In a recent newsletter, I mentioned wanting to do some testing – something I feel I ought to do regularly. One of Ansel’s favorite quotes (attributed to Pasteur) was “chance favors the prepared mind.” Having started his creative life as a musician, he brought that musician’s discipline to his photography – the equivalent of a…
According to Ted Orland’s poster Photographic Truths: “No two light meters agree.” Sadly, that does seem to be pretty much the truth – unless you do something about it.
For years I had a pair of supposedly “matched” Pentax digital spot meters that were never closer than 1/3 of a stop from each other – so I had to remember which meter I used for film tests and which one I had in the field. One of these meters had an accident and got sent off to its maker for a rebuild – and came back 2/3 of a stop away from where it had been, now 1/3 higher than the meter it had been lower than! So I sent the other meter off to its maker and after two months got it back about the same as when I had sent it. Which meter was right?
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Ever since I was back at Ansel’s in the late ’70’s, I had been faithfully calibrating my high values at Zone VIII, targeting a density of about 1.25 above filmbase-fog. Since 2004 or so, however, I’ve been thinking more and more that it makes more sense to calibrate to Zone IX, with a target density…
Ansel Adams’ Zone System – Darling Or Dinosaur?
As someone who worked side-by-side with Ansel Adams for a number of years, I get asked about Ansel Adams’ Zone System…A LOT! “How do I?” “Why does it?” “Can I?” I’ve written about the Zone System before, but a recent flurry of questions and requests for clarification have made me think it’s time…
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