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Photography Zone System with Color Slide Film

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 Author Topic: Photography Zone System with Color Slide Film
Eman2005


Joined: 16 Sep 2007
Posts: 103


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:49 pm GMT  Quote
 
I am confused on what the Zone System is and how to use it. After reading multiple website, I am confused. I will probaly get the Ansel Adams book on it. Does anyone here use it?
charles


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 14477


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:28 pm GMT  Quote
 
Eman2005 wrote:
I am confused on what the Zone System is and how to use it. After reading multiple website, I am confused. I will probaly get the Ansel Adams book on it. Does anyone here use it?

I´ve used it. It´s good! Get the book.
Cheers
Charles
sneakyracer


Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 36


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:15 am GMT  Quote
 
Eman2005 wrote:
I am confused on what the Zone System is and how to use it. After reading multiple website, I am confused. I will probaly get the Ansel Adams book on it. Does anyone here use it?


It great for analyzing a scene and exposing correctly. I dont use it. Most DSLRs have a dynamic range of 8-9 stops in RAW. Most of that is in the shadow range since the highlight headroom is just 3 stops on average (anything above will be pure white). I just bracket and take several images. With DSLR's is just so much faster and easier to just take a few images than to carefully meter a scene. (unless you are dealing with "artificial" light in a set or studio)

Most color negative film has more than 10++ stops dynamic range so you have more headroom and therefore more margin for error but still you want the "richest" possible negative with detail in all areas of the range of the film. The zone system helps achieve that so when you go print you have the most amount of information possible on the film.

With slide film you have the least range of all or close to what a DSLR can record. Its always a compromise with slides, so they work best in evenly lit scenes with a limited contrast range if you want shadow and highlight detail. Generally you expose for the highlights and hope for the best.
norco17


Joined: 02 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:20 am GMT  Quote
 
The zone system works best when you can either under or over proccess individual slides so unless you are shooting large format, medium format with several interchangeable backs, or have multiple cameras I would not bother with the zone system.
dietcookie


Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Posts: 111


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:32 am GMT  Quote
 
norco17 wrote:
The zone system works best when you can either under or over proccess individual slides so unless you are shooting large format, medium format with several interchangeable backs, or have multiple cameras I would not bother with the zone system.


What he said. Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights as the saying goes, but thats for B/W film. Pushing and pulling E6 is commonly done but I've always found the magnitude of difference in pushing/pulling much greater with E6 as opposed to BW.

Just shoot some E6 that has greater lattitude.
sneakyracer


Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 36


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:25 pm GMT  Quote
 
Just remember that when metering a scene (or individual scene elements), the meter doesnt "see" colors*, it doesnt know what things are supposed to look like. It wants to balance everything to the 18% gray its calibrated with. Look at scene elements and determine where you want pure white and pure black. If you have snow in the scene in full sun and want detail on it then set it as your upper limit with detail (Zone 9). The meter will want to render it gray so remember, Zone 5 is what the meter will want to put it in, overexpose accordingly. If you want more texture in the snow then you can put it in Zone 8 or 7. Its best to use a spot meter to analyze a scene.


*There are some exceptions. I think Nikon has put color evaluative meters on most of its new DSLR's with thousands of programmed scenes in it that it uses for comparison to determine exposure which works nicely most times.
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