Zone System, yellow and orange filters, portrait playing cards :)

<p>Hello - Thought this may be helpful to someone else working through same beginner issues as me. <br>

To make it fun, which picture would you choose from the attached contact sheet to make your print and why?<br>

I had the opportunity recently to take a quick series of pics using a Rollei V with yellow and orange filters. I also just finished reading 'The Negative' and was trying to get a handle on employing the Zone System techniques.<br>

My daughter graciously allowed me to pester her into posing in our backyard. My Gossen Luna Pro read as follows: Incident light = 17. Spot on her skin = 18. Spot on black of dress = 15. Generally a hazy sort of day with very very light shadows at about 11:00 am as I recall.<br>

Here was my thinking: The light meter suggested a setting of 250 / f8. I figured under such lighting, her skin would be in Zone V, so I wanted to up her skin tone placment two stops into Zone VII as she is fair. I have not used filters very much before, but my guess is the yellow filter requires a one stop compensation and the orange filter requires 3. ( In hindsight, the orange may be a 2 stop compensation..just not sure.)<br>

I developed the negs onto the contact sheet and noted the settings according to my notes from the shoot on the pearl RC paper. Sorry for the messy writing, the silver ink is slippery.<br>

Anyway, I thought a look at the various settings and absolute compensations (ie +1, +2, +3 etc) from the metered 250/f8 would be interesting / helpful to someone. I figured the 'relative' compensations could be derived by taking the absolute setting compensation less the filter compensation (-1 for yellow; -3 (2?) for orange).<br>

Cheers.</p><div></div>

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<p>which picture would you choose from the attached contact sheet to make your print and why?</p>

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<p>I dislike the overblown highlights in the +6s, +5s, and even the +4s... especially when they seem to merge her feet together and make them look deformed. I also don't like the smile-at-the-camera effect in "Yellow +2" or "Yellow +3". So the winner is "+3", but I prefer the pose/composition in "Orange +5".</p>

<p>Thanks, Ron - I certainly agree. I was pushing the exposure extremes to learn what would happen at those exposure settings since I had never used filters like that before..they certainly appear overexposed. I too like the composition in Orange +5 and I wonder if proper enlarger exposure can be enlisted to evoke a good print for her skin tones with nice contrast...my next experiment!</p>

<p>Is this really a beginner question?</p>

<p>D.B - you flatter me! Here was why I thought it qualified: 1) Just purchased my first RF and MF cameras and set up my first darkroom a month ago scouring ebay and local sources for used equipment and have only developed less than a dozen b&w pics from just three rolls of film to date. 2) Just returned 'The negative' to the library after reading it for first time 3) Have never really tried to 'place' values anywhere intentionally and have relied on meters (digital cam) for all my pics to date. 4) First time using filters and making notes on results.<br>

I sure WISH I had the opportunity 20 years ago to explore this hobby and have that much experience by now too. But it's all new to me and I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can as I enjoy the results. <br>

Thanks again for reading my question, DB. I know time is a scarce commodity for us all..didn't mean to waste yours of course. Cheers.</p>

Steve,

 

You might want to read this simple explanation of the Zone system and how to use it:

 

http://www.geocities.com/dainisjg/zone.html

<p>I notice you weren't sure of the exposure compensation to make with the orange filter. If your not sure use your spot meter to read the exposure on a subject and then read the same subject with the filter held in front of your meter.</p>