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This is where many amateurs get lost: exposure cannot correct for bad light. OK,
nothing can fix bad light. You have to wait for it. Photography takes patience. You
can try a graduated Neutral Density filter which often helps bring down an overly
bright sky or too dark foreground. Here's an example of one.
Some people try to tweak development to compensate for crummy light. It's much
better to fix the light. Ignore the temptation to tweak development; this is why we in
Hollywood pull up three trucks of lighting equipment to light a scene outdoors.
If you do your own developing the Zone System gets far more complex if you want to
adjust the exposure and development to attempt to fit the range of the scene into the
range of the film. This used to be popular in B/W before good variable contrast paper
was available, as in Ansel's day. Today B/W shooters make sure that they expose
enough for the shadows (make sure everything for which you need detail is exposed
at not less than -2 stops) and then use a lower contrast setting for their paper.
If you're asking, no, I have no idea how Ansel got ten zones. Today we only get
about seven. OK, actually I do know how he got ten zones: Ansel used less
development and slower speeds for his negatives than the manufacturer's ratings.
We can't do that with color today. You can do this in B/W, and you have to do a lot of
custom testing and developing.
In Ansel's day everyone shot sheet film and used graded paper. Therefore it made
sense to develop each sheet differently so it could print on grade 2 paper.
Today people shoot roll film (your Nikon or Mamiya) and need to develop the whole
roll the same way. One uses VC (variable contrast) papers to control the contrast,
not developing.
You always develop color the same way, unlike B/W. Changing developing times for
color often messes up all the color balances.
I have pushed and pulled Velvia and saw little contrast change. The colors shift and
the black level changes, but the contrast does not vary as does B/W film.
You have to change the light yourself or wait for God to do it. This is art. Only your
heart can tell you what to do. You have to know at what level you want various light
and dark areas to render, just as a painter has to decide what colors to take from her
palette. There are no written formulae for good photos. Ansel covered this quite well
in his books.
© 2007 KenRockwell.com 74 converted by Sándor Nagy