BebuLamar

Within the 3 basic photography books by Adams (the camera, the negative and the print) he wrote a few pages about those relationship. His book "The Negative" is almost entirely about exposure but he no longer talked about those relationship. He basically just mentioned the relationship and let the readers decide on how to balance them.
While in the book "Understanding Exposure" by Peterson he gave the triangle his entire book and didn't say much on the light like Burkphoto said.

srt101fan

A beauty indeed!! Wait...is it so only in some beholders' eyes?

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

If you are not planning on doing your own film development you will not be able to use the zone system. The first step here is to use a densitometer or to experiment with the development of the film till you find the development time that better fits your prints. Sending the film to a professional lab will never achieve that. With b&w film the exposure is for an important shadow area which is usually exposed minus 2 stops from meter reading. The development of the film will control the highlights and that requires testing.

Ansel Adams used Tri-X with Kodak HC-110. That is exactly the same combination I used till I began to use digital. I still cannot get with digital the results I got with film and although digital has much more tonalities than a b&w film I have not been able to reproduce those tonalities. Perhaps I do not have the right software, perhaps I am missing something I ignore.

I am sure you have already learned some of the zone system theories but keep in mind that a good exposure with film means nothing if the right development time is not applied to the negatives. There is no way you could know what the right development time is for your camera and film till you use the densitometer of experiment, like I did, with the development you intend to use.

Good luck.

julian.gang

Yes, antique cameras are exciting!...Julian

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Well here at 8:40 EST I have read 5 of 5 pages of this and nobody mentioned that Angel Adams made great photographs with the tools he had perfected and he will never be replicated. Honor that.

A. T.

I totally understand what you're saying. Photography has become a passion in my later years and though I have several Nikon flagship DSLRs, I purchased this amazing Hasselblad CM strictly to further my education in this wonderful hobby with this beautiful vintage camera and first and foremost to have fun. It's also nice to own the camera that was on the Apollo mission to space. As I've said in a previous post, this Hasselblad is almost too beautiful to shoot. There's still so much to learn but I don't want to put a damper on this wonderful adventure by getting bogged down in technicalities, if that makes sense. My DSLRs will always be my go to cameras and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm not going to develop film. I would rather spend that time learning exposure manipulation with film and outsource the developing. I might experiment with scanning but that will be the extent of it. I will say again that I can't thank my faithful Hedgehogers for ALWAYS responding with endless knowledge and help, ALWAYS.

srt101fan

In my humble opinion, and as others have said, forget about the Zone System if you're not going to develop your films. Read about it for fun and education. And concentrate on learning about and using that magnificent engineering product you acquired.

I played around briefly with the Zone System in my younger days when I had a darkroom. I quickly realized it wasn't compatible with my type of shooting.

Enjoy that beautiful Hasselblad 500C that someone here called an "antique". Boy, does that make me feel old! 😳

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I have Ansel's books too, both the original series and the 1980s series. Do note, other authors have written new books specifically explaining how to use the Zone System for Digital Photography. Enjoy film and digital photography.

george19

Looking through old stuff and I have my Kodak photo guide (vintage early 1970s) which includes a wheel to evaluate exposure value (EV). You can see how changing aperture, shutter, and film ISO (ASA in those days) affected exposure.

So yes…the triangle was around, just by a different name. It just wasn’t so easy to change your film mid-roll, so only the pros in the field did that.

Your key choices were to increase shutter speed and kill DOF, or decrease shutter speed and use a tripod.

Amaize

I would recommend you add to your library Beyond the Zone System, by Phil Davis.

BebuLamar

Well the dial in my avatar does that too. But it's a relatively simple thing and thus Adams didn't dwell on it.

FlaGator

Thanks, Bob, for your helpful paper on use of a camera.

FlaGator

I attended Ansel Adams' lecture in Orlando years ago, still in the film camera era. Bought one of his books there. I have a collection of his high-quality calendars; those photos are suitable for framing.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Jack said: "Well here at 8:40 EST I have read 5 of 5 pages of this and nobody mentioned that Angel Adams made great photographs with the tools he had perfected and he will never be replicated."

Is it necessary to say it? I would mention it only to those not familiar with him or the zone system. When he was shooting during his young years with 4x5 cameras he was using a Pentax spot meter and although I am not sure, previously he was using a Weston Master which was not as precise.
When he photographed "Moon over Hernandez, New Mexico" he did not have his meter with him so it was rather dark and he took a guess at the exposure. The resulting negative was badly underexposed but his mastery of the darkroom made another work of art out of that negative. Moon over Hernandex has become one of his most famous work.

I guess we all work with what we have and know better.

A. T.

LOL, I certainly know what you mean, I'm 67 and sometimes forget how old I am. Thank you for your opinion which I will certainly follow. I will read for education but will focus on enjoying this wonderful "antique" camera.