The Zone System and is it Dead?

Recently on Twitter and probably elsewhere on social media there has been a bit of tension surrounding an article declaring the death of the Zone System. For the record I don’t believe the Zone System is dead, I think it’s as valid today as it’s ever been and there are many, many photographers using it to make awesome photographs.

If you don’t know what the Zone System is, I’ve provided some resources at the end of the post. Now, having said that, I don’t actually use the Zone System, not because it’s not valid, it just doesn’t suit my style of shooting. For a start I shoot only 135 and 120 roll films, there are articles that show you how the Zone System can still be applied to roll films (again resources linked at the end), but it’s too slow and convoluted for me. I’m a run and gun type of shooter, I see something I’ll take one or two shots and I’m off. I’m not the kind of guy to meter different areas of a scene, then do some calculations blah, blah.

If I shot Large Format and I was paying circa £5 per shot, it would be a different matter. Each shot counts with Large Format, you can’t afford to get your exposure wrong. With roll film however I don’t feel the need to be as careful, for me it’s about acceptable exposure rather than perfect/correct exposure. I don’t need my exposures to be perfect, I just need them to be good enough and on the whole I believe they are. I am absolutely positive (see what I did there) that my negatives wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. Anybody who really knows what they are about would look at my negatives and see lack of shadow detail or blown highlights and who knows what else. But for me they are good enough, most of the time anyway, some shots have absolutely horrible exposure, but 99% are good enough.

Metering Method

My metering method is pretty simple, I’m not saying it’s ideal or that anyone else should use it, but it’s what works for me. I use the same method whether I’m shooting Black and White or Colour, it doesn’t matter to me. The only time I change my method is when I shoot slide film, that’s a different matter entirely and maybe the subject of a future post. I shoot at either box speed or if in really low light or doing street photography where I need higher shutter speeds I will push the film a few stops.

When I’m outside I don’t tend to use a meter I just use Sunny 16 to get an initial exposure and then I will add a stop or 2 of exposure (see I told you it wasn’t scientific), usually by slowing the shutter speed. If I then enter an area that is in a lot of shadow I might add another stop. If I’m inside I will use a handheld or in camera meter and again add 1 or 2 stops. It’s that simple, I’d rather err on the side of over exposure than under.

Developing and Scanning

When I develop my negatives at home, I develop for slightly less time than recommended, to tame the highlights from over exposure. Again. not very scientific I know, I go by gut feel a lot of the time.

In my experience when I’ve under exposed a shot there’s not much I can do to recover it, but when over exposed, highlights can be recovered nicely. This seems to be true for scanning negatives, this may not be the case when wet printing. I’ve not had the opportunity to wet print yet, there are no darkrooms near me and I don’t have the room for my own. This where some people will say “if you’re just going to scan your photos why don’t you just shoot digital?”, well I’m going to leave the answer to that for a future blog post too.

Conclusion

Like I said at the beginning of the post this isn’t exactly original, I didn’t come up with this method (if you can really call it a method). The method is loosely along the same lines of metering for the shadows, develop for the highlights. I could go on about exposure latitude of negative films (yawn), but I won’t, I’ll leave that to those much cleverer than me. At the end of the day use what ever method work for you. If you’re a perfectionist looking for the absolute best negatives for printing or scanning, you’re looking in the wrong place. If however you want acceptably good negatives with very little effort, give it a try.

Resources

A Strategy for Using the Zone System with 35mm and Medium Format
Sunny 16 Rule
The Zone System
Massive Dev Chart

This black and white film is rated at 50 ISO, which is a lot slower than I’m used to, so I rated the first roll at EI 100. I loaded it up into my Leica M6 TTL and took it down to the Worth Way near my house, it wasn’t the brightest of days and the trees over the track made for probably less than great light conditions for the film. I shot all 15 frames on my walk and developed it as soon as I got home.

I developed the roll in HC-110, my developer of choice these days for 5 minutes at 22°C. Once dried I scanned them in, the first frame had a fully exposed left edge where I hadn’t given enough space for the leader, but other than that, there were no scratches or any other signs that I had made any mistakes loading the film using the bulk loader. The pictures themselves however were nothing special, this is not the fault of the film, they were just bad photos. Out of that first roll I only got one picture that was ok, this was of a tree stump. The detail and fine grain of the photo were lovely, so I do think that if shot correctly and with the right subjects, this is a really nice film. Now that I’m thinking about it I may try some portraits with it in the future maybe with flash.

I’ve since shot 2 more rolls in London, both at EI 50 and again the light wasn’t as good as it could have been and the pictures aren’t great. The sample section is a little light on the ground as most of the pictures I took with the film were horrible, but once again that’s down to me and not the film itself. I still have 3 rolls left to shoot and when I do use them I need to think about how I use them more carefully.

