The Zone System
The
zone system is a means of measuring exposure of
a scene a photographer wants to photograph and relating
this to the specific film and development to control
density, so that the tonal range of the scene translates
through the negative to the print in a manner the
will as the photographer envisages. It is a means
of using the photographic materials to maximize
the tonal range they are able to reproduce, but
mistakenly some photographers believe this alone
is an answer to producing great photographs. It
is not a prerequisite to making great photographs
and it is worth remembering, there have been some
great photograph taken with little knowledge of
the zone system and many visually boring ones taken
using it.
History
While
the system was invented by Ansel Adams and Fred
Archer in the early 1940s, it has been further developed
by Ansel Adams and others over the years. It has
been used by many photographers, as a means to produce
high quality fine art photographs.
It
has often been criticized as a complex science,
difficult to understand and use, but it can be applied
on a range of levels from a very simple exposure
system, to a specialist technique that requires
some pre-testing of materials and processes.
Books
The
following books offer various descriptions:
- *Adams version, see his book, The Negative p 47 ff.
- * Phil Davis, Beyond the Zone System, now
in its 4th edition, which extends the Ansel Adams
version. \
- *
Chris Johnson has produced a book, which presents
a simplified approach which can be implemented
without a densitometer.
- * Bahman Farzad has produced a version which uses
a smaller number of zones, and is intended primarily
for 35 mm camera users.
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