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Thread: Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

  1. #1

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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    If so, what are they? Do they apply generally or only in particular situations and, if the latter, what are those situations?

  2. #2

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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    Perhaps someone will correct me, but I can't imagine using the zone system for aerials, or for that matter, when shooting handheld press cameras, nor (now someone can really jump on my case) I doubt if there would be any advantage. (OK, let the criticism begin!)---------Cheers!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  3. #3
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    For handheld work or rollfilm, one still might use the zone system, perhaps not spot metering each shot, but metering at the beginning of the shooting session, taking note of the lighting conditions, and exposing and adjusting development accordingly. For instance, in flat light you might just decide to extend development for everything you shoot under those lighting conditions, without spot metering and taking notes for every shot.

    It's not the only way to work. If you can recognize a good negative or have someone to show you what a good negative looks like, then development by inspection is just as good a procedure.

    Part of the success of the zone system (and related approches), I think, is that it can be learned from a book. With a densitometer and a spot meter you can quantify the brightness range of a scene and correlate it with quantitative values for density on the negative and relatively quickly gain control of the process by understanding what is going on on the film with changes in exposure and development time.

  4. #4
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    "Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?"

    Sure. In addition to the development-by-inspection alternative David mentioned:

    1. Laziness ;-)

    2. Shooting under controlled studio conditions where you typically would adjust lighting ratios to suit the objective, rather than being forced to adjust exposure and development.

    3. Shooting color (except you can still use some elements of the spot metering element to place values)

    As the Zone System provides a means of compressing or expanding the luminence range of the scene to fit the capabilities of the medium, I don't see that the hand-held situations John mentioned would be excluded from considering use of the Zone System - except to the extent that spot metering might be difficult or take too much time.

  5. #5

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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System ?



    There's nothing special about the Zone system. It just provides a vocabulary that describes ten shades of grey, and teaches you how light meters and developers work.



    In the printing world, as in the world of professional audio and video, the tools for describing and controling shades of color and sound are far more precise than just 10 zones.



    You could make a video recording of your child playing the piano, and "not use" the focus and the volume setting - but you'd probably feel a little silly, because you know how things work. But when you're in a hurry, you do what you can.

  6. #6

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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    While the Zone System, or some derivative, is an excellent way of working, it has one danger. One tends to get into the mind-set that lighting conditions are fixed and that exposure/development are secondary and always must be adjusted to fit the static light situation. Any situation. No matter how ugly the light.

    A photographer trained in product or portrait photography is taught that light has character as well as quantity. And every object, from varnished wood furniture to black leather, to gleaming chrome and silver, to lead crystal glassware, to human skin, has a light ratio, light direction and brittle/diffuse character which flatters it best.

    When using the Zone System it is necessary to know when to adjust your technique to fit the situation and when it would be better to instead adjust the light with something like fill flash or simply wait for the sun to move. There are LF photographers routinely making technically exquisite photographs of very poorly lit scenes.

  7. #7

    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    But even most photographers who are taking images in poor light conditions "know" that they might need or want to manipulate their developement to suit the conditions as well as their vision of what they want the image to look like in the end. Which is all the zone system does. It gives the photographer another tool, another way of creating, with the materials at hand and the raw scene elements to create what they see. Too many people get hung up either fearing learning this valuable tool, or being lazy and not using it to it's fullest advantage. No matter how you work, you are using the zone systems elements, unless you are using a disposable camera. The system is not an inviolable set of rules but simply knowlege that can be used to help create a vision. A departure from what is already there in front of your camera. There are many ways to any end point. Any image. It is just easier to get to where you want to go if you have directions, and the "zone system" is nothing more than a set of instructions that can be used to help produce your ideas. Eisenstadt never to my knowlege used the "zone system." Neither did Capa, or Bourke-White. But they knew their materials and equipment, along with techniques that enabled them to create something with their ideas. Don't discount something that many people use successfully just because you don't understand it or don't want to use it. But you might benefit from learning it's guidelines.

  8. #8

    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    One example is provided by AA himself when he photographed Moonrise. He was driving along when he noticed the picture. He had just enough time to get out of the car and set up the camera. He used an exposure that he thought would work and took the picture. He wanted to take another shot but the light changed and the reflections from the gravestones were gone so he only got one shot.

    Alot of our great photographers used to follow the mantra: Expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights. Developing by inspection may be key here. The old timers didn't have light meters but they knew their materials.

    Jerry

  9. #9
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    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    We "old timers" had light meters, but it took the Zone System to clarify exactly what our meters were telling us. The Zone System is based on the premise that we should "expose for the shadows and develope for the highlights". Tillman Crane made it clear for me when he stated: "Learn as much as you can about the Zone System, then forget it. You will find that the principles of the Zone System will enter into the procedure each time you make an exposure to create an image with a camera". No need to consiously figure it out. Even auto-exposure film and digital cameras have Zone System principles built into their electronic light metering brains.

  10. #10

    Are there reasons not to use the Zone System?

    Eugene, By "old timers" I meant people like Emerson, Stieglitz, Steichen, Evans, Outerbridge, Atget, etc. The Weston light meter wasn't available until about 1932.

    Jerry

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