Pan F+ Samples

All sample images were taken with my Leica M6 TTL, developed at home in Kodak HC-110 dilution B and scanned with my Epson V550 flatbed scanner and Silverfast 8 SE.

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Superia Samples

All images shot with Leica M6 TTL. All except the B&W shots were developed by AG Photolab. The B&W shots were developed by me in Rodinal and scanned on the Epson V550 scanner, using Silverfast 8 scanning software.

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Fomapan 400 Images

All images taken with Leica M6 TTL and Voigtlander 35mm Color Skopar and developed in Kodak XTOL.

Portobello Road, London

London

London

London

London

London

London South Bank

London, South Bank

Recently I’d been feeling quite down and uninspired with my photography, I’d developed roll after roll of rubbish and was just a bit fed up with it all. I think the main reason for this is that a few months ago I finished a contract in Canary Wharf and started a new one in a small town outside of London and street photography opportunities have been limited. Every lunch time I go out with my camera, just as I did in London but invariably go back to the office without even releasing the shutter. I was telling my wife about it a couple of weeks ago and she suggested that I have a day in London on the Saturday as the kids were at a friends Birthday party anyway.

On the Saturday morning I had breakfast in a local cafe with my wife, to fuel me up for the day ahead. When we got there some friends of ours were already there, I told them what I had planned for the day and my friend said “You know Pride is on today?”. No I didn’t, I had no idea, it not being something I particularly keep up with. I’ve never been to a Pride event before, not for any reason other than it not really being aimed at my demographic. Obviously I fully support LGBT rights, not actively I suppose, I’ve never been on a march or anything, but in spirit I do. I had originally planned to have a look around Shoreditch as I’d heard and briefly seen that it would be a good place for a spot of street photography. That changed when I heard Pride was on, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity for photography.

Normally when I go out to do some photography I take my Think Tank Retrospective bag a selection of cameras, lenses and other bits and pieces that weigh a ton. This time however I decided to leave the bag at home and just take my Leica M6 TTL, Voigtlander 35mm f2.5, Weston Euromaster lightmeter and a Japan Camera Hunter half case filled with film.

Heading out to my first Pride

I got the train into London Victoria, then the tube to Green Park and then walked to Regent Street. I got there about 13:30, I think the parade started at 13:00 and the streets were lined with thousands of people. As soon as I got there I knew it was going to be a good day, there was a great atmosphere, with young, old, gay and straight together for a good time.

Regent Street, London

Regent Street, London

I couldn’t see much of the parade as it was so busy, most of my photos of it are shot either over the top or around other peoples heads. I’ve read somewhere that when going to events such as this you should turn around and look to the edges of the crowd for more interesting street photos, so this is what I did. I don’t have many images of the parade itself as I decided to concentrate on the crowd instead. My camera was already loaded with a half exposed roll of Kodak Tri-x which I blew through in a matter of minutes. This is when I realised I’d made a mistake, my film case was mostly filled with black and white film and a day like this called for colour film. I had 2 rolls of Portra 400 with me, but I knew this wouldn’t be enough for a whole days shooting. I loaded a roll of Portra into the camera and continued to photograph the crowd aware that the film wouldn’t last long. I’d read on the Pride in London website that there were stages for music setup in the streets of Soho and I knew Calumet had a shop that sold film in Wardour Street, so after shooting a roll and a half in Regent Street I headed for Soho.

Regent Street, London

Soho, London

I found Calumet and purchased 5 rolls of Portra 400 from them at what I think is one of the cheapest prices around for Portra. With my pockets filled with film I headed back out into Soho, where in my opinion the party was really happening and where I spent the next 3 or 4 hours.

Soho, London

Soho, London

There was a great party atmospherein Soho especially along Old Compton Street, with music playing from the bars and people dancing in the street. Everywhere I looked there was someone interesting to photograph and nobody seemed to mind, I think this gave me the confidence to get closer than I normally would. I’m still trying to get over the uncomfortable feeling of taking a strangers picture up close, but this experience has helped a lot.

Soho, London

Soho, London

I spent the rest of the day in Soho, leaving for home about 7pm, I would have stayed longer but I had to get home. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, I might even go to Brighton Pride in August too. The photos I took during the day may not be the greatest street photos ever taken but, at least I have a few from the day that I like. I took more pictures that I liked in that one day than in the last 3 months combined.

Soho, London

Soho, London

Soho, London

Soho, London

All images were shot with a Leica M6 TTL and Voigtlander 35mm Color Skopar f2.5 loaded with Kodak Portra 400@1600. The film was processed by AG Photolab and scanned by me with the Epson V550. Click here for the full gallery.