Introduction to photography- week 5

5/9/14 (week 5)
Ho Vui San ( 0321028 )
Introduction to photography
Exercise 3a ( zone system )

Lecture : Before the class I have already read those information given by Mr Vinod but I did not understand it well. My brain started popping out so many questions because that I did not understand it , Today , during Mr.Vinod's class , He explained to us about the zone system and also about Ansel Adams himself . He also keep telling us to ask him questions and did not bring those questions to home . Before we ended the class , Mr. Vinod also gave us a exercise of the day , which is about white tones , middle tones and dark tones . 

Instruction for exercise 3a ( zone system ) :

Having learned that the camera light meter is dumb, because it gives you an average or optimized (middle grey; zone 5) exposure irrespective of the subject matter, execute the plan below to prove the theory and record you thoughts on the matter in your eportfolio.

Exercise 3a: Zone System
1. Capture three subjects: one light zones, middle zones and dark zones.
2. Take two images for each subject, one exposure according to the camera's light meter and the other according to the zone you believe the image falls under.
3. Ensure that the subjects you choose for each zone area (light, middle dark) have a good range of tones within the zone's area. As an example if you are capturing a subject that falls under the light zone and the subject is a white wall, it is only going to have 1 shade of the light zone, so avoid such subject matters, choose subjects that have a healthy tonal range within the white zone. 

Exercise 3a - Zone system



White zone -

                                   1)

S 1/60   f/8   ISO 200

                                 2)

S 1/25   f/8   ISO 200

Grey zone -

                                     1)

S 1/200   f/8   ISO 200

                                    2) 

S 1/250   f/8   ISO 200

Black zone -

                                     1)

S 1.6   f/8   ISO 200

                                     2)

S 1/4   f/8   ISO 200

White zone (correction after feedback) -

                                     1)

S 1/2.5   f/8   ISO 200

                                          2)

S 1   f/8   ISO 200

Grey zone (correction after feedback) -

                                     1)

S 1.3    f/8    ISO 200

                                    2)

S 1.3   f/8   ISO 200

Black zone (correction after feedback) -

                                     1)

S 4.0   f/8   ISO 200

                                         2)

S 1.0    f/8   ISO 200

Screenshot of exercise 3a submission :

Feedback - Mr.Vinod said : Holly, your choice of subjects were for the exercises was not very appropriate. Your subject let say for light tone, must only be shades of white that fill the full frame of your picture, there must not be any grey or black in the picture. (See example provided). The first picture, the pebbles are not white, so it is in correct. This exercise needs to be done again. -- Your reflections were fine, in that you revealed your lack of understanding the topic. Please ask me questions to clear up your confusion for this exercise in the next class.


Reflection :

Experience - From today's class I have experienced that it is important to recap what I have learned in the previous classes and yet I still a little bit confused with zone system , I also think that the zone system is quite a complicated topic to understand it , I will need to overcome that because I knew that the future assignment is much more difficult than the previous one , maybe it would takes me some times to understand all about the zone system and I also realised that I need to work more harder in the future to do my assignment . 

Observations - From this exercise , I observed that there are some different compare to what the camera see and what I see in the reality . and I realised that the camera meter exposure is dumb . Dumb in the sense that it assumes that all scenes have an average tonal value,which is middle grey (zone 5).

Findings - Honestly , I still have a little  problem with zone system and I hope I will able to understand it completely in the next class and I know that I need to practice it to improve my skills and do it better , I also hope that in the future I will be able to get used to it .