Zone System

[Mac]

I recently upped my camera from the 300D to the 40D. I have been having a rough time adjusting to the new meter...although I know I will get my hands wrapped around it with practice.

But I am looking for a way to get the metering right on the first shot. During my research I dug deeper into the Zone System. Now, I am not sure how easy or hard this system would be to learn. I am going to hit the Library and see if they have any books on it. But I am wondering if there is anyone that uses this system successfully...and ask how easy it is to learn and then implement? Or any other information that may be helpful...

Thanks in advance!
:D

[airfrogusmc]

The Adams books The Camera, The Negative and the print are ones I would HIGHLY recommend. It does take some time a patients to learn. It can take years to master.

[tzalman]

The original Zone System was based on the assumption that as well as controlling the exposure the photographer would also control the development by using sheet film developed in an open tray, examining it by red light, and stopping development when the desired densities were obtained. Also the photograher would know well all the characteristics of his film>developer combination and what tonal range and contrast they would produce. The same was also true of the printing phase. It was an integrated system that allowed the photographer to know what his print would look like before pressing the shutter release, based on measurements made of different tonal areas in the subject. It was totally inappropriate for the 35 mm. photographer who developed 36 negatives together in a closed tank, shots often made under widely differing lighting and of a variety of subjects. Roll film needed the method of the "18% grey", exposing and developing for the middle of the spectrum and crossing your fingers in hope that the extremes would be acceptable or could be adjusted in printing (variable contrast paper and dodging and burning).

Now digital cameras and post processing make an integrated system feasible again, since each image can be individually treated. But such a Zone-like system means more than simply "getting it right in the camera" and banging out a jpg. It requires shooting in RAW and adjusting exposure with the foreknowledge that certain adjustments will be made in the conversion. The ETTR (Expose to the Right) method is the digital offspring of the Zone System in which exposure is set to give the significant highlights the maximum exposure which will still retain detail (Zone VII) and in the RAW converter, development (tone curve) is adjusted to set the desired values.

Google "Expose to the Right" to learn a ton about this method.

[Mac]

Thanks for the info tzalman. I have read plenty and have utilized the expose to the right concept. So maybe I am already on the path. But I have used the histogram to tell me where I am to the right, and then re-shoot. I guess I will keep reading and learning.

Thanks again!

[J Rabin]

I wouldn't buy books trying to relate the Zone System to digital photography exposure. There are good photographers who have put introductory resources on the web to experiment with, like Norman Koren: http://www.normankoren.com/zonesystem.html and Chuck Gardener’s digital histograms and the Zone System at http://super.nova.org/DPR/#TOC. In 2006, Charles posted a .pdf for people to use: http://postit.rutgers.edu/uploads/DigitalZoneSystem.pdf . There is a nice presentation of how the Zone System relates to digital and post processing in the book “PhotoShop CS Artistry” by B. Haynes.

I think Zalman above has it correct. In my opinion, The Ansel Adams Zone System was created to manipulate Exposure & Development to fit the f/stop range of paper prints. The Zone System systematizes overexposing black and white film to capture full shadow detail, then under-developing it to keep from losing highlight details. That's what it does.

Unsuccessfully exposing a photograph, when the subject brightness range f/stops are too high to record details both in highlights and shadows is NOT the Zone System, it is the same old problem plaguing photography since its beginnings. Ensuring the tonal range of the subject will be compatible with the final medium (i.e., film, digital, computer monitor, printing ink, paper, TV screen, etc.) has long concerned photographers.

To deal with exposing excessive contrast scenes, which is NOT the Zone System, I collected exposure tips and put them here: http://postit.rutgers.edu/uploads/Exposing%5FHiContrast%5FOutdoors.pdf
May help you. May not. It is for my own use. I have not updated it yet for the new tools in PSCS ACR 4.x and PS Lightroom 1.3.x
Jack

[DrPablo]

There are a couple Zone System principles that should be kept in mind in digital photography. One is the idea of visualizing a final print before you even push the shutter -- and therein your entire workflow will be conducted with the final output in mind. Two is the idea of tone placement -- realize that spot metering off of any subject will place it on middle gray, so you need to add a stop or two of exposure to sand or to caucasian skin, for example.

In the film world people have greatly revised the Zone system. There is a group called BTZS (Beyond the Zone System) who use densitometers and strict exposure-film-developer-densitometry relationships, and use PDAs in the field to get exposure and printing perfect.

[tofuboy]

In the brief introduction I had to the zone system, it seemed a simple concept. While there are 10 zones, there are really only 3 key zones.
Zone 5 = middle grey = what your camera meters for
Zone 3 = shadow with detail
Zone 7 = highlight with detail.

The idea being that if you can see a scene's zones, you could take a reading for one of the zones (setting your camera accordingly) and everything else would fall into place.

[Wilt]

The full Zone System practiced by Ansel Adams involves three parts...
1) making the Exposure,
2) adjusting the processing (time/temp) for making the Negative, and
3) printing the negative to make the Print, (contrast selection, dodge/burnin, etc.)

It is possible to do analogous steps in the digital process, to achieve results similar to Zone System results. Understanding the priniciples in Adam's 'The Exposure' is invaluable for learning to meter a scene so that it allows you to capture what you envision, so that exposure is more than a chance event, or not a random chimp-and-adjust sequence of shots. I suggest picking up that volume at a public library, and reading and understanding the principles, then applying them to digital photography. It will instruct you to learn the principles of true spot metering and applying them, rather than being limited by the tools provided in the Canon camera!

[PhotosGuy]

But I am looking for a way to get the metering right on the first shot. I start with this reading & adjust as experience indicates. For cars & situations where I don't try to keep unimportant highlights, I don't adjust at all.
Need an exposure crutch? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=89123)