Tips and tricks for using the zone system?

[Vtec44]

I particularly have a problem with picking out the "right" zone to meter the camera off of. How do you determine which zone to use? Are there any common subject/colors that you typically use, ie grass in full sun, snow, etc?

TIA

 

[Josh66]

Wikipedia actually has a pretty good description of which zone normal every-day things fall out on:
Zone System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scroll about half way down the page.

Zone V (the middle) is what you would get metering on a gray card.

Each zone is a stop. So, say you spot meter on your hand (Zone VI, assuming that's you in your avatar) and zero the meter out. You would have to over-expose by one stop to get that in Zone VI (by zeroing the meter out, you placed it into Zone V). Or, say you want to meter the shadows and you want there to be just barely a little detail there - Zone II. If you zero the meter out on that, you would then have to under-expose by three stops.

It would be faster to not zero the meter out though - depending on how many stops your meter shows. On my main camera, it shows +/- 3 stops. So, instead of zeroing it out on my hand, I would just set it to one stop over-exposure. Or say I'm taking pictures inside and I want the walls/paper to be white - I would meter that so it shows three stops, maybe four over-exposure. I shoot film and then scan it though - so I like to lean towards over-exposure. A dense negative is easier to scan...

It would probably be a good idea to do a test shot though to see what the exposure latitude is for whatever camera/film your using is though. Print out or buy a zone chart, take a picture of it after zeroing the meter out on a gray card, then see at what point you can't tell where one zone stops and the next starts. That's your latitude.

 

[Vtec44]

Thanks for the post and no that is not me in my avi! lol

 

[Josh66]

LOL, I always wondered... Every time I see a post by you, I think - that is one hairy dude!

 

[dxqcanada1]

The magic of the Zone Systems is that you have visualized the scene already and you figure out where you place the objects.

Example: Masters of Photography: Ansel Adams
looks like the foreground tree leaves were placed in Zone VIII

 

[Vtec44]

LOL, I always wondered... Every time I see a post by you, I think - that is one hairy dude!

I had a picture of a hot girl a while back and people mistaken me for a hot girl. So that hairy dude is doing his job to fend off unwanted advances from other dues.

 

[dxqcanada1]

I have to add:

The "Aspens" image was probably more complicated than just placing the foreground tree in Zone VII.
Adams most likely metered the objects in the scene and found that the background and foreground trees were only about three stops difference ... so that means the background was going to fall into Zone IV, which he visualized as too light for the final image.
I suspect he placed the darker areas in the background into Zone III. He exposed the film so that they fall there, which would also cause the exposure the foreground tree to drop to Zone V.
Then he processed the negative to expand the highlight Zones (N+2) so that the foreground tree shifted into Zone IV.
Finally, there was also manipulation of the print using a higher contrast paper.

 

[ann]

I have to add:

The "Aspens" image was probably more complicated than just placing the foreground tree in Zone VII.
Adams most likely metered the objects in the scene and found that the background and foreground trees were only about three stops difference ... so that means the background was going to fall into Zone IV, which he visualized as too light for the final image.
I suspect he placed the darker areas in the background into Zone III. He exposed the film so that they fall there, which would also cause the exposure the foreground tree to drop to Zone V.
Then he processed the negative to expand the highlight Zones (N+2) so that the foreground tree shifted into Zone IV.
Finally, there was also manipulation of the print using a higher contrast paper.

radically thought, pp on top of all , what was he thinking

 

[unpopular]

There is no unified zone system for digital the same way there was for film. I am currently working on something though that should help bridge the exposure and raw processing the way that Adam's system bridged exposure and film development. I have no idea how practical it will be really, but stay tuned. I should have something informal at least by next week.

 

[dxqcanada1]

Great project!!
For some reason I've had a hard time grasping Digital ... I keep wanting to go back to Sheet Film and rebuild my darkroom ... maybe I am just too stubborn to transition over to a new medium and techniques.

 

[unpopular]

I know exactly how you feel. I am actually finding though that digital is much more like b/w film than color slide - the way most people approach it. The difference is that I'm finding it more useful to expose for the hilights and develop for the shadows by applying a curve to build up shadow density similar in concept to adjusting development time in the darkroom to modify hilight density.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense as digital truly is direct to positive.