Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> I've read a bit about the zone system, and I can't see anything special about > it. It seems like just a very complex way to explain exposure. And since so > many good photographers have not used it or even heard of it, I have presumed > that I could expose correctly without bothering with the zone system. I used to have the same view. I also used to get my exposure wrong the whole time. My experience is that most good photographers DO understand the zone system, or at least have read Adams' THE NEGATIVE. They may, of course, feign amateurism (hello Henri). There are many misconceptions about the ZS, especially from people who have 'read a bit' about it ;-) Wouldn't you like to be able to look at a negative and know exactly what was wrong with it and how to fix it? Or to look at a scene and know exactly how to figure out the exposure for the rendition you want? Your comment about the ZS being 'just' about exposure is rather like saying a car is 'just' a kind of carriage, but without horses. ZS is only a formal way of saying 'expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights', but the point is that the formality is liberating, hence the comparison with scales in music. - -- Johnny Deadman "Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence that sawing wood is what he was intended for" - Mark Twain