Re: zone system and large format film

>Well, I'm getting up my nerve to ask a sort of non alt question--but
>at least it does deal with large negatives!
>
>When you all are out in the field, do you generally place your
>shadows on Zone III and highlights on Zone VII or Zone VIII?? What
>happened in between Adams' zone system and Carson Graves et al? It
>seems that people have migrated to a Zone VII highlight, and
>contracted the zones to fewer. Minor White in his book from the
>60's says that paper changed and got more compressed and that is why
>the change. Is this true? Techiegeeks, PLEASE enlighten me,
>especially those who used papers from early on (30's-60's) until
>now....Condenser enlargers, VC paper, #2 filter as normal.
>Chris

This is interesting. I didn't know that there had been a change in
the way people conceive of the zone system scale. I always place the
highlights in zone VII and the shadows in zone III. Specular
highlights I guess are in zone VIII or IX.

I have used Azo papers in the past, which were invented in the
thirties I guess . The paper scale for Azo is about 1.4, a longer
scale than say modern Ilford paper. Azo papers are contact printed.

I use a condenser enlarger sometimes, and with it, modern paper has a
short scale, about .90. The diffusion enlarger that I use has a
scale of about 1.3, on Agfa multicontrast classic papers with Agfa
Neutol Warm Tone.

The fact that the paper scale got shorter between the thirties (Azo)
and the sixties (Ilford) doesn't change how I place the shadows
relative to the highlights. I just develop the film longer for
longer scale papers. I use the BTZS system, and I test the paper and
the film to make sure they match.

Hope this makes sense.

--shannon
Received on Thu Sep 29 08:43:13 2005