From Ansel Adams, a superb way to make sure your pictures are perfectly exposed every time, with your camera set to manual so you're in full control. I wrote a brief tutorial, if anyone's interested.
http://nickminers.com/2009/05/the-zone-system/

Good tut, Nick.

I've been looking at the zone system on and off for a month or two now, but most often can't get my head round it. Having it explained in the straightforward way you've done helps a lot.

Thanks!

The X-700 I use is fully manual all the time, and has an exposure lock system, which allows me to do just this.
I don't use it very often, however. Maybe I'll have to have a bit more of a play with it, but I'm always aware that light metering is a guide and not the gospel.

Glad it was helpful, Heather. Let me know how you both get on when you try it.

That’s helpful - I’ll have to have a doodle session with my camera. I usually shoot on aperture priority mode these days. This is something I have come across before, but it’s always seemed rather complex or awkwardly explained.

One my first read through I didn't really get what the article meant but on second reading I think I do.

This is what I have understood from it...

You have a picture that has some light and dark areas.
Pick an area that matches to one of the zones.
Set the exposure for that particular area to match what you have said in the diagram.
Take the picture.

i.e. if the area you choose is dark foliage then set the exposure to be one stop too dark for that area then the rest of the photo should be correctly exposed?

Is that right? I might have to have a go. Although my camera (Canon EOS 450D) only shows +-2 stops in the exposure.

Yes, Fogmeister, that's basically it. The concept is pretty simple but it's hard to explain without a direct example, but I gave it a bash anyway! If you use Full Manual metering then you don't need to worry about what your camera shows; to go below zone 3 just stop down three more clicks of the wheel for zone 2 (assuming you have your camera set to 1/3 stop increments), or 6 for zone 1 etc.

Paul - I used to use AP all the time and it frustrated me that I was still letting the camera make some of the decisions for me, which was my main motivation for getting to grips with the zone system.

Oli, your camera has a custom setting where you can change the increments of exposure level. I can't remember whether it defaults to 1/2 stop or not, but if it does, you can change it to 1/3 stop for a bit of extra control.

Check out the instruction manual, somewhere around page 109 (Setting Custom Functions, C.Fn. 6).

Hope that helps a bit.

The exposure meter only displays up to two stops over or under the metered exposure, but what Nick is pointing out is that you can still continue to adjust the exposure beyond two stops if you know how many individual clicks there are for each full stop.

So, if your camera decreases the exposure half of a full stop for each click of the dial and you want to underexpose by three stops, then you will first click it four times to the left and this will be shown on the display as two stops underexposed but you click the dial two further times to the left and this will underexpose a further one stop although it won't be displayed on the screen as anything less than two

If each dial-click equals one third of a stop, then you would need to turn it nine clicks to the left to underexpose three stops.

I think that I really get this. Thanks, Nick. The best part of all this is- as you say - that the camera cannot try to change your settings when you next press the shutter button. Full manual was a feature I wanted on my first film SLR more than eleven years ago, but I never really learned to or found a reason to use it before- trusting the camera to know better than me.

Oh, for some sunny weather!

I can't describe how great it feels that you are all 'getting' this. If this is a success I'll try to post up more lessons in the future - can't promise regularity as real life inevitably intervenes when it come to this stuff, but once you get the hang of this it makes other things like using grad filters so much more straightforward, which, as I've already mentioned, I'll talk about next.

Oh, and just wanted to pick up on something Fogmeister said - there is really no such thing as 'correctly' exposed as it's all subjective, but at least with the zone system you can get the exposure you want, not what the camera thinks you ought to have!

I told you it was good and easy to understand. (8+p

Mark

Been having a dabble with this recently. I think I've got it licked for anything without too much sky or more specifically too much contrast, as in you trees pic. My main problem is that in one swift pass (about 120kts), an aircraft can go from it's bright blue background of sky to the dark background of concrete, buildings and grass The zone system works well for one or the other but not both.

I'm shooting Tv, normally 1/500th sec or above, and hoping the aperture hits the 'sweet spot' at least once in the time.

Al

Certainly, it won't work in all situations. For fast-moving subjects I tend to switch my camera to custom mode 3, which I've programmed to aperture priority, auto ISO, multi-zone metering, continuous shooting and servo AF. :)

I had a read of my manual again today, because I had forgotten half of it and I needed to know where the metering zone was. Of course, I found the exposure lock, but it helps if you have three hands or double jointed fingers in order to press all the buttons and stuff in the right order/way.

With full manual, the settings stay locked shot after shot (if you take a few of the same subject) which is far easier than trying to remember how to use AE Lock. After reading the manual lazing on my bed I tried taking a few shots of lighter and darker areas of my room and got the idea.

Well, I fiddled with my Leica today, which does all of this (my Canon is generally too big to take with me at times). I still have to *get* the zone system as it]s a fairly new concept. It’s the stopping up or down that I am going to have to try more of.

I’ll be doing more reading on this.