[Leica] Exposure and Development

[luisripoll at telefonica.net (Luis Ripoll)]

Thanks Walt, I would only tell that Zone System knowledge helps to
understand better the B&W photography, but is hard to use except if you work
with sheet films, it is a great theorical base... But our friend HCB has
never used it...

Saludos cordiales
Luis 

-----Mensaje original-----
De: lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org] En nombre de
Walt Johnson
Enviado el: viernes, 02 de marzo de 2007 0:44
Para: Leica Users Group
Asunto: Re: [Leica] Exposure and Development

Luis

Smith, among many other shooters, used this same approach. The Zone system
is great and Minor White did the best book on it many years back. 
It is a bit awkward for roll film, especially 35mm. If you shoot  under the
same conditions for the entire roll it  then  all well and good. How many of
us do that with 35mm? Nonetheless, it does give the photographer an
excellent frame of reference for his or her work.

The water bath system you mentioned is a way of controlling those out of
control brightness ranges. There again, not real applicable to 35mm work.
Every now and then I do a few zone system tests but only for the fun of it.
As I'm sure you know, after a while all this becomes second nature. Thank
goodness! Then we can get about making images. :-)

Walt

Luis Ripoll wrote:
> Hi Walt,
>
> I agree with you, and this is a general old rule I didn't know was 
> established by Eugene Smith. The only thing is that developping for 
> shadows on my experience increase the grain. I'm no longer developping 
> myself my films, when I does it I've decided to do long and very 
> compensate developping processes, sometimes with stoping the 
> development and putting the film in a water bad. IMO, except if you 
> search some special effects or you work with medium or bigger format, 
> a carefully develpping is enough for almost all situations.
>
> The zone system is a very good school to learn and know better the 
> photography techniques, many years ago I've played it, now I think 
> that it is similar to the first piano exercises for a pianist.
>
> Saludos cordiales
> Luis
>  
>
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org] En 
> nombre de Walt Johnson Enviado el: jueves, 01 de marzo de 2007 23:01
> Para: Leica Users Group
> Asunto: Re: [Leica] Exposure and Development
>
>
> W. Eugene Smith taught me a fantastic way of putting this together.....
>
> Expose for the shadows .......Develop for the highlights...
>
> Processing has little or no effect on shadow detail but is the cats 
> meow in terms of highlights..... While Ansel made almost exclusive use 
> of the reflected meter most pros today can be seen reading the scale 
> on a Minolta incident meter. When talking about the effects of 
> exposure and development on film it's better to use "dense" and 
> "thin". Best way to get a grip on all this is to practice. Next time 
> you find yourself lusting after  a new lens buy film instead.
>
> Walt
>   
>>> On 3/1/07 1:53 PM, "Lottermoser George" <imagist3@mac.com> typed:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Under exposure and overdevelopment do not properly describe fine 
>>>> photographic technique.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The terms:
>>>> 'over exposure' implies too light and blown highlights 'under 
>>>> exposure' implies too dark and lost shadows 'over development'
>>>> implies blown highlights 'under development' implies lost shadows.
>>>> In all cases these terms also imply poor technique, and lack of 
>>>> control and/or understanding of what's going on with your materials 
>>>> and chemistry.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> George Lottermoser
>>>> george@imagist.com
>>>>
>>>>         
>
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