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The Zone System
Developed and popularized by Ansel Adams, the
Zone System is, in reality, a vocabulary which
makes describing luminance relationships in
photography clear and precise. It is a
classification for shades of gray, allowing us to
describe precisely the recording and manipulation
thereof.
If you have not already adopted a successful
personal style, I encourage you to consult The
New Ansel Adams Photographic Series , New York
Graphic Society, Boston, 1980, which is now
available in paperback.
The Zone scale is described as it relates to a
print (positive image) and uses Zone 0 as pure
black and Zone X as pure white. In the negative,
Zone 0 is represented by the absence of any density
other than film-base plus fog (fb+f).
Although the system was developed with a
doubling of exposure intended to represent each
successively darker tone, the non-linear nature of
film emulsions precludes making a negative strip
look like this. Without exceeding the intent of
this description, suffice to say that the Zone
Scale, in negative form, is illustrated above, with
Zone V as middle gray, and Zones II and VIII as the
extremes in which texture and detail must be
present.
Although the Zone System is most effective when
each negative can be evaluated, exposed and
developed individually, as with large formats, the
principles can be of value when applied to all film
formats, including
roll
film and the 8x11mm Minox.
An extensive website devoted to the Zone System
can be found at the
Cicada
Photography Resource.
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