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Chapter 2 Metering and Exposure
Implications of metering and exposure
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Thinking through the process of metering and exposure


Just knowing how a meter reading affects the exposure and print of your photograph is the beginning of controlling the many elements that go into a photograph.

Let's follow through with some of the simple implications of this knowledge and then go on to some of the more involved. We will also take a look at some of the ways this knowledge has been used that are not necessarily helpful to the photographer trying to learn the Zone System.

Basic Implications

Since you know that if you

that the part of the subject you meter on will be reproduced as middle gray, it follows that you can pick the part of the subject that you want to reproduce as middle gray. Just meter on that part of the subject and use that meter reading for the exposure. Again, this applies to calibrated systems only.

Well okay, you get a little bit of this effect if you don't go the rigorous, challenging and rare experience of calibrating your system. However, with an uncalibrated system, the benefits of knowledge of the Zone System method of photography has much less impact on your photography. Although frankly, I understood the relationships of the Zone System for two years before actually testing my system. It was not the best way to go.

More Implications

This is part of developing a sort of common sense about photographic concepts. Sometimes, photography makes perfect sense. Little-by-little the relationships within the media will assemble themselves into a cohesive whole. This will happen faster if you can figure out when to let go of concepts you think you know in favor of concepts which I think I know . Such an understanding is difficult to come by and all of us love to believe a thing until it proved wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Never mind, let's go on. You know that if you
(are working in a calibrated system and)

that the part of the subject you meter on will be reproduced as middle gray. It follows that if another part of the subject is brighter than the part you meter on, that the brighter part will reproduce lighter than middle gray. Likewise, if a part of the subject is darker than the part you metered on, it will reproduce darker than middle grey. Of course, any other part of the subject that is the same brightness as the part you meter on, will also reproduce as middle gray.

You can use this knowledge to anticipate how the finished print will look. Use your insight into metering and exposure to begin anticipating how the final image will look. One part will be middle gray, another part is much lighter but will not be quite white in the print, a shadow is darker than the part that is middle gray...

Try to imagine the way several of the key areas will look in a print. That is, on the piece of paper that you will hold in your hand and call a photograph.

Form the clearest possible idea of how you would like for the print to look. Marry that idea. I am getting ahead of myself here, but what the heck. Imagine a part of the image that you might want to be pure white in the print. Usually large areas do not work well visually as either pure white or pure black. Instead, large tonal areas usually work better a little bit closer to the center of the gray scale. If you look at an area and first imagine it as pure white, also let yourself imagine it as slightly gray. See if there is something else within the bright area that is even brighter; let that thing go to pure white -- maybe. But more important than all of that is not getting too caught up in rules of how things should look -- like the rule just handed out about not reproducing large tonal areas as pure black or white. That is a good rule though, using a pure black or white area can have a nice effect, but it is cheap -- mentally.

Work harder, think harder!

During the good old days when I taught photography at Meredith College, I observed a basic phenomenon of daily class. During most classes, somebody got a headache. Either it was me, because I didn't explain concepts clearly enough for the class to grab onto in a useful way, or it was them because I did.

Eventually, some classes began to be proud when they got 'the headache'. We would be photographing somewhere and a student would announce after a long morning of intense work "I got the headache." Her classmates knew that this meant she was really working, all out, to make the best photographs she could -- and that she had just assembled new knowledge that session. The class would celebrate with her for a moment.

So, this is not a study for the weak of heart or will. If you do it right, it is gonna hurt. Get used to it. Think.

If you form a crystal clear idea of how you want a print to look, you will have more motivation to find a way to make the photograph actually look that way. I propose that you use the following road map for the part of your work that requires your technical energies:

  1. first do as much as you can with the camera, lens and film choice
  2. next do as much as you can by using or not using filters
  3. then do as much as you can by correctly exposing and developing the film
  4. next, choose the photographic paper and chemistry that does the maximum amount of work for you
  5. finally, let your basic exposure and development of the print do as much as possible for you -- before you begin dodging and burning the print
This the soul of the thing. If you don't care about how the picture will look, you don't need the Zone System. Even if you do care how the picture will look, you may not need the Zone System. The further you go with the Zone System the more skills you will develop at being able to put onto paper the picture you see in your head.

Unhelpful Use

You should know that there are unhelpful ways to apply the knowledge you have learned from the level 1 emulator. That is, unhelpful from the point of view of developing the set of tools the author of this website can offer you.

For example, as tempting as it is, it is not helpful to live by a set of rules about using a gray card to establish your meter readings. Likewise, it is not helpful to develop a set of rules about where certain subjects should be placed on the grayscale or what kind of development techniques are verboten or kinds of subjects you should never photograph (snow should be on Zone 8 1/2, caucasian skin should be on zone 6, never use Minus development, never photograph backlighted subjects, etc). Those rules can be tempting, and they might be helpful for some purposes, but those ideas and others like them are not helpful in nurturing the deepest freedoms accorded you by the principles of this study.

Good Questions To Ask Right Now