System was still relevant in that then-modern world. He replied "If you don't use the Zone System, then what system will you use to know what you've got as you photograph?"

There are many ways to evaluate what you'll get in your final print or display as you photograph. The Zone System is one way to get a handle on everything. When you know what you're going to get you can make changes as you're photographing to optimize your final prints.

The Zone System applies as much to color, digital and video as it does to black-and- white. Ansel Adams even shows us in The Negative how to use it with point and shoot cameras!

Ansel Adams chose to divide the range between white and black into about ten zones. Each is an f/stop apart. Color film and digital tend to have fewer zones, but that's not important. What's important is understanding how these zones relate to one another and how they change as they go through each step of any photographic process.

From the 1920 through the 1960s The Zone System usually required weird film developing, since people developed sheet film one shot at a time and printed on fixed-contrast papers. It was a pain.

In the 1970s through today the Zone System for film became more involved with printing as people tended to shoot rolls of film that are developed all at once and print on variable contrast paper.

With digital in the 2000s the Zone System focuses more on understanding how digital cameras respond to different levels of light and dark. The Zone System is the basis of understanding PhotoShop's Curves command. With digital cameras you set contrast in-camera, or do as I do and let the camera do this automatically.

The biggest advantage of understanding a Zone System is understanding what's going on. You'll be able to concentrate on making great images instead of worrying about petty things like technique and exposure.

Digital cameras no longer require spot meters. Spot meters were used to evaluate subjects before they were photographed. It was the only way we had to predict exactly how to expose, develop and print before we made an exposure on film. Today we have histograms and LCDs instead. Today I use a digital camera instead of a spot meter (page 87) to evaluate this better than a spot meter for my view camera!

That said, let me offer that the rest of this page was written in 1999 when I wrote it to apply to color slides.

The Zone System allows you to get the right exposure every time without guessing. It does not require you do any special film development and you never have to waste time with bracketing. Now aren't you interested?

© 2007 KenRockwell.com

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