Digital BW, The Print

Not a bad thought but, one of the main reasons for using the Zone System
(in addition to printing everything on one grade of paper) is to
maintain shadow detail while either separating high values or preventing
them from blocking up. Once density values pile up on the shoulder and
become the same density they cannot be separted with any scanner.
Anybody else???
 
 

Stan Shire
Associate Professor/Department Chair
Photographic Imaging
Community College of Philadelphia
Adobe Photoshop 6 A.C.E.
Author: Hands On Photoshop 7: Tutorial Workshops

215 751-8320
sshire@...


-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Gulstene [mailto:kevin@...] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 6:54 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Scanning and Zone Sys Development.


Is zone system development time manipulation irrelevant when scanning 
film as opposed to traditional printing?   That is the question I would 
like some help with.

My understanding is that the zone system is way of ensuring a  constant 
density range on the negative independent of the brightness range of 
the scene.  This is desirable because it makes most scenes printable on 
a grade 2 paper (leaving the other grades available for artistic 
interpretation) and it helps minimize the stuffing around in the 
darkroom required to get a good print.

Since I am not doing wet prints but am scanning the negatives, it seems 
to me that the N- or N+ development dependent on the scene brightness 
range is, mostly, irrelevant.  By setting the black point, setting the 
white point and scanning the negative am I not mapping the entire 
density range of the image to a numerical range of 0-256 or 0-64k?  
This mapping would take place independent of the absolute density any 
particular zone.

As a hypothetical example lets assume a scene contains a 8 stop range 
of brightness.  Three images are similarly exposed to capture that  
brightnesses range. The three images are given different development 
times and produce density ranges of  (1.0-0.3=.7), (1.4-0.4=1.0) and 
(2.0-.5=1.5).  When the images are scanned each one will produce a full 
histogram from 0 to 255 and a scene brightness at the 6th of the eight 
stops will show up at the same place in each of the histograms.

Soooo, can't I simplify the zone mantra to "expose for the shadows and 
let the highlights fall where they may with normal development".  Also, 
  wouldn't it be better to generally use N+1 development times so that 
the numbers from the raw scan occupied more of the scanner's range?

Thanks for your help



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