Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The zone system concepts don't only apply to black and white, nor only to sheet film. If you do color slides, thinking in a simplified zone system way can help achieve the proper exposure. Slide film cannot stand to be overexposed, so meter the highlights, and then decide how dense you want the various items to be (compromise is often needed here), using the zone gray scale (a company called "Zone VI" used to sell one to mount on Pentax spot meters, but now they've been absorbed by Calumet--I am sure the scale is available in many other forms). You may then wind up adding or subtracting stops from your meter reading (simple example: a sunset, where you meter various areas in the sky, decide what zone the crucial one is in, and then adjust the meter's recommended exposure to produce the desired effect). This idea also permits you to look at the consequences for other (not crucial) areas of the picture of various exposure choices. I'll admit right away that I use this to give me the place or places to start bracketing--film is cheap in comparison to camera equipment (especially our favorite) and travel, and small differences in exposure can matter a lot with transparency film. Charles E. Love, Jr. 517 Warren Place Ithaca, New York 14850 607-272-7338 CEL14@CORNELL.EDU