[Leica] Re: Zone System, was: The quintessence of Leica photography?

[Jim Brick <jimbrick@photoaccess.com>]

At 11:31 AM 7/31/00 +0200, c.blaue@bmsg.de wrote:
>
>I thought using the famous "Zone System in a Nutshell" was enough for me:
>Arranging the zones via different paper grades seemed to be sufficient:
>If a negative is longer exposed than it would using the zone system, its
>contrast is too high, so I use paper of lower gradation - and vice versa.
>
>Can you enlighten me, what more is in the Zone System outside the nutshell?
>
>christoph

There are tons of web sites that are tutorials for the Zone system.
Basically it is learning how to compress or expand the brightness range of
a scene, to fit within the brightness range that your film can record, and
ultimately within the brightness range that your printing paper will reproduce.

Your light meter and camera are conspiring to reproduce everything as
middle gray. The meter has no way of knowing whether it is pointed at a
light area or a dark area. The Zone System uses this bit of understanding
to build a set of tools which allow you to soar into new regions of
photographic control. 

So if you want to reproduce something as middle gray, there is a chance it
will work. First point your meter at the subject you want to be middle
gray, meter on it, then use the indicated reading. That is the exact thing
that the meter does for you; it calculates a combination of F-stop and
shutter speed, at a given film speed, to reproduce the area it is reading
as middle gray.

There are problems getting this to work in real life. Your shutter could be
off a bit, the f-stop could be off a bit, the meter could be off a bit, and
the film may not react to light at its exact stated film speed. This set of
problems can be overcome by carefully testing and calibrating your system.
Which is the beginning of the true zone system. Then you learn placement of
values within the available zones, followed by N+ and N- (where N is
Normal) development which will compress or expand the subject brightness
ratio to fit on to your film as well as produce what you wanted to be
middle gray, as middle gray, also with a good solid black and good specular
highlights. With roll film, you have to shoot the whole roll the same way,
or it won't work properly.

Ansel Adams' "The Negative" is probably the best source of this
information, even though there are dozens of "Zone System" books in print.
And if you are "nuts" there is "Beyond the Zone System" by Phil Davis
(smart guy) but way way too technical to the point that there is no time
left to actually take photographs.

Jim