Re: [Leica] zones etc

["Jonathan Borden" <jborden@mediaone.net>]

Rod Fleming wrote:
>
> Very nicely put. But again, you have to put the concept of
> "previsualisation" into context- what if we just call it "seeing a
picture"?
> I'll bet that shoe fits better.
>
    "Pre-visualization" is one of those redundant terms that at first seems
to mean something. Most all photographers visualize a picture before it is
printed, at which point can you just look at it. The difference between
"visualizing" and "seeing" is that the former more strongly conotes an
internal act, perhaps "using ones imagination", whereas seeing can also mean
simple looking. E.g. "Do you see what I mean?" and "Can you visualize the
appearance of the building from these blueprints?" versus "Look at that
pretty sunset." and "Do you see the man with the red hat?"

    Much like "perfect pitch" where some people are able to "hear" absolute
notes and scales without requiring an external instrument for calibration,
some people are able to "see" brightness tones better than others. If
"perfect exposure" exists, a person possessing such would not need to resort
to an external meter but could read exposure values directly with one's eye.
More likely people have varying abilities to tell relative exposure values
without aid of a meter.

    If like with perfect pitch which is more common among musicians than the
rest of the population, relative exposure is more common among professional
photographers, I would expect that Ted Grant would not need to resort to a
formal "zone system" as he can quite likely read zones quite accurately with
his eye which can direct his hands to point the center of the viewfinder at
an average value for metering. I would expect that someone with Ted's
abilities and experience would also be able to judge whether shadows will
print given particular lighting and film combos.

    Perhaps Ansel Adams himself did not have such an ability and much like
musicians resort to a tuning fork, piano etc to read a tone, invented the
"Zone System" as a way of getting around his particular lack of innate
ability. Or perhaps he knew he was 99% of the way there but wanted to get
99.99% there. People are amazingly resourceful.

Jonathan Borden