[Leica] Comparing B&W M9/MM

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

Hi Ted

When I shot LF I went through all the zone system stuff.  I pulled out 
my Pentax spotmeter this week and it has the film speeds taped to it for 
film and developer combinations at N-1, N-2 and so on. Very helpful if 
you are shooting sheet film and developing one sheet at a time - perhaps 
not the best approach to covering the Olympics. When I took up 35mm I 
discovered The New Zone System by Jim Brick. It has no doubt been posted 
many times before but here it is:

There are four zones.
Zone Good, Zone Bad, Zone Ugly, Zone Butt Ugly.

To use the system:
Wake up. Get out of bed. Go outside.

     Zone Good
     It is light overcast, light shadows but good light direction. 
Normal contrast.
     Expose normal (eg: ASA-100 @ 100) develop normal.

     Zone Bad
     It is dismally overcast, no shadows, perhaps even drizzle. Low 
contrast.
     Underexpose one stop (eg: ASA-100 @ 200) overdevelop 20%

     Zone Ugly
     The sun is out, sky is clear with puffy clouds, and there are 
blatant shadows. High contrast.
     Overexpose one stop (eg: ASA-100 @ 50) underdevelop 20%

     Zone Butt Ugly
     The sun is squinty bright, cloudless sky, and the shadows really 
deep. Very high contrast.
     Go in, and go back to bed!. But, if you are a die-hard...
     Overexpose two stops (eg: ASA-100 @ 25) underdevelop 30%


On 1/30/2014 10:04 AM, tedgrant at shaw.ca wrote:
> John McMaster wrote:
>
>> You are correct Lluis, over 16 years since I last developed a B&W 
>> film! Zone system all the way, spotmeter, exposure tests for base 
>> density then development tests for highlights all measured on a 
>> densitometer - how quickly I forgot :-(>
>
> Hi John,
> When I read about the shooting methods of many of the crew I become 
> amazed I ever got an exposure during my 65 years of exposing film on 
> any assignment in my life?
> MY METHOD......"OBSERVE - SHOOT!" :-) KISS! :-) Of course many times I 
> took light meter readings, generally landscapes and available light 
> photos of my children. Or working a crowd situation? I would take a 
> reading, then see what the camera was reading and if they were close?  
> generally were... SHOOT! Letting camera set and go with what it felt 
> fit to use.
>
> Imagine me shooting in an operating room and taking meter readings for 
> every frame when on the last book. WOMEN IN MEDICINE! Where I exposed 
> 500 rolls of tri-x at ASA 800 using three M7's and a couple of R8's 
> only a quick peak at the shutter speed red in the view finder. If it 
> looked cool? 99.9% of the time it was "CLICK!"
>
> So you can imagine my surprise of many of you lads and all the testing 
> and checking you went through. The zone system?  My interpretation of 
> the zone system?
>
> That's the demilitarized zone between the 2 Koreas and all you need to 
> know about that??????  DON'T GO THERE! ;-) I could never understand 
> about all the time wasted figuring it out unless you were shooting 
> rocks and ferns and peeling paint?  REAL LIFE MOMENTS? And shooting 36 
> frames nearly every frame under various light conditions?
>
> In any event as many of the LUG CREW who go through all the digital 
> techie stuff, I still try to keep it KISS as much as possible as I'm 
> shooting . It'll still be my method as I begin shooting with a new 
> book designer and editor next week producing a book on the University 
> of Victoria's School of Medicine and it's ten year celebration.
>
> However I'm in awe of the folks who have the patients for all the 
> extra "checking" and adjusting you go through in capturing your 
> exposures. In deed great admiration!
>
> HENNING RESPONDED:
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Comparing B&W M9/MM
>
>
> "I would say expose for the highlights, because if they're overcooked 
> you'll never see them again. Process (develop) for the shadows. This 
> is closer to how one treated slide film and in that sense it's like 
> all digital files. With the MM files you just have more DR and can 
> easily pull things out from the shadows when necessary.<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> I suppose one could offer: "What works for one shooter is total 
> confusion to another?"
>
> BOTTOM-LINE? "Whatever ones method is, as long as the end result is a 
> cool dude photo? Who cares how you capture it? Unless a special effect 
> is required for a similar looking image... IE: SWISHY - PAN IMAGES 
> CREATING SPEED APPEARANCES?"
>
> cheers,
> ted
>
>
>
> "wHAT'S GOOD FOR ONE IS TOTAL CONFUSION FOR ANOTHER? tHE
>
>
>
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