Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I take aspirin every 4 hours for my arteritis. No Bull. I wake up at 8. Go to bed at midnight. This divides my day into six - four hour sextuplicates. It occurred to me to name them. And call them zones. Then it occurred to me they have similarities to the zones i use every day in Photography. So here they are! As there are 11 not 6 zones so I'm shy on highlights as this works out but this really does not make for a depressing schedule I've found. 12 AM starts a day with Zone I and Midnight, The blackest black the paper can produce. Zone 0 being the clearest clear the neg can produce. No ones ever been evil enough to see it in a print. 4 am is the witching hour. Zone II It's my Rapid eye movement zone hopefully if I'm not pulling an all nigher. REM. Between 4 and 8 am I call my Twilight zone. A hint of tone in the blacks but no detail to speak of. Until later. III is 8 am to noon and what I call "Morning." Significant detail in the shadows. Your threshold zone. HELLO! Drink your Coffee! Zone IV is Lunch. In my photography i think of it as "more shadow detail then I'd ever want" which is purposely not logical it's good to have those in there. I think of it as "between my middle grey and my threshold zone." 4 p.m. is time for tea. Late Afternoon. It’s an average middle grey day, Zone V. Set your camera at what your meter says and that’s what you’ve got. Set it at A for average if you've got that on you dial. Ignore your grey card it's lying. 8 p.m Zone VI is four hours later and for me it's SHOWTIME!!! I like films - renting them and going to see them but more and more renting them as the German Shepard likes to be in on things and so does the Calico. He barks and horses and dogs when they are only 3 pixels across and not even on the soundtrack. She hides behind the sofa. It's FAMILY TIME. - the sixth zone. VI! HBO extended! Open up a stop and it's the average white guys face. And that's what you do. Ansel says also the average sidewalk in one of his first photoguides! Camera meters will secretly be set at this stop instead of V because 99.9% of all shots are color neg which always likes the density when it can get it. So if your handheld reads a stop lower than your camera it's par for the course I never sweat it. I just think that's why. My point being that's why all your shots have come out even though you haven't been opening up one stop when shooting a face. And we end suddenly there because four hours later it's midnight which is day two and time for me to slip under the sheets and dream about zone I although according to plan I've been there since 11 reading. FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO GO HIGHER!!!! Zone VII as the dictionary says is one zone higher than zone six and for me and many of us in black and white is the threshold zone. And perhaps the most important zone!!! Shame its not on our daily aspirin schedule! Open up two it's good for you. Close two down and make it brown, you're not a clown. These are the thresholds to live ones life by. I recommend them and flossing. If it's not in there you better despair. Life's unfair. You've got from two under and two over to work with in black and white. Five zones to work with. III to VII. I challenge you to forget that! I think 4 for color neg and 3 for slides. But it doesn't matter because of all the different colors. VIII is why you buy a spot meter and is the scintillating sparkley stuff you don't expect to see detail or texture in although maybe just a smidgin. Highlights almost or maybe they are highlights. Meter them carefully and know that you won't see them. If there's texture in there you can see by squinting and you decide that texture really has to be there than place it down a zone at zone VII and see what happens to the rest of the picture. Your shadows you've probably lost but decide if you can really live without them. Often you can. Most often. Your hights come first most often. IX. Nine is the Roman numeral you make with an X instead of a V. It's not any part of the day and it's the whitest white the paper can produce. Not the neg. That comes later. ANd papers vary. NO DETAIL did you get that? So forgetaboutit! I've never metered for it. Don't know anyone who has. But this is the internet! I know you're out there! X makes eleven zones because we have zone 0 which if there is a Roman numeral for it those brain cells are dead. Specular highlights. Gustav Glint. They don't make spot meters this narrow so forgetaboutit! I think of it as "silver" and I'm not thinking of the Lone Rangers white horse who was zone XII mainly with perhaps some small areas of XIII in a print. You want to see the hoursehairs don't you? X is dense areas in the neg you don't expect to see as light areas in the print unless you burn them which makes the whole print then look all muddy. Your eye goes first to the light areas of the print so they are all important. And the highlights. Whiter than White. Shout it out! Zone X! Forgetaboutit! So that's it my day has structure and it's all because of whoever Ansel Adams stole the zone system from. Every four hours; you know I'm there! Be there now! Mark Rabiner at f 8! Or 8 o'clock! Don't be late! Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html