Exposing a gray scale for Zone System calibration

[TroyG]

Bill,
I was ordering the WBZ9. It should yield all the tones I need for this test, or at least thats what Stouffer leads me to believe. Now I thought the goal was to get your process to be able to replicate the 10 steps of a scale?

[xkaes]

You can call it the find my correct ISO and development time and develop more or less depending on the contrast of the scene system.

You nailed it, but we need to come up with a catchy name for it. How about the ENOZ system?

[xkaes]

The Nerd side of me wants a densiometer.

You may have one and not know it. There are many hand-held meters, enlarging meters/analyzers, etc. that can be used under an enlarger -- or anywhere else -- to measure density.

OK, so they can't be used to determine how dense I am, but otherwise they work pretty good.

[Bill Burk]

That's not I V IX. They're a good company with great friendly people so I am conflicted about offering criticism. When you get it, meter the black and white in relation to Zone V. It's likely Zone III to Zone VI but it might be a fraction.

I'm sure you could meter the black and place it on Zone I, etc. But Zone V will fall somewhere else. Your meter will tell you where it fell. So you can use it, it's just not an eight stop spread. Reflection targets just can't be.

[Bill Burk]

OK, so they can't be used to determine how dense I am, but otherwise they work pretty good.

A bone densitometer can tell you that.

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

The main thing is to get yourself in the ballpark. Who cares what zone you call it. Start out with something that has worked for somebody else and then refine it to where you want it with your procedures and your equipment and your materials.

[Bill Burk]

Actually it looks like they put density values on the gray scale on the right-hand side and their Zone IX white might be the top / Zone I black might be the bottom. If so we can figure out what zones they really are.

[Bill Burk]

Here's where I would think Zones would be on a shooting target.

Your target might have a few of these values.

Zone VII+1/3 another 0.1 less = 0.04 (about as white as you can make paper)

Zone VII = 2 stops, another 0.3 less = 0.14
Zone VI = 1 stop, 0.3 less = 0.44

Zone V = 18% = 0.74

Zone IV = 1 stop, 0.3 more = 1.04
Zone III = 2 stops, another 0.3 = 1.34

Zone II = 3 stops, another 0.3 = 1.64
Zone I = 4 stops, another 0.3 = 1.94