Is the Zone System Applicable to Digital?

As most who know me know that much of my photography these days revolves around shooting film, principally using a Pentax 6x7 Medium Format camera and those with whom I have spoken with about this will note that I use the Zone System, a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.

The Zone System assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to different brightness values, with 0 representing black, 5 middle gray, and 10 pure white; these values are known as zones. 

Yesterday, my teaching partner, Rashad Penn (www.rashadpennphotography.com) and I taught an advanced photography class and during this class we presented the Zone System to the students. These students obviously shoot digital and with the help of http://www.myphotocentral.com/articles/zone-system-for-digital-exposures/#respond we presented the images at the bottom of this post to show that the Zone System is indeed applicable to digital and we were able to show the students how to apply the Zone System to their shooting process.

As can be seen in the image only Zone III through Zone VII are applicable to the vast majority of digital camera sensors as the dynamic range of these sensors is from -2EV to +2EV, anything outside these ranges will result is no data being available within the image.

One thing newer photogs should understand is that unlike film that requires a lot of light to gain proper exposure digital actually requires less light, in fact, it is better to under-expose in digital photography and to bring shadow detail out in post processing. Film has a higher dynamic range than does digital.

When shooting film, I meter for the shadows, determine which Zone I want the shadows to be in for the final image but for digital I meter for the highlights. There will be occasion, with digital, that the dynamic range of the scene will fall outside the capability of the sensor. At those times, depending on what I want to use the image for, Ii will either severely under-exposed to retain highlights, knowing that some of the shadow detail will not be retrievable, I will look for a composition to exclude much of the highlights or I will forgo the capture altogether if I can return to the scene under better lighting conditions.

So, how do I recommend using the Zone System in digital? I suggest finding a midtone, within the scene and which will be included in your composition, meter off this midtone and zero out the meter in your camera. Once you have done this increase your shutter speed so that the marking on the meter in your camera is one bar to the left, this should be 1/3rd to a 1/2 stop under-exposed, capture the image and this should result in a very slightly under-exposed image that can be adjusted in post processing. The reality is, unless the difference between your highlights and shadows falls within -2EV and +2EV, highly unlikely in bright sunny conditions, when most of those who use their cameras for capturing family moments are likely to shoot, you cannot get it completely right in camera but you are better off, with digital, to under-expose than you are to over-expose.

I don’t have a Gray Card so how do I find a midtone?

To find a midtone within the scene look for reds or greens or even whites in full shadow. Barring that……I bet most are completely unaware of this…………..open your camera bag and in the majority of cases what you will find is that the inside liner and dividers of your camera bag are………..very close to, if not, 18% gray. Pull out one of the dividers, place it in the same light as your subject and meter off this. If the dividers are not removable place your camera bag in the scene, lift the top flap of the bag and meter off the inside.

This has been a very broad overview of the use of the Zone System in digital photography.

There is a vast amount of information online about the Zone System but a couple of pages I think you will find helpful, including the one I provided a link for above are:

http://www.myphotocentral.com/articles/zone-system-for-digital-exposures/#respond

https://luminous-landscape.com/zone-system/

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system--photo-5607

I hope this article has be helpful and insightful for you and I welcome your feedback. Leave me a comment in the Comments section. Also include any topics you would to see me cover.

Thank you for your time and attention.

B&W Film vs Colour Film

I am thoroughly enjoying my return to shooting and developing film. I have to be honest though, while I do like the more muted colours I am getting from shooting Portra, colour film, my preference is B&W film because B&W offers no distraction., which is what colour can sometimes bring. Often times the colour in an image is more noticeable than the image itself.

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”

Ted Grant

I agree with this.

Why do I love B&W

I love B&W principally because of what I said above, there is no colour to distract the eye. However, something that is right up there with that……..heavy contrast.

If you look at my B&W images, film or digital, you will see that my images are contrasty. With digital much if this comes in post processing because digital has less dynamic range than film. With film I get the contrast I want by using the Zone System:

https://www.alanrossphotography.com/ansel-adams-zone-system/

In short, the Zone System uses a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is pure black and 10 is pure white. Zone 5 is middle gray or 18% gray.

I use an old Pentax Digital Spot meter, which when pointed at something within the scene, typically the darkest shadow detail, gives me an exposure reading number. I put that reading into Zone 5, which is 18% gray. As I don't want my shadows to be 18% gray, depending on the scene and what image I have in my mind, I will place the shadows in Zone 3. In doing this I can retain some details in the shadows.

“Expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights “

Granted the Zone System was really developed for sheet film but I have been happy with the results i get from rolled film, 35mm or 120.

I typically shoot at box speed and develop normally.

Truth be told, where I have pushed the film, that is shooting ISO 400 film at say ISO 800 or ISO 1600, I do get more contrast but I also get more film grain. I love grain but as I primarily shoot Kodak Tri-X 400 I tend to get sufficient grain shooting at box speed, with normal development in Rodinal developer.

So, the bottomline is I am thoroughly enjoy going back to my roots in film and for 2019 I have only used my digital cameras twice, both times for sporting events.