Introduction to Photography - Exercise 3

14th March 2014 ( Week 6) 

Niew Seen Ying ( 0317961)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 3: The Zone System

Lecture
Today's lecture class is about zone system.

Zone system
- developed by Ansel Adams
- deals with exposure
- a technique to get a desired exposure
- light meters are dumb
- cameras assume all scenes has the same tonal values (zone 5)
- the technique was to carefully study a scene, visualize the final print, then determine the correspondence   between portions of the scene and tones in the print
-the goal of the simplified Zone system is to expose film/ccd for optimum image quality— to make sure all the critical information is present
- tones in scenes and prints are divided into nine zones, numbered 1 through 9 from dark to light
-  Zone 5 is, by definition, subjective middle gray.In a scene— in the field— each zone represents a doubling or halving of the luminescence— the light reflected from the subject— or equivalently, a difference of one f-stop

Benefits of Utilizing the Zone System

- Capturing a correct exposure every time, even in the trickiest light or scene situations.
- Having a precise evaluation of your scene's tones and dynamic range prior to even making a shot.
- Knowing when you need to use graduated neutral density filters.
- Knowing exactly how far apart to take exposure bracketed shots for later blending.

- Determining the situations where you need to use a fill flash to get a correct exposure.

Instructions

Exercise 3a

Choose 3 different subject matters of varying tones.

Tint, Tone & Shade

Photograph:

-An Image that has different shades of White

-An Image that has varrying shades of grey (middle tones)

-An Image that has varying shade within a dark area.

Light

F 5.6 | S 1/60 | ISO 200

5.6 | S 1/15 | ISO 200

Grey

F 5.6 | S 1/3 | ISO 200

F 5.6 | S 1/5 | ISO 200

Dark

F 5.6 | S 1/3 | ISO 200

F 5.6 | S 1/540 | ISO 200

Reflection

From this exercise, I realized that the light meter is not accurate. If we're following the light meter in the camera, the photo taken will be in a gray tone which might not be the right exposure that we picture in our mind. Therefore, to take an image with the correct exposure, I changed the settings to correct the exposure of an image without making the exposure meter 0.

Screenshot

Exercise 3b
Produce 1 black & white image that captures depth and richness in tonal value by capturing light, middle and dark tones while maintaining details (texture and tone) in the dark and light areas of the image.

F 5.6 | S 1/2 | ISO 200

Reflection
Through this exercise, I learned that there are different zones in a picture. Determining the main character of a    photo will help to bring the main subject of the picture stands out more. Adjusting the settings on the camera will help to correct the exposure of an image without using the exposure meter as they are not really accurate.

Screenshot