Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> I'm sure someone will explain how a 35mm shooter can use it in some > fashion,maybe by using six Leica's at the same time. One for each zone of > light or shadow? I use the ZS with my very fairly freewheeling brand of street photography. First of all, I use my knowledge of the zones to meter for each new lighting situation, placing important shadows on Zone III and making sure highlights are not off the map. Okay, this is just metering, but knowing the ZS helps. Most rolls end up exposed in fairly similar lighting conditions... the same day on the same street, the same room, whatever. Then when developing, I know whether I should be developing N+1, N-1, whatever. Most times, in fact, my particular processing method handles the variations in exposure pretty well at normal times. But, as I pointed out in another post, when problems arise I now have a formal method of seeing what's wrong. To me, ZS is an analytical tool. I play guitar, too, and it's the same as understanding what a major seventh is. Many guitarists neither know nor care, but use them beautifully, like my friend Brendan. If I said to him... go to the major seventh of the subdominant, he would hit me. However, in the recording studio, when the engineer says 'whoever's playing the suspended fourth is flat' it's me who has to tell Brendan it's him. It sounds as though you have already internalised all the knowledge that the ZS formalises anyway. In my father's house, there are many mansions. All roads lead to Rome. Etcetera. - -- Johnny Deadman "Oh, Lord, grant me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept those I cannot, and the wisdom to bury the bodies of those people I had to kill today because they were starting to piss me off". St Francis of Assassin