The Zone System

The Zone System was an attempt to coordinate exposure and printing for black and white photography.  It was utilised in the days of film but fall short when used in colour and digital photography.

The system was a solution for in adequacies that were present in the basic photographic process, but these people would argue about its relevance in contemporary photography as some would argue these 'inadequacies' are being dealt with in a different way in the digital age.

Key concept
Dividing the tonal range into 10 zones.  To shoot using the range you first had to have a mental picture of how the end result would look.  Then you considered the placement - where the tones would fit in the scene - which would be the brightest or the darkest.  By assigning one tone to a particular part of the scene the other tone levels would automatically be assigned.  Finally the use of contrast control determined how tones would fall by varying the exposure and development.

The 10 Zone System

Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure

Along side the course materials I have revisited Michael Freeman's book on exposure, Perfect Exposure.

I first bought this book in the summer of 2011 as I wanted to learn more about exposure and I also wanted to be able to work in manual mode.  This book enables me to this but it also has a wealth of information on how your camera works from metering to sensor range.  

I think for me this book made things click into place.  I could finally make sense of all the elements that feed into getting a good exposure.  Beforehand there were simply floating around and were unconnected.  

I particularly liked the section (most of the book) that was devoted to what Freeman calls The Twelve.  These are the most common exposure situations you are likely to come across as a photographer.  I have since made a little table up of these twelve that I can refer to in the field.  It is always good to have something to refer to if you get stuck or just need to have a little assistance with a new or particularly challenging exposure scene.  

As I continue with the course I plan to try and take as many shots to meet these specific situations rather than rely solely on the examples in the book.  I will post these as I got along.