Just out of curiosity .......

[SergeiR]

I studied photography when i was 13 at actual school for couple years, and was going on and off since then. I never heard about ZS until i did hit about 32
So no, i don't use it. But after i kept hearing about it - i did read books about it, analyzed and discarded most of it, b/c it has nothing to do with creativity, i am sorry. Now, using what Dean Collins and what Mortensen and others taught - i am.

But then i am not primary focusing on landscapes.

[polyglot]

I use basic N development that I've arrived at by trial and error. I don't generally do contractions as I don't like the flat look. Sometimes do a seat-of-pants expansion or just print at a higher grade; all my papers are VC.

I tend to attempt to make the light ratios right rather than try to fix a scene of undesirable contrast by global adjustments to the contrast curve, ie I use flashes, reflectors, grad ND, etc or some dodging/burning for local zone shifts without affecting contrast.

Metering is generally incident if flashing, or spotmeter-shadows-at-III. Long exposures or chromes I preview (iteratively, especially night shots) with a DSLR to make sure the histogram is good.

[jp498]

I use an incident meter. If it's mixed light outdoors (such as shadows and sun), I'll have the meter in the shadow to take a reading. Essentially, it's metering for the shadows and not worrying about the highlights. I only use B&W film, mostly tmax 400.

If it's a high contrast scene, I'll develop in PMK and let it's compensating effects handle the highlights. If it's a low contrast scene, pyrocat-hd with normal or perhaps a little extra agitation. If it's rollfilm, I just mark on the used roll if it needs a particular development scheme. tmax400 can handle a huge range of brightness at the time of capture; how you process it into a negative is what matters. Xtol is also very capable if you have no interest in pre-mixed staining developers.

The goal for the negatives is to have nice negatives for making silver prints with VC paper in the 2-3 grade range, and cyanotype UV contact printable for bonus.

[Jim Galli]

What does any of this have to do with Model T Fords??

[mandoman7]

10mph = zone 1, 20mph= zone 2. You should be calibrating your engine to give a straight slope on curves...

[Jim Galli]

Ah, but need I remind you, a Model T will only go up a Hurter–Driffield curve......in reverse.

10mph = zone 1, 20mph= zone 2. You should be calibrating your engine to give a straight slope on curves...

[mandoman7]

If you're in reverse, you won't see the highlights, Jim.

[Old-N-Feeble]

Why is it that we guys prefer older cars, older lenses, older whiskey, etc. but we prefer younger women? Shame on us. Shame, shame, SHAME on us!!

[Darin Boville]

Same as others. Started off learning and using sort of strict Zone System sort of thing. Then drifted to a looser version. Then, when I started scanning negs (at the same time I started doing much less film work) I saw all that shadow detail popping out whee it wasn't supposed to be and thought "Oh, sh*&^&t, I'd better re-think my zone system approach."

But never got around to it.

--Darin

[John Koehrer]

Mr Galli,

Do you have a Rolls-Canardly in your collection?