Zone System (book)

[Ken Lee]

Picker only talks about exposure (and contact print proofing) so only half the ZS is considered.

While he doesn't treat the subject exhaustively, there is a section on enlargement, with which I have more than a passing familiarity.

This is speculation on my part, but because cold-light enlargements match the tonal scale of contact prints, Zone System concepts can be demonstrated with either type of image. Indeed, the book contains examples of both.

Some of the illustrations are contact prints from strips of roll-film. Perhaps it's mere coincidence, but exposing, developing and printing at the same time eliminates several variables: only the fundamentals remain. I would be surprised if that wasn't done intentionally.

[Bill Burk]

I taught the system to tons of young college students, and I did it in just a few minutes.

I don't know how you could do it!

I started a class outline that I thought could be done in a casual hour's gathering.

But how can you say "Minor White was big on stylized departures from reality and describing the mystical clockwise communication from subject to photographer to viewer that sometimes goes counter-clockwise" in two minutes? There are no less than 30 such important bullet points.