equipment

I have only one complaint to make about this book. All the examples Carson Graves uses to illustrate the nine zones appear in black and white photographs. What I would really like to see in order to previsualize the various zones as I see them, which is in color, would be a side by side comparison of the same photos in black and white, in color. Is a light blue sky zone III? What zone is a light yellow leaf? A dark yellow leaf? A simplified pantone chart translating the various color tonalities into the various zones would be very helpful. Otherwise, the book is a marvelous learning tool. If any of you reading this know of such a book, please let me know.

I have been taking Black and Whites for about a year now, and every chapter I read my pictures improve. While the Zone system can be presented as hard core math, Grave uses Black and White images to define the Zones and help you think in grey scale. His book is extremely practical and is based on using the light meter in the camera. This means that you are not forced to buy extra equipment such as spot meter or hand held meters unless you want them for convience. The book really is good in making you think about the black and white print that will be produced. The proper exposure give you or your developer maximum latitiude in making prints. As well great effects can be made by adjusting your preceptions an adjusting the camera to capture what you precieve. The part on developing looks good also. There are film test and exposure test to determine if your camera is fuctioning normally or if needs work. If you are not getting good results then I suggest using these test to determine if your camera is functioing correctly the test seem unnecessary if you are getting good results. The Pictoral examples in this book are great. The text is about seeing a picture in your mind and then telling you how to create it on film for priinting. This book will greatly improve your black and white skills if you are a beginner without creating a great deal of confusion. Some of the lessons translate well to color photos. And there is a chapter onthe zone system for color.

In general I agree with all previous comments about the simplicity in explanation of such a hard topic as zone system. However, I write this review hoping that author or editors, or whoever responsible for one mistake, or typo will review their book before publishing (or maybe I didn't understand something and shouldn't accuse people of such a thing). Anyway here it is. On page 35 there is sketch of a photograph that explains how photographer may previzualize exposure by reading lightmeter and putting its results in zone 4 and 6. Zone 4 indicated by F5.6 at 1/125 and zone 6 indicated by F11 at 1/250. For the matter of better understanding we can assume that F5.6 at 1/125=F11 at 1/30. So now we have zone 4 represented by F11 at 1/30 and zone 6 represented by F11 at 1/250 clearly one stop too much. It is wrong because according to the book each following zone has one stop difference with its adjacent zone. I sincerely hope it was just typo, otherwise excellent book.