Limited indeed!

Unless you are taking multiple frames of the same subject, each frame has different requirements for exposure and development. You can do that with sheet film but it can be tedious as Adams applied it.

To use the same development for different subjects on roll film involves having to compromise. That usually means picking the development that reduces the contrast of the scene with the greatest DR to the detriment of the remaining frames. By the time you start to compromise you have pretty much abandoned the Zone System.

Imagine taking a series of digital images of different subjects and then applying the same contrast and tone curve adjustments to all of the images. It's just not going to work.

Yes, the Zone System is pointless for anything but sheet film. But learning about how it works is a useful educational process.

While I find this illuminating, on a certain level, I am more confused than ever, about how to capture the most usable data in my shots. I already try and push the exposure to the right, but with no real rhyme or reason Can someone detail a simple process by which we novices can ascertain where the actual limit is for a camera. The blinkies on my Nikon don’t reliably tell me where the “limit” is and I would love to figure out. How does one use the gray card and what does one do after shooting it? I know my ignorance is on full display, but would appreciate help from the forum.

Maybe this link would help.
https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system--photo-5607


https://www.techradar.com/news/the-a-to-z-of-photography-exposure-compensation
A plus (+) setting will make your image brighter than the 'standard' exposure, while a minus (-) setting makes an image darker, with each movement up or down the scale recorded as a 'stop', or an increment thereof. A full stop adjustment will double or halve the exposure, but most cameras offer intermediate 'half-stop' or 'third-stop' increments for more subtle adjustment.

I, II, [III, IV, V, VI, VII,] VIII, IX , X normal metering exposure centred on zone 5 the mid tone detail +/- 2 stops.

I, II, III, IV, [V, VI, (VII), VIII, IX ], X metered on the highlight zone 7 your subject is under exposed 2 stops

make it brighter +1 exposure compensation

I, II, III, [IV, V, (VI), VII, VIII], IX , X +1 exposure compensation subject under exposed 1 stop

I, II, [III, IV,(V), VI, VII], VIII, IX , X +2 exposure compensation normal exposure.

ok how about if the highlight is in zone 8

I, II, III, IV, V, [VI, VII, (VIII), IX , X] ok subject is now black

I, II, III, IV, [V, VI, (VII), VIII, IX , X] +1 exposure compensation subject in shadows highlights not blown

I, II, III, [IV, V, (VI), VII, VIII], IX , X +2 exposure compensation highlights still not blown subject under exposed 1 stop.

if the brightest highlight was zone 6 then you would be over exposing the subject by 1 stop with 2 + stops compensation.

If you are metering off highlights then it seems adding +2 to the value would ensure they don't blow
if metering the subject then -1 would allow for 3 stop higher highlights instead of the normal 2 stops with detail.
if you are pushing to the right then +1 stop on the subject would give just one stop for highlights in the jpeg but 2 stops can be recovered from the raw.

Is that confusing ?

While I find this illuminating, on a certain level, I am more confused than ever, about how to capture the most usable data in my shots. I already try and push the exposure to the right, but with no real rhyme or reason Can someone detail a simple process by which we novices can ascertain where the actual limit is for a camera. The blinkies on my Nikon don't reliably tell me where the limit is and I would love to figure out. How does one use the gray card and what does one do after shooting it? I know my ignorance is on full display, but would appreciate help from the forum.

While I find this illuminating, on a certain level, I am more confused than ever, about how to capture the most usable data in my shots. I already try and push the exposure to the right, but with no real rhyme or reason Can someone detail a simple process by which we novices can ascertain where the actual limit is for a camera. The blinkies on my Nikon don’t reliably tell me where the “limit” is and I would love to figure out. How does one use the gray card and what does one do after shooting it? I know my ignorance is on full display, but would appreciate help from the forum.

Thanks to all of you that responded. Obviously this was a springboard for discussion rather that a question. My original assertion was that metering of the lightest area, and adding only one stop was too conservative, and would sacrifice detail in the very dark areas.

Then Gene51 counters with an excellent photo of a Peregrine Falcon where he metered the bird’s breast and then added only one stop. The histogram shows that some of the brightest pixels were near the right edge. This does show that he knows what he’s talking about. However, he did mention that that with a different camera, he could have gone two or more stops over without blowing the highlights.

Regardless of the number of stops, in your example 4 or 5, you want to place the brightest part of the scene no more than 3 stops, per your example camera limits. The processing of the image will handle the darker parts of the scene.
--Bob

Thanks to rmalarz for sharing his test. What I take away from this experiment is the 5th and 6th shot in the second set.
• 5th shot, 3/10 sec, 3 stops overexposed. There is a difference between the medium grey card and the white card.
• 6th shot, 7/10 sec, 4 stops overexposed. There is not any difference.

It seems fairly easy to determine the limits of your camera.
1) Meter off of a grey card and take a shot at 1, 2, 3, and 4 stops over exposure.
2) Use Rawdigger to look for blown highlights on each shot.
3) If 2 over doesn’t blow the highlights but 3 does, then take more shots at 2-1/3 over and 2-2/3 over.
4) Again, look for blown highlights on each shot.
5) Now you know exactly how many stops to add to the metering of the brightest areas, in order to prevent blowing the highlights.

Is this exposing to the right or is it exposing to the left? It depends!

Let’s assume that you determine that your camera can expose three stops over middle grey without blowing the highlights.

If the scene has highlights that are three stops brighter than middle grey, then this technique will have the same results as metering off middle grey with no adjustments.

If the scene has highlights that are only one stop brighter than middle grey, then this technique will cause the scene to be overexposed (but no blown highlights) and is called ETTR (expose to the right). This will give the darkest of the darks a little more quality. Some would argue that this is insignificant.

If the scene has highlights that are four or five stops brighter than middle grey, then this technique will cause the scene to be underexposed (but no blown highlights) and is called ETTL (expose to the left). This will give the darkest of the darks a little less quality, but prevent blown highlights. This is generally agreed to be a good tradeoff.