Just a Thought...

In the process of trying to coerce a working system in my darkroom, I purchased the book “Beyond the Zone System” because I know it has a lot to help understand sensitometry. What appeals to me is the ability to both test the speed of your film and the development time within 6 sheets. Since Ansel Adam’s film speed test takes seven sheets and an unknown amount of sheets for the dev test (at least one but in practice a few more), I’m all about conserving resources. The cost of the sheet of film is only one part of the cost—it’s the investment in time that I’m most concerned about.

BTZS starts out with a nice little overview of how paper and film work together to make the finished image. It also has a review of all the types of math and graphing theory that pertains to this testing process. The math’s not that hard, but the problem is in the way it’s presented. You can tell the author has a wealth of information, and he tries to make it accessible all in one or two chapters, but you almost end in confusion.

Where my head really starts swimming is when he gets in to calculating film speed. With Ansel Adams, it’s simply a density of 0.1 over film base+fog. The author covers the history and the pros and cons of how film speed was calculated over time, instead of just choosing one and teach how to do that one. It’s useful information, but the alternatives could be moved to an appendix to make that section more accessible.

With a proper handle of the basics of how the film and paper relate to each other, you can intelligently make decisions on exposure, development, and printing decisions. The road to understanding taken in the BTZS approach is very technical, which is not for the feint of heart. However, once you’ve learned the basics, you learn useful bits of information. For example, changing development times is similar to changing apertures—they both follow the same geometric progression of numbers (4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16…) to produce the same changes in final density. Shutter speed times and film speed numbers follow the same progression of numbers.

If you are serious about understanding more about how your materials work and respond to light, this book is definitely something you should have in your library. It will take time to “get it”, but once you do it will help you with your final results. You have a better understanding of why you choose a particular density for your print materials. You also have a better understanding of how zones don’t equal stops of exposure—yet the two still relate predictably.

The portrait above exhibits some nice elements using light and shadow to make the picture more interesting. The first element is the fact that the lighting is soft. I had enough exposure to have even more detail in the background if I chose, but really what you see is the hint of a face. The shadow isn’t so dark that the head completely blends in with the background, but you have a portion in the top right that defines the boundaries so that she doesn’t look odd.

The biggest thing with low-key lighting is to provide enough light to define the picture and provide enough highlight detail to keep the viewer’s interest. Harder edge lights like incandescent lamps can provide a unique look for outlines and such. Softer edge lights provide a more even lighting. You may need to play a bit more with placement, but you don’t have to deal with hot spots that make the picture harder to print.

The only lighting is a floor lamp off to the left. I shot the picture with my Calumet Classic and Rhodenstock 26cm lens. This lens is really made for portraits. It is sharp, but at the same time not too sharp. It was made in 1935, so it has a certain look that you can’t get with either soft focus lenses or the super-sharp cost-a-million-bucks lenses of nowadays. The film is 4×5 Fomapan 200 and developed in Rodinal. The actual exposure was a little low, and the development time was a little on the long side, but it all worked out. I put the focus on the eyes without worrying too much on the plane of the face. The challenge with live models is that they move, and with portraits the only true focal point is going to be the eyes. My exposure was about 4 seconds—timed in my head so not all that accurate.

It turns out that all I had to do was make a straight print. I really didn’t need to dodge or burn. Being young, my model’s expression and skin is perfect for her. She was in the process of doing a silly, over-affected pose, but without the context of the rest of her body it doesn’t come across that way. This print was made with Oriental VC|RC II glossy paper, developed in Kodak Dektol. I use a factorial development of 5x the time of the first appearance. I exposed the print for 2 seconds with #00 contrast and 4 seconds at #5 contrast at f/11 with my Rhodenstock 150mm enlarging lens.