FUN with The Zone System I have been intrigued with the zone system since the summer of 1980. By the time I got into my first darkroom in 1981, sheet film had been replaced as the de facto by 35 mm roll film (after 120 roll film, of course). Doing the zone system became harder. Then I was introduced to Ilford Multigrade paper, and, with a great deal of pre-planning, the zone system became a little easier.
With digital photography, it became that much easier, as once again, photographs can be treated differently on a frame by frame basis, instead of a roll by roll basis. The zone system and swing/tilt-shift/lift lens standard were the only two things drawing me towards view cameras, and now, with high resolution digital cameras and the digital darkroom, (such as darktable), I no longer need a view camera for either one. (Well, a swing/tilt-shift/lift lens standard would still be awesome!!!) One of the first things I had noticed, and was eager to try, when I first looked at darktable as an alternative to RawTherapee, was the zone system module. I tried using it to get the results I wanted, and found that it was much easier to use curves, or something else to achieve the goal. With the filmic RGB module, I find it so much easier (and more precise) than the zone system module ever was. If one understands precisely what the zone system is all about, then using the filmic module to achieve the goal is so much easier than attempting it any other way. The idea is to pick the greatest highlights and deepest shadows in which one desires to capture details, then expose and develop for it accordingly. This means from a practical DSC pov, expose the sensor such that the* highlights on the subject *in which one wants to retain detail is not near clipping, (so as to capture as much detail in the shadows, without losing details in the highlights, a.k.a., *expose the subject* to the right, or ETTR), then use the filmic module (ar any other appropriate module) to adjust the subjects highlights and shadows accordingly. The dynamic range scaling feature is absolutely a marvel with this. [ASIDE] For negative film, the zone system can be summarised as —and this is a huge oversimplification— expose for the shadow (get enough light so as to capture detail, or in other words, get enough density on the negative), and develop for the highlights (do not get too much density in the highlights), a.k.a., still expose to the right. This may mean over exposing and under developing, —pulling the film— when the shadows are too dark, or under exposing and over developing —pushing the film— when the shadows are too bright. Nothing has really changed with digital photography. [/ASIDE] Whereas the zone system module made it easier to indicate what parts of the *subject *fell into what zones, it did not add any value outside of such visualisation, (IMNSHO). The same can be achieved by using the clipping indicator, by setting the threshold values accordingly, and *observing the subject*. Not only so, but the tooltip of the new clipping indicator helps one make the adjustment based on the intended medium, including print. (It was sometimes a pain to get an image just right, then, after sending to the printers, realised that it had to be adjusted majorly). I recommend that those interested in the zone system first understand what the zote system was attempting to achieve, then learn how one can achieve the same results in the filmic module. Linear RGB is basically the zone system on steroids! (IMNSHO). That is my 2¢. Sincerely, Karim Hosein Top Rock Photography 754.999.1652 ____________________________________________________________________________ darktable user mailing list to unsubscribe send a mail to darktable-user+unsubscr...@lists.darktable.org
