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Thread: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

  1. #21
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    So far a kind of varied bare bones Zone System seems to be a large majority, like 13 to 5 (counting the guy who used both on each side) and a couple of Zoneless People. However it seems many of the dedicated BTZS people have not participated, but neither have some of the ZS and Zoneless that I know partipate here too.

    If this ratio holds true it will surprise me given how prolific the BTZS posters are here. I frankly expected the numbers to be reversed. I was beginning to think I was some kind of dinosaur using the ZS, but we probably all are to some extent anyway as LF users.
    Last edited by Kirk Gittings; 28-Aug-2006 at 15:22.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  2. #22

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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    My methods would most closely match Bruce Barlow's. I guess that is because we both consider Fred Picker as our main teacher. I use the "maximum printable density" for one negative, N-1 1/2 for a second negative for 4x5 (Tri-X HC-110 and enlarging paper) For 8x10 I use N for nearly every negative (TMax 400 in Pyrocat HD and AZO)

    I have done both the Fred Picker Zone System testing and BTZS testing for TMax/AZO. I find them both very useful.

    John

  3. #23
    Robert Oliver Robert Oliver's Avatar
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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    regular zonie...
    Robert Oliver

  4. #24

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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    I kinda keep the Zone System in the back of my head while I spot meter. But I'm not real religious about the Zone System.

  5. #25
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    All these systems are just different ways of thinking about the same things.

    I think you should use the simplest, most transparent system you can get away with ... have as little as possible between you and what you're photographing.

    For me it's a very paired down version of the zone system. On a day with consistent light, I often shoot first and meter afterwards, just to check myself. Once in a while the situation calls for N- development. Once in a blue moon for N+.

    If I'm taking time thinking about any of this, then something's wrong. I can't even imagine what benefit I'd get from punching numbers into a palm pilot. I'm taking pictures, not targeting laser-guided bombs.

  6. #26

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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    I follow the "original" Picker method, as outlined in the 1974 book The Zone VI Workshop, but augment it with an InfraRed viewing device during film development - which allows you make a few changes when things don't go as planned. I'm sure Fred and Ansel wouldn't mind a bit.

    For example, this image required an additional 35% time in the developer, under "semi-stand" conditions, to bring out the details in the fur of the dark-shaded dogs.

    I just let the 4x5 TMY sheet film sit motionless in the bottom of the tray and develop, until the low values gained sufficient texture. Using Pyrocat HD, the high values stayed pretty much the same, due to lack of agitation and a sublime film/developer combination.

    I can't really spell BTZS - never mind pronounce it - but I am eternally grateful to those who have used it to discover TMY + Pyrocat HD, and whatever else may "come down the pike", as Fred used to say.
    Last edited by Ken Lee; 28-Aug-2006 at 17:37.

  7. #27

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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    Put me down for BTZS, using a spot meter rather than incident. Wet darkroom, VC paper. Oh...and I'm a recent convert to Pyrocat HD semi-stand, TMX. This is as good as it gets.

  8. #28

    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    Just like Ulysses, I have bought several copies of Davis's book but never managed to read beyond the third or fourth page. Boring? Irrelevant? I don't know.

    Hell, I managed to finish Proust who wrote about his pitiful insomnia and any number of hideously boring French theorists who wrote about nothing, so how come Davis and Joyce put me to sleep?

    Well, no answers here.

    I live a pretty stripped down Zone System life.

  9. #29
    SF Bay Area 94303
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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    I use a spot meter and a simplified zone system. I make sure the shadows don't go all blank on negitive materials and the high lights don't burn out on tranies. If it ain't on the film it ain't on the film.

  10. #30
    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
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    Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS

    I measure the shadows. Unless the contrast is extreme, I develop for consistent local contrast printing on grade 2 graded paper - the gross contrast can be modified by burning and dodging when printing. Lost local contrast is just lost.

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