Digital BW, The Print

Firstly I did not assert that pre-visualisation was no longer relevant.
Secondly, the Zone system has nothing to do with black and white per se - it
is merely a system for determining appropriate exposure when such exposure
can not be significantly "altered" post shutter release.  All the Zone
system does is provide a rigorous framework for determining middle exposure
and an understanding as to how the rest of the elements will be exposed as a
result.  B&W is merely a simplifying case.  There are many arguments that
support the notion that when capturing with digital one ought to capture the
maximum possible information, even if that results in an exposure different
from one that sets the mid-exposure at a pre-visualised level.  In such
case, you can always produce the pre-visualised result. Alternatively, with
reflection, one can explore, within broader boundaries, new creative
perspectives on the scene.   To be bound to your initial perspective is not
necessarily a good thing.  That is not the same thing as saying that
pre-visualisation and thoughtfulness ahead of image capture are unnecessary
- quite the opposite.  Of course it makes sense to think through the
image/scene as much as possible to a final result.  It simply recognises
that we need not necessarily be bound by it at a later point. Digital
capture and image manipulation opens up new opportunities.  The Zone System
is not Pre-Visualisation.  Don't confuse the two.  The Zone System was
developed to provide a rigorous framework for technically producing the
pre-visualised image.  As the technical tools at hand change it is is not so
strange to suggest that the technical framework be adapted.


> From: Djon <westsidemaurice@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 15:52:03 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Raw conversion and B&W
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
> <stevekale@b...> wrote: As for the Zone system,
>> it is not really very relevant in today's digital world where one can
>> determine mid-grey and clipping points (if any) post capture.
> 
> Steve, If one is more a photographer (Vs print maker) one MAY want to
> determine as much as possible in the field or studio, rather than
> hunched over a computer.
> 
> "Photographer" has something to do with brief instants, whereas "print
> maker" has to do with extended processes...they are not one in the
> same and do not need to co-exist (there are many fine printers and
> many fine photographers who do only one part of this continuum well).
> 
> Comprehensive post-capture adjustments for B&W printing from color
> files do not require monochrome conversion in any case.
> 
> Zone System skills come in two flavors: 1) geek flavor (quantitative)
> 2) sensory flavor (visualization). For obvious reasons, some
> traditional printmakers cling more to the geek side. Interestingly,
> these two flavors/sides correspond to easily measured personality
> characteristics and to thoroughly-documented characteristics of each
> of our two brain halves.
> 
> For pleasure (the point of photography for me) I engage the
> artist/visualization side of photography and of my brain as much as
> possible, just as most of us always did with film, just as musicians
> and athletes always do. Happily the technology makes the geek aspect
> relatively simple, just as it is in tradional wet darkroom work.
> 
> To assert that previsualization (that side of Zone System) is "no
> longer relevant in today's digital world" is literally to say that one
> side of our brain is no longer relevant!
> 
> Djon (R2D2? HAL?)
> 
> 
>> 
>>> From: Djon <westsidemaurice@y...>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> ...though I won't convert to monochrome to get
>>> my B&W... I never convert to monochrome when I'm printing B&W from
>>> color (using QTRgui). There seems no reason to convert, since I use a
>>> traditional Zone System frame of reference (ie the real world is seen
>>> in color when you shoot B&W film...I visualize B&W from real-world
>>> color just as I do when I see color on a monitor and print B&W).
>>> 
>>> Djon
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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