Lesson 4: Zone System + Ansel Adams Project

Date: 8-16 March 2013

We did not have classes over these two weeks, but we were instructed to complete our assignment based on the zoning system. It was the last technical installment to our academic calendar for this subject, and we were given a lot more flexibility in this assignment, and were highly encouraged to implement a creative touch to the photographs. Before that, Mr. Vinod taught us about Ansel Adams' Zoning System.

The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.

We also learned about exposure metering, and how to determine the correct exposure using judgment, rather than relying on our DSLR, which usually sets everything to zone 5. An averaging meter cannot distinguish between a subject of uniform luminance and one that consists of light and dark elements.

Ansel Adams.

Some helpful graphics which we were instructed to refer to, and to put in our portfolio.

Here are some examples of Ansel Adams' gorgeous photography, which proves that a good work of art requires some science for it as well. He usually photographs wide shots of nature. He is infamous for working in large film format producing well composed, monochromatic photographs, rich in contrast, detail with a beautiful exposure.

For our exercise assignment, we were told to photograph 3 sets/pairs of photos. Each pair to have its exposure determined by the DSLR, then by us. The 3 sets had to be of the light zone, middle zone, and dark zone. We used the 9-step zone scale. This is what I came up with.

For the second part of the assignment, we were told to take 3 photos of any subject showing what we had learnt from the zone system. We were encouraged to conduct this during our class trip to Tioman over the weekend.

We had to get the original photographs printed with a white border of 5mm, in monochrome, saved as RAW/JPEG with a colour format of RGB, in full frame format, on 5x7" photograph paper at Applied Imaging.

At first, I took the pictures wrongly in terms of exposure, and was instructed to edit it. After editing, everything looked much better. I felt that I disappointed the lecturer, but it was part and parcel of the learning process, and I definitely benefitted from the bad critique.

Here are the photos I took:

— Hidayah