Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jim, Your system is indeed practical, even usable. It involves more scotch sipping than bullet biting though. He *did* ask for a book that explained sensitometry :-)) Jonathan Borden Jim Brick > Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2000 11:48 PM > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us; leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > Subject: [Leica] RE: Sensiometry > > > >Martin Howard wrote: > >> > >> OK, time to bite the bullet. I'm not an "Ansel Adams" type > photographer, > >> more of a "zone focus and point and shoot" with a ball-park scientific > >> wild-assed guess at things like exposure, development, and > printing times. > > At 10:46 PM 1/2/00 -0500, Jonathan Borden wrote: > >Phil Davis, "Beyond the Zone System", Focal Press > > > > And I am writing... > > Phil Davis is a nice and very smart guy. But if you get involved in his > BTZS, you will spend all of your time reading subject zones, plotting data > on charts, computing development times, plotting paper gamma, and > on and on > and on... You won't have any time to actually take photographs. > > Because of this, I again offer my: > > ZONE SYSTEM IN A NUTSHELL > > There are four zones. > > Zone Good, Zone Bad, Zone Ugly, Zone Butt Ugly. > > To use the system: > > Wake up. Get out of bed. Go outside. > > Zone good: > It is light overcast-ish, light shadows. But good light direction. > Expose normal (eg; Tri-X @ 400,) develop normal. > > Zone bad: > It is dismally overcast, no shadows. Perhaps even drizzle. > Underexpose one stop (eg; Tri-X @ 800,) over develop 20% > > Zone ugly: > The sun is out, sky is clear, and there are blatant shadows. > Overexpose one stop (eg; Tri-X @ 200,) under develop 20% > > Zone butt ugly: > The sun is squinty bright and the shadows really deep. > Go in and go back to bed. > Or sit with Ted, by the pool, ogling the babes, sipping on a single malt. > > Use this system with Tri-X and you will have wonderfully printable > negatives every time. It works even for incompetent photographers. More > competent folks can use that there Delta stuff. This zone system works for > it too. > > Jim >