Quoting Ansel Adams

[iCe]

I've had his 3 books for years... I don't recall giving them much more than a cursory glance. I started Ch 4 a little while ago and early on I found something that was true then and is equally true, if not more so, today.

Chapter 4, The Zone System (2nd paragraph)

"You may well ask why anyone would go to such pains to produce consistent negatives when we have printing papers available in several contrast grades and other printing controls that allow us to compensate for negatives of differing scales. While every such control has it's uses, it is best to strive for the optimum negative to minimize dependency on printing contrast control, since the tones of the print may be nest achieved with the use of normal contrast paper"

That right there is profound...

[bryanlindsey]

Translation to the 21st century: Get it right in-camera!

[iCe]

and you spend less time in the digital darkroom

[groovyone]

Dang skippy.

[johnastovall]

But along with that goes learning the zone system and previsuialtion. I know there have been attempts to develop the Zone system for digital but not sure how well they work. It'll also require shooters to go back to hand held spot meter and not using the in camera meter. With film one could work with different response curves with different films but I'm not sure that applies to digital or translates well.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by iCe

"You may well ask why anyone would go to such pains to produce consistent negatives when we have printing papers available in several contrast grades and other printing controls that allow us to compensate for negatives of differing scales. While every such control has it's uses, it is best to strive for the optimum negative to minimize dependency on printing contrast control, since the tones of the print may be nest achieved with the use of normal contrast paper"

That right there is profound...

Amen brother!

Allan

[KJ Smith]

He said a lot of good stuff.

[iCe]

Originally Posted by KJ Smith

He said a lot of good stuff.

If he was alive today he probably would have invented "bling bling dawg" and all sorts of snappy phrases Then again... maybe not...

The Zone system, I would think, could be of service with digital. Unless I'm off the mark, which is entirely possible, it's about visualizing 18% gray (zone V) and where the shadows and highlights fall in relation to that. Shadows need to fall no lower than 3 stops below 18% gray and highlights no higher than 3 stops above 18% gray. I use a gray card for the occasional portrait. Set the exposure so that the middle is in the middle and the ends are on the end but not falling off and you've got properly exposed image.

All that said, I am finding that I think more about the shot with the LF camera. A lot more.

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

But along with that goes learning the zone system and previsuialtion. I know there have been attempts to develop the Zone system for digital but not sure how well they work. It'll also require shooters to go back to hand held spot meter and not using the in camera meter. With film one could work with different response curves with different films but I'm not sure that applies to digital or translates well.

I think any attempt to directly/literally translate the zone system to digital would be kind of pointless. But you can certainly take the general idea of previsualizing the final image and then determining what exposure to use so that you can get the final image you want.

Oh and what is it about the zone system that would force one to use a hand-held spot-meter when any capable camera will have a perfectly good spot-meter built in, that will if anything be more accurate since it's TTL?

[KJ Smith]

Why do the zone system ???


" There's no end in sight. Electronic photography will soon be superior to anything we have now. The first advance will be with the exploration of existing negatives. I believe the electronic processes will enhance them. I could get superior prints from my negatives using electronics. Then the time will come when you will be able to make the entire photograph electronically. With the extremely high resolution and the enormous control you can get from electronics, the results will be fantastic. I wish I were young again."

Ansel Adams, Playboy, May 1983

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by KJ Smith

Why do the zone system ???


" There's no end in sight. Electronic photography will soon be superior to anything we have now. The first advance will be with the exploration of existing negatives. I believe the electronic processes will enhance them. I could get superior prints from my negatives using electronics. Then the time will come when you will be able to make the entire photograph electronically. With the extremely high resolution and the enormous control you can get from electronics, the results will be fantastic. I wish I were young again."

Ansel Adams, Playboy, May 1983

It would have been insteresting to see what someone with his vision and talent could do with a Phase One P65 back.

[iCe]

I think it would be interesting to see what someone like me, without any vision or talent, could do with a Phase One P65 Back... send me one please

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by iCe

I think it would be interesting to see what someone like me, without any vision or talent, could do with a Phase One P65 Back... send me one please

Hahaha, sadly I am right there with ya.

[PIC]

Originally Posted by iCe

I think it would be interesting to see what someone like me, without any vision or talent, could do with a Phase One P65 Back... send me one please

I have 2 - P+65 on my Mamiya 645 AFD's {645AFD same as Phase One}.

If you do 4x6 prints ... any camera will do ...
If you do 8x10 prints ... any Crop DSLR will do ...
If you do 16x20 prints ... any FF DSLR will do ...
If you do 30x40 prints ... a good MFDSLR is the menu ...

Rule of thumb it is but it is a pretty good one.
The reason why commercial photogs prefer MFDSLR is because customers often want bigger bang after they see the prints.

As for talent ... in this 21st century few really care ... its just bigger is better and well heeled photographers get well heeled clients.

Adams was pretty good at H Blad portraits -{see book A Adams 400 photographs} but I wonder what he would say about all this Digital Stuff when Sober and when Drunk. He was a great joker at parties with drink in hand.