Response to spontaneous zone system shooting

to expand on Jef's answer, most definetly! he is 100 % correctin his thinking that the zone system is a method. what you end up after all of the testing and work to develope your own personal film speed, exposue technique, film developing times, and printing formula is a very stream lined approach to the film exposure. i know, for instance, on any given day exactly what my exposure should be with out even un-holstering my spot meter. how? it is simple, i have calculated the proper exposures, using zone system discipline, for any lighting condition in the part of the country that i am in. and i have taken pictures, developed them and printed them in all of these conditions. i have the prints and know what works. why do i still carry the meter? because in lower light conditons it is more reliable, and i dont have to keep looking up the times for various lighting schemes [yes i have them written down]. but the important thing to remember is, you have to take the readings learn what the zone sustem can and cannot do, and make prints. do that and you will see that the benefits of the zone system really do carry over in to virtually any tipe of photography. an excelenr resource for study of this technique and the place that i learned it from is the zone vi newsletter #24 by fred picker. i dont know if the issue is still available from the zone vi studios {it was put out april 1980} but it would be well worth the time for you to look into its availability, it has a lot of good info and suggestions for developing your own personnal zone system.

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