Beyond the Zone System: do your own testing

This book takes you by the hand and gives you a complete method on

how to test your film and use the information for exposure and

development. Testing the film means doing step-tablet exposures,

measuring the densities (using a converted spot-meter) and repeating

the operation using different development times. Don't kid yourself,

doing this the right way is work.

Being a "technical" person, I was dreading half-assed generalities and

"under the carpet sweeping" as I sometime find in books addressed

to "non-technical" people. Personally, I prefer having the right

information than having somebody chew it up for me first. I was

pleasantly surprised. The book starts even with a section on the

world of "scary math" that I found was a marvel of pedagogy. Though

there is a lot of material in there, it's never catapulted at you

without explanations. Davis emphasizes the fact that in order to

get useful results, you need to do your testing consistently. I have

found his experimental methods solid.

The material in this book, regarding the zone system and value

control, is mostly covered in the Ansel Adams books,

"The print" and "the negative". Adams, however, does not take you by

the hand and show you how to do your own testing. Davis' book is

centered on this testing. I still find

that the Adams books are better books overall for the Zone system

theory, but "Beyond the Zone system" is a very good complement.

Forgot the complete book reference:

Phil Davis, "Beyond the Zone System", fourth

edition, Focal Press 1999, ISBN 0-240-80343-4

(paperback)

I have a copy but would only recommend it to the truely technically inclined. Not much photography in there, but lots of sensitometry. If you want to get really technical, this is the book.

I also didn't like any of the photographs in Davis' book. I think Adams' books are much more useful for most people, plus his photographs are MUCH better too!