Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Martin Howard wrote: >> >> OK, time to bite the bullet. I'm not an "Ansel Adams" type photographer, >> more of a "zone focus and point and shoot" with a ball-park scientific >> wild-assed guess at things like exposure, development, and printing times. At 10:46 PM 1/2/00 -0500, Jonathan Borden wrote: >Phil Davis, "Beyond the Zone System", Focal Press > And I am writing... Phil Davis is a nice and very smart guy. But if you get involved in his BTZS, you will spend all of your time reading subject zones, plotting data on charts, computing development times, plotting paper gamma, and on and on and on... You won't have any time to actually take photographs. Because of this, I again offer my: ZONE SYSTEM IN A NUTSHELL There are four zones. Zone Good, Zone Bad, Zone Ugly, Zone Butt Ugly. To use the system: Wake up. Get out of bed. Go outside. Zone good: It is light overcast-ish, light shadows. But good light direction. Expose normal (eg; Tri-X @ 400,) develop normal. Zone bad: It is dismally overcast, no shadows. Perhaps even drizzle. Underexpose one stop (eg; Tri-X @ 800,) over develop 20% Zone ugly: The sun is out, sky is clear, and there are blatant shadows. Overexpose one stop (eg; Tri-X @ 200,) under develop 20% Zone butt ugly: The sun is squinty bright and the shadows really deep. Go in and go back to bed. Or sit with Ted, by the pool, ogling the babes, sipping on a single malt. Use this system with Tri-X and you will have wonderfully printable negatives every time. It works even for incompetent photographers. More competent folks can use that there Delta stuff. This zone system works for it too. Jim