larryepage Loc: North Texas area

The problem with the spot meters built into every one of my cameras is that the spot is just too big to be useful. 8mm is the smallest any of them will go. That's one third the height of a FX frame and half the height of a DX frame...too big to isolate any useful feature most of the time.

gwilliams6

Very Nice,

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

Some may remember an article in either Popular or Modern Photography which reported the results of extensive tests with 35mm Tri-X at various ASA ratings. They authors liked ASA 50 as the best overall rating for IQ and grain. Obviously that's not very fast for many scenarios. I sometimes exposed at ASA 3200 because I had to. My favorite B/W film was Plus-X at ASA 32. I heard other B/W films were better than Kodak's, but I was happy with price and the results. Pulling Plus-X 2 stops helped me use what I adapted from the Zone System thinking that, when possible, get the widest latitude on the negative when the light was sufficient for slower films.

BebuLamar

John Sexton printed many Adams' prints but I have never heard his son made prints. His son talked about him in several videos but he never mentioned making or even helping him make print.

BebuLamar

Yah all Weston's sons are photographers and I think even his grand daughter Cara Weston is photographer too.

gwilliams6

I defer to your knowledge here, maybe it was Sexton that made my Adams prints. They do have the certified stamp, photograph by Ansel Adams on the back.

Cheers

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Thank you very much for the comment and thumbs, gwilliams.
--Bob

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

The first item for any photographer is to understand that the first or primary purpose for the Zone System was to give photographers a syntax for photography. Zone System is a language that can be used to describe what is seen and later to use in describing tat scene and the resulting outcome or in modern parlance the postproduction outcome. If I say that a zone (be it gray or a color is in Zone 5 (V), then any other photographer can visualize that density. This is the first and most powerful aspect of the zone system.

Now to the heart of the major issue of Adams History with exposure and where it lies with the modern digital technology. In the early history of photographic practice Adams put forward a concept for film exposure and post processing, the famous "expose of the shadow and develop for the shadow". This is a great truth and it applies to FILM and it's nature of photographic technique.

It was Adams great argument with Willium Mortenson and his stance that one should "expose for the high lights and the shadows would take care of themselves". Mortenson's concept was sound for what he was doing, but it really did not apply to photography in general. He clearly explained what and why he held this notion and it does apply well with studio work where one is taking images with artificial light in a controlled studio environment. Modern studio photographers are well aware of this idea though some, in fact few understand the why and how this works. I say this to give the nod to Mortensons grasp of his own work and general artificial light photography.

All of that said, back to the issue. It is good to know the language of photography, mainly visualization and the photographer's syntax. This is critical, in film we indeed do "expose for the shadow and develop for the shadow". This is a great and critical truth. With digital image making you are running a fools errand to think in such terms, it is just NOT TRUE. In digital photography one should "expose for the highlights and manage the shadow in post processing". To think in any other terms the photographer is delusional.

There are many ways in post to manage a digital image, even in a RAW file BUT, if there is no or little information available at post production you are simply out of luck. So with ANY digital processing (this would include a digital clone of a negative or positive in any film based technology), you need to have all the available information so that you can adjust and modify the images during post processing. It real is as simple as that. Think, lack of information is the hob goblin of the image.

In simplicity conclusion, with digital one should ALWAYS expose for the highlights PERIOD!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

The digital zone system has been around for a couple of decades. Several people worked on a digital version back in the beginning of digital and some still play around with developing it further. There are plugins and full apps for it. A lot easier to do in digital than with film. Back in the day, I used it with everything from 35 mm to 4x5 and 8x10.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I had a Miranda Sensorex that had a 1 degree meter, I bought it in Tokyo on R&R from Vietnam, I understand that camera was never sold in the US or anywhere else but Japan. When the camera got damaged, and I took it in for repairs they told me they couldn't replace the 1 degree meter, the only one Miranda shipped to the US was I believe 5 degrees. I missed it a lot.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Interesting. I used to get around that issue with the 1 degree spot attatchment for the Gossen Luna Pro. For many years I found I prefered a hand held unit. I found it particilarly useful in incident mode for closeup endeavors.

Sorry this is a bit off topic but you sparked some good memories.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Many of us "Joe Commenman " could learn a lot from you. A simple tutorial example would be a good start.
By TZS I assume you mean Tota/tonal Zone System.

I opened the door to learning.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Sale in the US I don't know but it was sold in Germany and the European Exchange (Military store), where my Father bough one for my birthday. After two years of trying to get it to work, I found a fool to trade it for a Pentax 35mm SLR; thank God, the worst camera ever made!

Robin Dessureau

I have an Olympus OM 1 and 2s film camera that has both a spot meter reading and average reading. What I like about the Olympus Om film camera is that it is small and light, has great lenses, and the viewfinder shows almost 100% of what the negative will record, it was a camera ahead of its time, and the digital versions of this camera carry on with many of those features, plus we have a 5f stop IBIS stabilization

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Not dead, just look at Adobe: "Meet the brand new tools - Enhanced profiles to use in Adobe Lightroom 1.3/4.0 and later, Adobe Lightroom Classic 7.3/10.0 and later, Adobe Camera RAW 10.3/12.0 and later, Adobe "Photoshop CC 2018 v19.1.3/ 2021 v22.0 and later with Camera RAW plug-in."
The Zone System provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results. Although it originated with black-and-white sheet film, the Zone System is also applicable to roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography. First time retouchers, educators, and amateurs can use the Zone System inside Adobe Lightroom and ACR." The cost at the time of publication was $15
https://designbundles.net/raztrend/306148-zone-system-indicators-profiles-lightroom-and-acr