Ever felt in the minority?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Everytime I try to talk to my friends about the zone system, especially its relevance to today's photography including using it with digital cameras I get a beat down if you will about how it was good then but not now, how it doesn't work today and how digital is so much better than film, etc. What I find interesting is my friends who started in film are the most anti film anything, although they try to say they like film, it is obvious from their arguments they have rejected film anything.

Things like the zone system won work for digital, which I categorically reject, the adoption of expose to the right for digital, which I also categorically reject, but try to show them how it can work for digital they almost get angry for even suggesting such heresy.

Or maybe it is just me, as the older I get, the mo e I am flinging I am rejecting technology and yearning for the "old" ways. I wish I could apprentice with an artist from the past.

Another thing I find is that old school photographers were smart people. They had to be to keep there equipment running in good order. I just overhauled my Durst CLS450 he d I just b ought with a Laboratory CE 1000. That was kinda fun.

[Louie Powell]

Welcome to Curmudgeonhood. It eventually affects us all!

[fotopfw]

People tend to degrade the tools and knowledge from the past, because they've ditched all that when going digital. They have to keep telling themselves and others that it was the right choice. Consequently, all concerning film must be outdated.

[jnantz]

Things like the zone system won work for digital, which I categorically reject,

sorry to ask, but do you use the zone system when you expose chromes or paper negatives
or if you shoot WP ... with tintypes/ ambrotypes?

im not trying to be a PITA or side with your digital film haters
but because paper and chromes are a useless task with the zone system
( can't speak for collodion, i don't use it). i shoot a lot of paper and
the latitude is slim, sometimes slim to none, and while i know how to slide my exposure
with film and understand the zone system is useless ( at least for me) with anything but negative film.

its too bad people who like digital can't be nice
and people who use film can't be nice and we can just all get along.....

[paulbarden]

sorry to ask, but do you use the zone system when you expose chromes or paper negatives
or if you shoot WP ... with tintypes/ ambrotypes?

John, you’re a hoot! I can’t imagine trying to apply the zone system to wet plate collodion work. Most days I’m grateful that an image appears on the plate at all!

[jnantz]

I tend to use whatever tool wil work and parts there of. Even though the zone system isn't designed arou d anything but a negative bw image, there are elements that work witb slide film, etc. For example, i look at a scen, and decide what I want to have detal, meter it then either shoot or decrease/incrwase exposure to place it where I want. For example snow if you just meter and shoot it comes out gray. So I meter then increase exposure time 1 or 2 stops. The zone system way of thinking helps me. And since I am going to print most of my images either by scanning developing in PS or LR and then print or in a traditional darkroom I think about my scenen and how I kneed to expose tk achieve my vision for the he final pri ted image thru the method I choose.

I find he zone system and parts of itand other methods relevant for not only film, but digital capture as well. I use all formats available, but there is a certain satisfaction from making an image that involves the old ways.

thanks, you never know until you ask
cause as i said, i have found the ZS to be
useless for anything i am doing ( LF CN, BW diapositive, and sensor stuff )
... but then again i don't consider looking at the scene and deciding
what i want to photograph part of the ZS i just consider
that to be part of reading the scene .. IDK, maybe i am using some
version of the ZS intuitively / without thinking about it ...

John, you’re a hoot! I can’t imagine trying to apply the zone system to wet plate collodion work. Most days I’m grateful that an image appears on the plate at all!

thanks paul! yeah i was kind of half joking when i was wondering about WP work
but then again, you never know, some folks might have figured out some sort of
ZS work around, to work with the 1 stop latitude you know, a speical developer made from
cane sugar harvested at a certain time of year from a certain field found on a certain island
sprinkled in after the first 3 seconds of development
i know i haven't figured out a meaningful use for the ZS, but then again, compared to some im a hack ...

[Jim Noel]

[QUOTE=jnanian;1465629]sorry to ask, but do you use the zone system when you expose chromes or paper negatives
or if you shoot WP ... with tintypes/ ambrotypes?


I do, or have done all of these and more. There are only a few of the old processes (alternative) I don't utilize from time to time. I utilize the Zone System for all in camera exposures making allowances for emulsion speed, scale, etc.
I guess I am old fashioned since I have been doing LF photograph since the middle 1930's.
I do not use electronic imaging (digital) because although I have worked with some of the premier workers in the field, I have never found it to equal work produced from film or plates. A few years ago I taught a workshop with one of the 2 or 3 best in the field of digital imaging. When asked if he could produce images like mine his answer was,"If you want to make images like Jim you have to use the same methods he does."

[Tin Can]

This forum is aimed directly at Large Format as defined by the Mods, 4X5 capture or bigger on any sensitive medium, including digital.

Many members recognize that photography is photography in any medium.

I am not the only the only one here shooting images with everything I can, including iPod, tablets, cell phones, P&S, DSLR, mirrorless and most formats of film.

This forum also allows all those 'capture methods' to be discussed and posted in the Mod determined forum location.

[chassis]

Horses for courses. All means and methods work, from glass plate to roll film to pinhole and paper negative to digital. Sunny 16, zone system, and digital spotmeter are all part of the puzzle.

Single image workflow of 4x5 film suits me best at the moment. In the future it may, or may not, suit me best.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I tend to use whatever tool wil work and parts there of. Even though the zone system isn't designed arou d anything but a negative bw image, there are elements that work witb slide film, etc. For example, i look at a scen, and decide what I want to have detal, meter it then either shoot or decrease/incrwase exposure to place it where I want. For example snow if you just meter and shoot it comes out gray. So I meter then increase exposure time 1 or 2 stops. The zone system way of thinking helps me. And since I am going to print most of my images either by scanning developing in PS or LR and then print or in a traditional darkroom I think about my scenen and how I kneed to expose tk achieve my vision for the he final pri ted image thru the method I choose.

I find he zone system and parts of itand other methods relevant for not only film, but digital capture as well. I use all formats available, but there is a certain satisfaction from making an image that involves the old ways.