Tamerlin wrote:John Brawley wrote:I'm not so sure the much deified zone system is that useful for drama. Zone is great when you want every bit of detail from highlights and shadows. But we don't always want all that.
That's bogus. The zone system is about getting what you want, not getting what Ansel Adams did. The point is that the zone system allows you a simple and systematic way of learning to place for lack of a better term the highlights and shadows and mids where you want them so that when you post-process them, you will get what you want from the image.
The zone system is great for maximising the detail and *visualising* your exposure. it's a tool, not a gospel. It allows the photographer to visualise exposure.
Most people I've seen using the zone system, fail to use the *visualising* part and just use it the way we were discussing earlier. Put a grey card into the scene (zone V) and meter that presto, there's your exposure. Extrapolate from there for highlights and mids etc.
Whilst technically correct, I don't think it's the best way to shoot and choose exposure for drama. The very idea that you capture *everything* at the point of exposure and then decide later in post is also something that doesn't always sit comfortably with me. They never think about *re-mapping* those values. That's what your reference to the zone system implies. The idea with the zone system is to provide a way of interpreting and visualising the exposure. False Colour now does the same job with digital cameras, and also provides you with the visualisation.
It also wouldn't allow an ETTR approach, which most everybody seems to think is the right way to expose the BMCC.
It's interesting that you invoke Adams with regard to the zone system. Adams himself says he didn't invent the zone system, he only popularised it. He was also primarily a landscape photographer. An amazing landscape photographer. With an astounding and deep understanding of the underlying technology.
But like many things tech and geek, everyone assumes it's because of the ZONE system. Ansel Adams = mastery of the zone system = Take photos like Ansel Adams.
But it's only partly this deep knowledge of *craft* that enable him to create the stunning images he created. Mostly though it was because they were being taken by Ansel Adams. As Adams himself reputedly said,
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.”
As I've said many times, there's no correct exposure. It's a choice you make.
jb