Introduction to the Zone System

Think of the many shades of grey in a "black and white image" as being parts of ten major categories of grey shades.

These categories, or zones, are numbered 0 to 10 and represent eleven equidistant greyshades that give a way of planning how your final image will look. Zone 0 is pure black (or at least the densest shade that photographic materials will reproduce). Zone 10 is maximum white. When you are ready to shoot a subject, try to think about which zone you would like that particular part of the image to appear. If you have a spot meter you will be able to meter individual surfaces of the scene before you to measure their luminance. Keep in mind that a light meter assumes you are measuring a surface that is middle grey (Zone 5). The meter will tell you what to set your shutter speed/aperature at to get that surface to look like middle grey. Also keep in mind that each one of the zones represent a one stop difference in exposure. Therefore if you are measuring a surface that you want to appear as Zone 3 then take the aperature recommended by the meter and open it two stops. This would make a surface that would be rendered as a Zone 5 two stops darker by putting it in Zone 3.

Now that you know what the zones are and how two shift them using your lens aperature there are some paper/negative limitations to consider when shooting:

Zone 3 is the darkest zone where the texture of objects is still visible.
Zone 7 is the lightest are with a full sense of texture before is becomes washed out.
Zone 6 is typically how pale skin appears in a print.
Zone 5 is typically how dark skin appears in a print.

The best thing to do when planning an exposure is to sketch the image and write down your light meter readings of the different areas of the image. Think of which zone you want each of those areas to appear in. Keep in mind that the human eye has a harder time differentiating similar dark shades than it does light ones. Adjust your exposure so that the different luminances in your image are placed where you want them to be.

You might run in a situation where you range of luminances are so wide or so short they will not fit properly within the range of zones you have available. There is a way to compensate for this when developing the film. It is called expanded/contracted development and is beyond the scope of these documents because it involves varying your darkroom techniques.

If you would like to learn a little more about the zone system there are many books available. You can get about as technical as you want with this topic. You will find however that when you understand at least the basics of this concept that it will improve your exposure techniques immensely and let you be in control of the image instead of just hoping one of your shots come out the way you wanted.

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