Zone System for the 21st century

[Stoogley]

I'm finally at a point where I can once again pursue photography on a more intense level.

At the moment I'm not set up to do wet printing. In fact, instead, I invested in a decent scanner to serve as my darkroom. [Though it's killing me to see the prices on the darkroom equipment these days..."Say honey, let's buy a new house!" / "Why?" / "I need a darkroom so I can get all this equipment and gadgets real cheap sweetums..." Yea, right]

The other day I was flipping through the books and my notes on the Zone System in preparation for doing some calibration runs since everything is, well, now new. Then it dawned on me...How will this work without actual printing?? I don't have a densitometer. And I would like to have negatives that not only scan with relative ease but could be wet printed with ease as well at some point (either by me in the future or by a commercial lab).

Any suggestions on how to do this effectively?

Is there the ability to simulate a densitometer in Photoshop Elements {8 or 9} or one of the scanning tools?

Stoog

[markbarendt]

Two things,

1- When I use a good lab, I have yet to find a reasonably well exposed negative that they can't work with.

2- APUG is a site for traditional methods, DPUG is a place where you can ask about and discuss PS and the like.

[Dan Henderson]

This seems like a question more appropriately posted at DPUG, since most of us here are "20th Century" photographers.

[tomalophicon]

Apparently you can use some scanners as densitometrereretseres ... However, that aint for APUG.That's for DPUG!

You could try contact printing. You don't really need a darkroom or much equipment.

[Stoogley]

Well, I thought APUG was more appropriate since I'm looking to calibrate my film process.

[markbarendt]

Well, I thought APUG was more appropriate since I'm looking to calibrate my film process.

My question is "calibrate to what"?

The zone system was designed to match/calibrate/fit a given scene brightness range (through exposure and development manipulation) into a specific paper's brightness range printed on an enlarger.

If you want to calibrate to a scanner that is a very different question that is outside the scope of APUG.

If you just want great negs a text like Dunn & Wakefield's Exposure Manual and APUG can help. http://www.apug.org/forums/forum48/91808-placement.html

[MattKing]

Well, I thought APUG was more appropriate since I'm looking to calibrate my film process.

DPUG is the updated name for what was formerly called "hybridphoto". I don't think I would be out of line in saying that it's particular strength is in serving the needs of photographers who both shoot film and use digital techniques like scanning.

[Chan Tran]

Sorry if this is digital related but if you're going to scan your negative you don't need to calibrate anything. Most film scanner can get all the dynamic range the negative has.

[Ken N]

Yes, you are on the right track. The Zone System is a very very important thing to calibrate into your hybrid approach. A scanner's dynamic range is limited and you don't have the ability to do any dodging and burning during the scan. However, as noted by others, DPUG is the place to go for those answers. It's not that most here aren't doing it, but most here are not admitting that they are doing it.

On a related note, I'm been mostly hybrid for the past couple of years because of the condo we purchased. Well, it's for sale and we're looking for a place that I can build a massive darkroom.

[ic-racer]

For me the major change is the availability of high quality multigrade paper, thus reducing the need for various alterations in the "N" development.