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middle tone, which is why spot meters usually cannot be used without knowing the
zone system. Sometimes green grass falls here.
+1 Stop (Zone VI): Medium light parts of an image. Skin and granite rocks go here.
For most landscape photos you'll set your light rocks here, and the shadows at -2
stops. Bright yellow is set at +2/3 stops.
+2 Stops (Zone VII): White things like snow and sheets of white Fome-cor are set
here.
+2.7 Stops (Zone VIII): This is where slide film goes clear.
This is how the zones of the classic zone system correspond to the analog bar graph
on your exposure meter:
Zone II = -3 stops
Zone III = -2 stops
Zone IV = -1 stop
Zone V = +- 0 stops
Zone VI = +1 stop
Zone VII = +2 stops
Zone VIII = +3 stops
If you are lucky, all the elements in your image will fall within -2 to +2. Usually they
won't. Sorry.
If your spot meter tells you that the shadows are darker than -2 stops that simply
means they will be fairly black, and if the whites get too much hotter than +2 that
they will be completely white or clear.
Slide film usually goes clear at +2.5 stops. It usually starts getting pretty murky at
below -2 stops, although you can still see things down to -4 stops on Velvia.
You need to think as a painter does and ask yourself at what level of tone you want
each part of your image to render. You need to be in control, and the Zone System
lets you be in control. Otherwise you'll simply be gambling that your images will "turn
out." With the Zone System you will know when you need to alter your lighting.
Problems
There will be plenty of occasions in nature where God is not putting the light range
where you want it. The Zone System is useful here because it tells you before you
waste a lot of film that you are probably going to get garbage and thus you can plan
or change the light or filtration accordingly.
What do you do if the lightest and darkest parts of the scene are beyond the range
of your film, typically +- 2 or 3 stops?
Simple: you have to change the lighting somehow. If you have a very high-contrast
scene there is no correct exposure and you will never get what you want.
© 2007 KenRockwell.com 73 converted by Sándor Nagy