[ T h e Z O N E _ S Y S T E M ]
The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer. Adams described the Zone System as "[...] not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939–40."
The Zone System provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results. Although it originated with black-and-white sheet film, the Zone System is also applicable to roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography.
P r i n c i p l e s
I. Visualization
An expressive image involves the arrangement and rendering of various scene elements according to the photographer’s desire. Achieving the desired image involves image management (placement of the camera, choice of lens, and possibly the use of camera movements) and control of image values. The Zone System is concerned with control of image values, ensuring that light and dark values are rendered as desired. Anticipation of the final result before making the exposure is known as visualization.
II. Exposure metering
Any scene of photographic interest contains elements of different luminance; consequently, the “exposure” actually is many different exposures. The exposure time is the same for all elements, but the image illuminance varies with the luminance of each subject element. Exposure is often determined using a reflected-light exposure meter. The earliest meters measured overall average luminance; meter calibration was established to give satisfactory exposures for typical outdoor scenes. However, if the part of a scene that is metered includes large areas of unusually high or low reflectance, or unusually large areas of highlight or shadow, the “effective” average reflectance may differ substantially from that of a “typical” scene, and the rendering may not be as desired. An averaging meter cannot distinguish between a subject of uniform luminance and one that consists of light and dark elements. When exposure is determined from average luminance measurements, the exposure of any given scene element depends on the relationship of its reflectance to the effective average reflectance. For example, a dark object of 4% reflectance would be given a different exposure in a scene of 20% effective average reflectance than it would be given in a scene of 12% reflectance. In a sunlit outdoor scene, the exposure for the dark object would also depend on whether the object was in sunlight or shade. Depending on the scene and the photographer’s objective, any of the previous exposures might be acceptable. However, in some situations, the photographer might wish to specifically control the rendering of the dark object; with overall average metering, this is difficult if not impossible. When it is important to control the rendering of specific scene elements, alternative metering techniques may be required. It is possible to make a meter reading of an individual scene element, but the exposure indicated by the meter will render that element as a medium gray; in the case of a dark object, that result is usually not what is desired. Even when metering individual scene elements, some adjustment of the indicated exposure is often needed if the metered scene element is to be rendered as visualized.
III. Exposure zones
In the Zone System, measurements are made of individual scene elements, and exposure is adjusted based on the photographer’s knowledge of what is being metered: a photographer knows the difference between freshly fallen snow and a black horse, while a meter does not. Much has been written on the Zone System, but the concept is very simple—render light subjects as light, and dark subjects as dark, according to the photographer’s visualization. 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. To make zones easily distinguishable from other quantities, Adams and Archer used Roman rather than Arabic numerals. Strictly speaking, zones refer to exposure,[6] with a Zone V exposure (the meter indication) resulting in a mid-tone rendering in the final image. Each zone differs from the preceding or following zone by a factor of two, so that a Zone I exposure is twice that of Zone 0, and so forth. A one-zone change is equal to one stop, corresponding to standard aperture and shutter controls on a camera. Evaluating a scene is particularly easy with a meter that indicates in exposure value (EV), because a change of one EV is equal to a change of one zone. Many small- and medium-format cameras include provision for exposure compensation; this feature works well with the Zone System, especially if the camera includes spot metering, but obtaining proper results requires careful metering of individual scene elements and making appropriate adjustments.
IV. Zones, the physical world and the print
The relationship between the physical scene and the print is established by characteristics of the negative and the print. Exposure and development of the negative are usually determined so that a properly exposed negative will yield an acceptable print on a specific photographic paper. Although zones directly relate to exposure, visualization relates to the final result. A black-and-white photographic print represents the visual world as a series of tones ranging from black to white. Imagine all of the tonal values that can appear in a print, represented as a continuous gradation from black to white:
Blending each section into one tone that represents all the tonal values in that section (upper part). Numbering each section with Roman numerals from 0 for the black section to X for the white one (lower part).
Zones as tone and texture
Adams distinguished among three different exposure scales for the negative:
// The full range from black to white, represented by Zone 0 through Zone X.
// The dynamic range comprising Zone I through Zone IX, which Adams considered to represent the darkest and lightest “useful” negative densities.
// The textural range comprising Zone II through Zone VIII. This range of zones conveys a sense of texture and the recognition of substance.
He described the zone scale and its relationship to typical scene elements:
T e c h n i q u e
I. Exposure
A dark surface under a bright light can reflect the same amount of light as a light surface under dim light. The human eye would perceive the two as being very different but a light meter would measure only the amount of light reflected, and its recommended exposure would render either as Zone V. The Zone System provides a straightforward method for rendering these objects as the photographer desires. The key element in the scene is identified, and that element is placed on the desired zone; the other elements in the scene then fall where they may. With negative film, exposure often favors shadow detail; the procedure then is to
1. Visualise the darkest area of the subject in which detail is required, and place it on Zone III. The exposure for Zone III is important, because if the exposure is insufficient, the image may not have satisfactory shadow detail. If the shadow detail is not recorded at the time of exposure, nothing can be done to add it later.
2. Carefully meter the area visualised as Zone III and note the meter’s recommended exposure (the meter gives a Zone V exposure).
3. Adjust the recommended exposure so that the area is placed on Zone III rather than Zone V. To do this, use an exposure two stops less than the meter’s recommendation.
For info specific to the Film Development and Darkroom Process, used by Ansel Adams please refer directly to the dedicated part of the source article. We will here concentrate on the application in a purely digital environment.
Digital photography
The Zone System can be used in digital photography just as in film photography; Adams himself anticipated the digital image already 1981. As with color reversal film, the normal procedure is to expose for the highlights and process for the shadows. Until recently, digital sensors had a much narrower dynamic range than color negative film, which, in turn, has less range than monochrome film. But an increasing number of digital cameras have achieved wider dynamic ranges. One of the first was Fujifilm’s FinePix S3 Pro digital SLR, which has their proprietary “Super CCD SR sensor” specifically developed to overcome the issue of limited dynamic range, using interstitial low-sensitivity photosites (pixels) to capture highlight details. The CCD is thus able to expose at both low and high sensitivities within one shot by assigning a honeycomb of pixels to different intensities of light. Greater scene contrast can be accommodated by making one or more exposures of the same scene using different exposure settings and then combining those images. It often suffices to make two exposures, one for the shadows, and one for the highlights; the images are then overlapped and blended appropriately, so that the resulting composite represents a wider range of colors and tones. Combining images is often easier if the image-editing software includes features, such as the automatic layer alignment in Adobe Photoshop, that assist precise registration of multiple images. Even greater scene contrast can be handled by using more than two exposures and combining with a feature such as Merge to HDR in Photoshop CS2 and later. A simplified approach has been adopted by Apple Inc. as a selectable HDR option in later versions of the iPhone. The tonal range of the final image depends on the characteristics of the display medium. Monitor contrast can vary significantly, depending on the type (CRT, LCD, etc.), model, and calibration (or lack thereof). A computer printer’s tonal output depends on the number of inks used and the paper on which it is printed. Similarly, the density range of a traditional photographic print depends on the processes used as well as the paper characteristics.
Histograms
Most high-end digital cameras allow viewing a histogram of the tonal distribution of the captured image. This histogram, which shows the concentration of tones, running from dark on the left to light on the right, can be used to judge whether a full tonal range has been captured, or whether the exposure should be adjusted, such as by changing the exposure time, lens aperture, or ISO speed, to ensure a tonally rich starting image.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System )
