Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/21

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: the zone system vs. the Big Picture
From: Jack Campin <jack@purr.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 14:26:19 +0000

Eric Welch wrote:
> Jack Campin wrote:
>> for many kinds of photography, you simply cannot plan an image like this -
>> you know that the situation you're in is evolving in an interesting way,
>> and you know when the moment arrives to take the picture, but the precise
>> composition and tonal structure of that picture is not knowable in advance;
>> you may only know what you've got after you've done the processing.
> if you can't visualize what the picture is to be in your mind before you
> take the picture, tonality wise, then get a point and shoot and use color
> neg. film.

I had a few specific kinds of photograph in mind here:

- auto-triggered wildlife photography (where you may well use colour neg
  film, but certainly not a point & shoot).

- the Hail Mary technique (hold the camera over your head to get above the
  crowd), which has worked fine for news photographers since about when the
  Leica was introduced, and where decent optics does no harm at all and a
  point & shoot will almost certainly get the focus wrong.

- the sort of situation that arises in sports photography and political
  demonstrations, where you just have to fire the shutter at the moment
  of the tackle and take what you get.

You can make intelligent guesses about exposure in all these situations,
but you can't stop black animals taking your bait or guarantee to render
the highlights on that riotshield correctly...


> I learned on Kodachrome, and it really got me in line with exposure real
> fast.

Me too; I'd second this.



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jack@purr.demon.co.uk  -  Jack Campin, 2 Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AE



Replies: Reply from Gary J Toop <gtoop@uoguelph.ca> (Re: the zone system vs. the Big Picture)