zone System is providing shorthand for each kind of density (darkest black distinguishable from maximum black, first tone with texture, etc.) After that it's both an over-simplification of sensitometry and the d/log E curve (Hurter and Driffield, 1890) and an over-complication (endless jargon).

Cheers,

R.