The Zone system!?

[Q.G.]

Development is completed in the shadows much sooner than in the highlights, this is why exposure is the primary control mechanism for the shadows while the highlight areas are controlled by exposure and development, but the development time is the primary control mechanism for the final density in the negative.

Not only that, but exposure also controls what - in the dark parts - will be developable and what not. Too little exposure, and things just aren't registered.
So exposure also determines what at the dark end of the range will be rendered as featureless black, and where detail in the dark bits begins to show.

[DLawson]

Development is completed in the shadows much sooner than in the highlights, this is why exposure is the primary control mechanism for the shadows while the highlight areas are controlled by exposure and development, but the development time is the primary control mechanism for the final density in the negative.

With extreme development modifications like +2, -2, -3, etc...the low values can shift. For the OP, no use going into great detail here, but I would get The Negative and dive in-------your photography will improve.

I wanted to comment that I found the "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights" line to be a meaningless bumper sticker comment until I read The Negative. After that, the intended message was clear.

Learning that wasn't a huge task, but the message was far from obvious to a beginner before learning it.

[Toffle]

I wanted to comment that I found the "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights" line to be a meaningless bumper sticker comment until I read The Negative. After that, the intended message was clear.

Learning that wasn't a huge task, but the message was far from obvious to a beginner before learning it.

Very much agreed. It is a concept that shouldn't be that difficult, but for some reason it befuddled me for far too long. Once I put it together with the idea of expanded/contracted development it made a lot more sense. Now that I understand the theory a little better, I am working to put it into practice. (not easy without a spot meter, but not impossible, either.)

[Christopher Walrath]

CHECK OUT MY APUG ARTICLE on 35mm ZS photography.

[Jim Noel]

"I´ve read about the Zone system and understanding there are many photografers that use this meteringsystem. I think it was Fred Picker who invented the system, am I right?"

Absolutely NOT! Fred would have liked to take the credit but the Zone System was formalized by Fred Archer and Ansel Adams.

If you want the simplest explanation find a copy of "Fred Archer on Portraiture".

[Andrew O'Neill]

If you are using 35mm, then might I recomment: The Zone System for 35MM Photographers: A Basic Guide to Exposure Control , by Carson Graves.

[BrianL]

I suspect Archer who sems to have been the first to have written on it did little more than set on paper what many old time photographers had learned the hard way. Adams while taking the credit for inventing it did not present it in written form until a year or so after Archer published. Adams however unlike Archer set it out in a technical format for others to use and expanded it from Archer's 9 zones to 10. Archer's paper was academic. I had some years ago Archer's and Adams books but when I moved donated both in a collection to a library along with several thousand other books.

[student]

Meter? I don' need no steenkin' meter!
http://www.flickr.com/silverglyph

[Jose LS Gil]

Anders,

Before you start applying the Zone System, you should make sure your camera is working properly. Are the shutter speeds accurate? Are you using one lens or many lenses? Each lens will give you a different exposure. What film are you using? Different films react differently to filters, development and even long exposures. What developing chemicals are you using? Learn how that film reacts to that developer and learn how to manipulate the development with that particular developer/film combination. So the very first thing you need to do, is check your equipment. Many cameras have issues with the correct shutter speeds or even sticking shutters at slow speeds. I was told by one camera tech, that he has seen exposures up to 3 f/stops off on fast 1/250 or 1/500 sec shutter speeds. That surprised me, as usually one can tell when the slow speeds are off, but seldom can one tell when the faster speeds are off.
Nothing will disappoint you more than having bad results because your equipment is not working properly.

Good luck with your photography,

Jose

[Sirius Glass]

^^^^ Good advice. I have met many photographers who use half the ISO after lots of testing, when the real problem was that their shutters were slow and needed servicing. They could not understand why all their testing results were not working for a new camera. Others were doing the same thing, half the ISO, but their lightmeters were using the wrong battery to replace the mercury batteries.

Check the camera, the light meter and your processing before doing the Zone testing.

Steve