[Leica] zones

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

hi


I really liked Jim's 4 zone system; that's it, in a nutshell.

It's funny that so far no-one has mentioned what all of this is actually
about- and that is one of the great axioms of photography-


Expose For The Shadows And Develop For The Highlights

That's all any zone system, Ansel's or Jim's, is teaching you to do. An
appreciation of this rule will quite simply make your pictures better, and
it does not really matter whether you use the Jim technique or the Ansel
technique (my own is somewhere in between).

I note what Mark Rabiner was saying about the difficulties that may be
encountered when trying to place shadow detail on zone II and highlight
detail on Zone 8- however, I think that is the fault of the application
rather than the system. I don't think the  Zone System is "out of date" at
all at all. But you have to remember that it's a teaching aid, not a
straightjacket.

Somewhere in "The Negative" Adams makes more or less the same point when
discussing tranny film.The fact is that you can indeed use the extended
scale that the full Zone system allows, but really it is only practical on a
view camera using sheet film. It also requires the photog to make a series
of tests on his/her  chosen film stock(s) to establish which exposure
(nominal film speed)/development combination will give the desired result.

On a rollfilm camera the Jim technique will work a treat. (Works on colour
neg as well as mono, BTW).

One of the things about Adams that you have to remember when considering the
life and teaching of this very prolific yet in many ways enigmatic artist
and teacher, is that he was a musician- and a very good one- before he
became a great photographer. Musicians, especially those who consider the
career of a professional concert pianist as he did, spend a lot of time
working on repetitive exercises which have the effect of honing their
technique to the point where it becomes invisible and allows their
creativity to shine through. I firmly believe that Adams treated photography
in exactly this way, and his teaching methods, including the Zone System,
may almost be considered the conservatoire of photography.

Compare for a moment Adams' technique with that of his friend Edward Weston,
one of the most eloquent photographers to date. Weston used a very basic
technique, using a simple handheld meter (when he used one at all, and
frequently discounting its advice in favour of his experience) and
developing his negs in Pyro developer under a deep green safelight, pulling
them from the dev when he judged he had achieved the desired effect. If you
like, Weston is the jazz player to Adams' classical precision- yet compare
their pictures and you will see that they both reached the greatest heights
in their work.

It is an unfortunate fact that in some schools the Zone System became a
mantra to be slavishly followed, to the point, I believe, of obscuring its
purpose- helping the photographer to translate what is seen into an artistic
photographic expression. No method of calculating exposure is the be-all and
end-all- great pictures are. And I have no doubt at all that Adams would
have agreed with that.


Cheers


Rod