The Zone System - What is It?
Simplified definition:The zone system is a systems approach to the measurement of light relating to photography.
What is the Zone System? Making an exposure on your film to light produces a latent image that can be made visible by chemical development.
In the same way, printing paper exposed to light also forms a latent image and is also made visible by a chemical process.
In both these cases the resulting image is composed of masses of tiny particles of silver.
The black silver forms an area most solidly where the light was the brightest.
The film sees the subjects highlights as dark tones and the shadows as light tones.
The final film image is referred to as a negative because the tones are reversed to the original image.
Tone reversal occurs whenever a silver based film - i.
e.
all black and white films - is exposed and developed.
Therefore the print image is really a negative result of the negative that provides us with a positive image approximating the subject.
If in this process both film and paper were given optimum exposures and development the print will record the subject in tones from light to dark in a satisfactory manner.
If significant error occurs anywhere in this process, the final image will not be satisfactory.
If the subjects' brightness and contrast are not estimated correctly, the film will not be optimum and therefore the print may be difficult to print or in the extreme not printable at all.
Here lay our inherent problem in obtaining a fine quality print.
The zone system uses sensitometry - the study of light sensitive emulsions - to make an objective analysis of the effects of exposure and development on film and paper, to compile operational information for a systems approach in the field.
This is an oversimplified view but provides a basic understanding of what the zone system sets out to achieve.
The zone system is a powerful approach to understanding quality image making and takes the guesswork out of your photography.
What is the Zone System? Making an exposure on your film to light produces a latent image that can be made visible by chemical development.
In the same way, printing paper exposed to light also forms a latent image and is also made visible by a chemical process.
In both these cases the resulting image is composed of masses of tiny particles of silver.
The black silver forms an area most solidly where the light was the brightest.
The film sees the subjects highlights as dark tones and the shadows as light tones.
The final film image is referred to as a negative because the tones are reversed to the original image.
Tone reversal occurs whenever a silver based film - i.
e.
all black and white films - is exposed and developed.
Therefore the print image is really a negative result of the negative that provides us with a positive image approximating the subject.
If in this process both film and paper were given optimum exposures and development the print will record the subject in tones from light to dark in a satisfactory manner.
If significant error occurs anywhere in this process, the final image will not be satisfactory.
If the subjects' brightness and contrast are not estimated correctly, the film will not be optimum and therefore the print may be difficult to print or in the extreme not printable at all.
Here lay our inherent problem in obtaining a fine quality print.
The zone system uses sensitometry - the study of light sensitive emulsions - to make an objective analysis of the effects of exposure and development on film and paper, to compile operational information for a systems approach in the field.
This is an oversimplified view but provides a basic understanding of what the zone system sets out to achieve.
The zone system is a powerful approach to understanding quality image making and takes the guesswork out of your photography.
