The Zone System
The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer in 1939–1940. According to my instructor, George Smeltzer (short bio below post), if we (the class) can even understand the basics of how this systems works, our pictures will be that much more better. So here is my attempt to explain what I know about the Zone System.
If we had to break down photography into the most primitive components, photography is the act of capturing/recording light. The most primitive camera one can use to take a photo with is pinhole camera. Now fast-warding a few hundred years, leaving the pinhole camera behind and blazing toward the digital photography era, that same basic components which makes the pinhole camera a camera is still used with our Canon 5D Mark II. The only difference between pinhole and digital cameras is within a digital camera, it has more elements that can be used to manipulate the light. So how do modern cameras sees light? To a camera, when it is evaluating/metering light, it is basically sensing/measuring the intensity/brightness of light (in general). It does not care about the amount of red, blue, green, etc which is in the mix of light.
I’m not sure if you have heard this before, but darkness is just the absence of light. If we had to represent dark to light, it would be a smooth gradient from black to white. So this how the Zone System works. First it breaks this smooth gradient of black to white into eleven sections. The sections are labeled from 0 to 10. Black (no light) is 0 and White (bright light) is 10. So when you set your camera into automatic or even some type of priority setting, the camera is programed to adjust your settings so all your picture will have the same type of light exposure. According to Zone System, this exposure of light is represented in section 5. Section 5 is also known as “middle gray.”
Now if you have a dark scene (light is in section 3), your camera will increase your exposure in order to get the amount of light up to section 5. Or if you have a really bright scene (light is in section 8), your camera will try and decrease your exposure to get the amount of light down to section 5. So with the dark scene, when you take a picture, the picture will appear brighter than the actual scene. The bright scene will appear darker than the actual scene.
So what does that all mean? It means, if you are taking a picture in the dark, in order for the picture to remain dark like your scene, you will need force your camera to under expose the picture. If you are taking a picture in bright light, in order for your picture to remain bright like your scene, you will need to force your camera to over expose the picture.
Unfortunately that is the limit of my understand of the Zone System. So please do not ask me if going from section 4 to section 5 if that is exposure compensation of -1 stop. If you are interested in reading more about the Zone System, visit the follow wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System
George Smeltzer
George’s passion for photography has taken him nearly across Canada. This Ottawa valley-boy hit the scene after studying photography at Algonquin College in Ottawa. One of George’s first jobs was taking action shots for Wilderness Tours of weekend warriors whitewater rafting on the Ottawa River. He then worked in custom photo finishing for several years, but felt an urgent need to pick up his camera professionally again. He returned to Wilderness Tours for another high-octane summer, before the siren song of BC’s mountains lured him to Vancouver over eight years ago. Shortly after moving west, George assisted Dave and the late Mark Montizambert of Montizambert Photography. He has shot for a wide variety of clients, including BC Lottery, McDonald’s, Relaxus Products, Solus Decor, Tin Drum Interiors and Gabriela Adamov Garden Design. George spent eight years shooting portrait photography for The Artona Group, as well as his own commercial work. (taken from the Focal Point – Instructors page)
