What is the Shadow area of a subject ?

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Denny B - 04 May 2005 14:27 GMT

Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
darkest part of the subject you select ?
For example when you are in the downtown areas
of many cities where there are dozens of tall buildings
and NO direct sunlight, except the light from the sky
above, what are the shadow areas? The darkest part
of the subject you select?

As highlight is the brightest part of a subject.
Is Shadow simply the darkest part of a subject ?

Thanks in advance
Denny B

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Francis A. Miniter - 05 May 2005 04:52 GMT

> Is the shadow area or part of a subject simply the
> darkest part of the subject you select ?
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Thanks in advance
> Denny B

The three commonly used terms are shadow areas, midtones and highlights. If you
think in terms of an 11 step Zone System, with Zone 0 being black without
texture and Zone 10 being white without texture, then the shadow areas would
occupy Zones 1, 2 and 3, while the midtones would be placed in Zones 4, 5, and
6, and the highlights, Zones 7 ,8, and 9.

http://www.cicada.com/pub/photo/zs/tables/01.html

Think of the terms as each relating to a range of tones, not any extreme. If
you have a light meter, consider making a zone scale or zone wheel to go with it
to help visualize the various steps.

References: Phil Davis, Beyond the Zone System
http://www.stacken.kth.se/~maxz/files/ZoneWheel.pdf

Francis A. Miniter

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Denny B - 05 May 2005 14:25 GMT

> The three commonly used terms are shadow areas, midtones and highlights. If you
> think in terms of an 11 step Zone System, with Zone 0 being black without
> texture and Zone 10 being white without texture, then the shadow areas would
> occupy Zones 1, 2 and 3, while the midtones would be placed in Zones 4, 5, and
> 6, and the highlights, Zones 7 ,8, and 9.

I take it then to judge for shadow you use your judgement
best you can for example and set for Shadow, judging
if it is a zone 1,or 2 or 3.
There seems to be no getting away with it that you have
to use indivudal judgement.

Denny B

> http://www.cicada.com/pub/photo/zs/tables/01.html
>
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>
> Francis A. Miniter

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Francis A. Miniter - 06 May 2005 05:28 GMT

>>The three commonly used terms are shadow areas, midtones and
>
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>
> Denny B

Individual judgment is a necessary part of any good picture. But you can use a
light meter (see my previous comments below) to aid you in this process. In
particular, if you have a spot meter, you can read the reflected light from an
area having only a 1° or 2° angle of capture. By doing this you can directly
see on the light meter that the area just measured is x stops above or below the
average light reading. Light meters built into cameras are nice tools, but they
cannot give you the information available from a true spot meter. Even
"center -weighted" meters cannot tell you the zone that a particular brick wall
(or better yet, the shaded side of your subject's face) will fall in.

Francis A. Miniter

>>http://www.cicada.com/pub/photo/zs/tables/01.html
>>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>>
>>Francis A. Miniter

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Denny B - 06 May 2005 14:24 GMT

> > I take it then to judge for shadow you use your judgement
> > best you can for example and set for Shadow, judging
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> "center -weighted" meters cannot tell you the zone that a particular brick wall
> (or better yet, the shaded side of your subject's face) will fall in.

Francis,
I do have a Pentax analog spotmerer also a Minolta digital
spotmeter both are 1 degree meters. I am getting used to these
and trying to understand how to meter properly.
I also have Ansel Adam's 'The Negative" book and study it.

Thank you kindly for your information.

Thanks
Dwenny B

> Francis A. Miniter
>
> >>References: Phil Davis, Beyond the Zone System
> >> http://www.stacken.kth.se/~maxz/files/ZoneWheel.pdf
> >>
> >>Francis A. Miniter

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Francis A. Miniter - 06 May 2005 18:23 GMT

>
>
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>
>

There is no hard and fast rule where to start. Often, you should make
the artistic judgment of which part of the scene you want in Zone V.
Then meter various highlights and shadow areas to determine the zonal
range that you have to deal with. Seven zones is about average. If it
is 5 zones, then you are dealing with a compressed scene; if nine, a
highly contrasty scene. This information can help you decide about
modification of placement of zonal values when determining exposure.
They can also help you determine if you want to expand or contract
development time.

Sometimes, the information helps best if you start from another
direction. If you need to make sure that you have sufficient detail in
the shadow areas, then you work from that premise. The information can
also help think about boosting shadow values by a short pre-exposure
(pointed for instance at a featureless sky) equal to about one stop.
For instance, if you point at the sky and the meter says to shoot it at
f/8 and 1/100th second to get a medium gray, then pre-expose at f/16 and
1/400th second to expose the film to Zone 1. Now when you shoot the
scene, values that would have ended up in Zone 1 will end up in Zone 2,
values in Zone 2 go to 2 1/2; values in Zone 3 go to 3 1/4, etc., with
diminishing effects with each increasing step.

Francis A. Miniter

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