I thought this was kind of interesting. I used a digital camera to try and expose for all the Zones that Ansel Adams used for his images. I was able to expose for 9 out of 11. Here are the results, with Zone 1 on the far left, and Zone IX on the far right, increasing from 1 to 9, left to right...
You can see here that Zone IX would be basically completely white, with barely any visible detail, while Zone 1 has a trace amount of detail. Zone 0 would be completely black with no detail. Zone X would be completely white with no detail. Normally, photographers use Zones I through Zone IX for the dynamic range, and Zones II through Zone VIII for the range of textures (textural range).
This means I have a (somewhat) decent basis to be able to determine the exposure I need in order to get a certain tone with this particular camera. However, depending on the subject and the tonal range of the subject, there are other subtle issues to worry about.
I had a UV filter on the lens, which I think is the reason for the vignetting on some of the zones.
The same subject was exposed nine times.
Message edited by author 2005-05-19 19:45:49. |