When I started photographing landscapes, the only option was to use film, either black and white or color. When using black-and-white film, most of us used the zone system or a derivative of it. Even the people who cursed it for being overly narrow – it’s not – or some kind of magic (again, it’s not) were using this type of system in some way or another.
What impact does this have on today’s photographer, who often works using digital workflows? Its effect is very good! Simply because what we’re trying to do is get complete control over what we get in the original exposure so that we have maximum information for printing.
This does not mean that we have to use it all in creating the final image. However, if the information is not in the original exposure, it will not be useful in creating the final rendering, whether it is a print on your wall or if it is captured on your hard drive.
The Zone System is not a photographic religious dogma that must be followed without question and at any cost. My aim here is to dispel, at least partially – and I hope totally – the mystery created by many people who do not have a clear understanding of it and therefore cannot make any concrete statements about it. Are. Many people even make it so complicated that uneducated people run away in fear. The Zone System is a method of determining the most effective camera exposure and film processing combination, so that you can get the desired information on a film negative, almost always black and white film, which can then be easily printed on a piece of photographic paper. A side note here: Considering that most photographers no longer keep a wet, or traditional, darkroom, the information here will be useful to anyone using traditional film, even when scanning film for printing. Will go. There will also be a definite crossover for digital photographers.
Several years ago, I met a man who explained the use of the Zone System in such simple terms that I immediately, almost intuitively, understood the basics of using it to create those types of photographs, Which I dreamed of making, but it did not happen. To achieve this one must have technical knowledge. Frankly, from reading a lot of literature about its use and watching several YouTube videos on the subject, it has become clear that many people trying to teach it don’t have a solid understanding of it. In this post, which will come in several episodes, I will try to explain it clearly and in the simplest terms.
First, the purpose of using the zone system, as invented by the great American landscape artist Ansel Adams and his partner Fred Archer, is to be able to print an image on a piece of photographic paper that contains the original scene as seen in Impact is included. This is done using two stages which are completely interconnected and interdependent. The first part of the equation, which is the foundation, is film performance. If the film exposure is incorrect, it will make everything else in the image ranging from difficult to print to impossible to render. Remember that, in the time period in which this system was designed, there were no such things as digital cameras, only film. There was no instant review or histogram to check, so the photographer had to be precise in exposure, and process the film properly as the end result was always a black and white photographic print.
In the simplest possible terms, when using black and white film for the purposes of the zone system, all shadow detail is based solely on film exposure, and highlights are determined by film processing. To clarify, detail can only be retained in shadow areas by exposure. This is because once the shadows are fully developed, adding any reasonable amount of time to the film development will not yield useful detail. Once the exposure is made, shadow detail is set; Any additional development will not add shadow detail. Additionally, full development of shadow areas occurs very rapidly – typically about three minutes of development when an active developer solution is exposed to the film. For this reason, we always base the exposure on the darkest areas where we want printable detail and tonal separation. Highlights, on the other hand, will continue to develop as long as the film is exposed to an active developer solution. We can control how much contrast the negative produces by changing the amount of time the film is exposed to the active developer solution. More details on film processing later.
The first thing we should focus on is the performance of the film. Let me start by saying that all traditional black and white film exposure and ASA rating is based on shadow detail. This does not include so-called chromogenic black and white films because they are essentially color films without color pigments, and the chemical process is completely different from traditional black and white film. Without a long explanation of how ASA is determined, let me just say that it is based on the minimum amount of light required to make an exposure on a piece of film under laboratory conditions, not field conditions. But. Below that level, there will be no measurable change in the density of the film despite exposure to light. A cautionary note: the ASA of black and white film is almost always overestimated by at least one stop of light. For this reason, I expose the film I use most, Kodak T-Max 400, at an ASA of 200.
The first step in using the zone system to create highly printable negatives is to find the darkest area in the photo that will be useful to you in creating your final image. For that reason, I almost always look for that darkest area, point my spot meter at it, and take a reading.
Here’s an example of an image I’m working on right now. The film is T-Max 400, exposed at ASA of 200. The area selected for demonstration was placed on Zone IV.
The darkest and lowest metering areas, the shadows, tell me what my original exposure will be. The difference between the amount of light reflected from the darkest significant shadow area and the amount of light reflected from the brightest useful highlight is called the visible brightness range. The visible brightness range (the difference between the darkest area where I want printable detail and the area with the brightest highlight detail) helps determine how the film will be processed. In this case, the brightest important highlight area, where the light was reflecting off the rock in the foreground, and the area of deepest shadow were six stops. I decided that the glow of the water at the end of the lake was not of particular concern since it is a direct reflection of the open sky, and there was no detail there that I needed to record on film.
Traditional photographic paper can only print a tonal range of 4-5 stops. If the visible brightness range of the painted area exceeds 5 stops of light, an adjustment will have to be made in the processing of the film, or there will be areas that are too bright where details cannot be physically printed. In this case, since the difference between the darkest important shadow and the brightest important highlight was six stops, I reduced the film development by an amount that would compress the tone of the scene into the 4 ½-5 stop range.
Here is the zone scale representation. Note that the paper’s printable dynamic range bracket only goes from Zone IV to Zone VIII. It would be very difficult or even impossible to print descriptions in Zone IX. When observing this, it should be noted that even though film is capable of reproducing each step of this scale, photographic papers are not capable of printing them. I will also note that in a digital workspace, the capabilities of a printer, such as my Epson wide format printer, are very different from darkroom printing paper.
As stated earlier, highlight detail is controlled in film processing, and will be covered in the next column.
The photographic paper I print on at the moment is Ilford Fiber Based (FB) paper. I use glossy or F surface paper, which gives a very nice shine when air dried, not an objectionable glossy finish: Ilford Fiber Based Paper,
