Using Zones for Black and White Photography: Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace: AdoramaTV
Learn how to use zones of light to convert color photographs to stunning, high contrast, black and white images. In this episode Mark Wallace explains his abbreviated version of Ansel Adam’s Zone System. Mark explains the five zones of exposure and demonstrates how to manipulate them using Lightroom 5.
Related Products:
Canon EOS-5D Mark III Digital SLR Camera Body
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II
Adobe Lightroom 5
Apple MacBook Pro 13” i7 2.8GHz 8GB RAM, 512 Flash Storage
BlackRapid Classic (RS-4) Strap Ballistic Nylon Camera Strap, Black
Mark’s Previous Episodes:
How Color Influences B&W Photography: Ep 232: Digital Photography 1 on 1: Adorama Photography TV
50 Shades of Black: Ep 133: Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace
Getting it Right in Camera: Ep 235: Digital Photography 1 on 1: Adorama Photography TV
Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 67: Lighting for Black and White Photography
Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 41: Dynamic Range: Adorama Photography TV
Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 33: Histograms: Adorama Photography TV
Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 24: Understanding Stops: Adorama Photography TV
Check out Adorama’s latest contest here for great prizes!:
Like, share, and comment on the video below…let’s get the conversation started!
If you have questions, share them with us at: [email protected]
Hmmmm, what about calibrated development times to achieve N-2, N-1, N, N+1 and N+2 ranges in the negative?
Hey everyone have recently started up my instagram black and white profile I was hoping you guys would check out the page and let me know what you think ? @Cu3llo_andy ..
too much clipping!
This is so great
With the Lumix GX9 I bought recently, I just shoot in L Monochrome D for B&W and RAW (in case I needed colour later). Very easy.
Thank you.
12:59 – where can I find this option in photoshop cc ? can anyone give me the path ?
the rolling advertisements in these videos is painfully annoying. Click here, buy this. Sigh.
Nice discussion but… really?? Your "abbreviated zone system" is the standard system built into photo editors?
Nice.
I've seen (a lot !) of videos on editing photography and this one is def in my top five. Thanks for those awesome tips ! I'll never look at a locker the same way again 😊🙏🌈
Awesome! Thank you!!!
Very useful video. Thank you 🙏
its may very advanced tutorial in the aspect of black and white photos
Mark, I have very good experience with your videos and your cognitive quality, so I venture to consult you if you have a workflow suggestion for me to try to replicate the content of this video in Photoshop exclusively (without resorting to Camera Raw, whose operations are similar to Lightroom)
But is sitting infront of a PC still photography? Just my opinion…
Excellent tips, just entering in black and white photography.
Can you use this for color images?
I just had flashbacks from when I went to Photo school in Daytona Beach Photography School. We had to study The Zone System for 6 Mos. but of course when I went there we had to shoot using 4×5 view cameras
this is cool
I am glad to hear others applying the principals of Zone System to digital photography. The Zone System Ansel Adams explained was not about getting high contrast images. It was about control in order to serve creativity and to be able to anticipate how tools, light, film, paper, chemicals, temperature, and time could be manipulated to bring into the concrete what begins in the imagination. Adams wanted to take the guess work out photography. If he wanted to reduce contrast, hold shadow or highlight detail, etc., he used his system. He was brilliant technically as he was creatively.
Awesome video! So much knowledge.
Adams' original prints were not very high contrast. Most of the high contrast stuff of his that you see now were reprinted by him in the 1960s and 1970s. He chose more contrast as he got older.
This just transformed my B&W work from mediocre to outstanding. I can't thank you enough for helping me understand tones and the zone hack you devised!
Thank you for this video.. Brilliant. I am really going to practice this technique from now on.
Very interesting topic. Bravo
Thank you fot this video. It is what I really needed to go further. These are small tips extremely important end usefull but one cannot find easily and quickly alone.
Great video, well explained and demonstrated. Very practical
In Truth, your 5 Zone system is best explained as the " Color Zone System ",
Re-Invented by Sinar's own Hans Karl Koch… It became known as the Zone System
for exposing Transparency Film, explained in Sinar's Bulletin # 40, ( I think it was 40 ).
Unfortunately OOP, but the histograms on the backs of digital cameras were similar
to the film H&D curves used to expose film.
For anyone looking for a great (in camera) B&W app for their iPhone or iPad, check out Hueless. You actually see the image as B&W as you take it. No conversion necessary.
I really like the photograph of the lock, that's the sort of shot I prefer to do on film.
Very interesting, thx
hello sir, how to make dslr pictures look like film??
thank you.
where is the image of the old run down house for sale in spanish from? It looks incredibly familiar!
Great skills. but to be honest, I don't think the super contrasty image is better than the original plain BW version.
I just re-edited my last shoot which I did black and white. I was feeling a bit deflated about my first edits but after watching this video I like my shots again. Thanks a lot for the great tips 🙂
Thanks for this…fantastic
o_O
Just seeing this now, and I am LOVING all the tips! Makes so much sense and I'm putting it to use as we speak!