middle tone, which is why spot meters usually cannot be used without knowing the zone system. Sometimes green grass falls here.
+1 Stop (Zone VI): Medium light parts of an image. Skin and granite rocks go here. For most landscape photos you'll set your light rocks here, and the shadows at
+2 Stops (Zone VII): White things like snow and sheets of white
+2.7 Stops (Zone VIII): This is where slide film goes clear.
This is how the zones of the classic zone system correspond to the analog bar graph on your exposure meter:
Zone II =
Zone III =
Zone IV =
Zone V = +- 0 stops
Zone VI = +1 stop
Zone VII = +2 stops
Zone VIII = +3 stops
If you are lucky, all the elements in your image will fall within
If your spot meter tells you that the shadows are darker than
Slide film usually goes clear at +2.5 stops. It usually starts getting pretty murky at below
You need to think as a painter does and ask yourself at what level of tone you want each part of your image to render. You need to be in control, and the Zone System lets you be in control. Otherwise you'll simply be gambling that your images will "turn out." With the Zone System you will know when you need to alter your lighting.
ProblemsThere will be plenty of occasions in nature where God is not putting the light range where you want it. The Zone System is useful here because it tells you before you waste a lot of film that you are probably going to get garbage and thus you can plan or change the light or filtration accordingly.
What do you do if the lightest and darkest parts of the scene are beyond the range of your film, typically +- 2 or 3 stops?
Simple: you have to change the lighting somehow. If you have a very
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