Film & Digital Techniques for Zone System Photography

Are you using a film camera?  Do you love black and white photography?  Are you interested in learning how to use the Zone System?  Then have I got the book for you!

On the other hand, are you using a digital camera?  Do you love black and white photography?  Are you interested in learning how to use the Zone System?  Then I don’t have the book for you.

Given the title Film & Digital Techniques for Zone System Photography, one might assume that this book describes the use of the Zone System for both film and digital photography in approximately equal proportions.  In this case, one would be wrong.  Though it does an absolutely superb job of covering the Zone System with respect to film, the book’s coverage of digital techniques is abysmal.  Chapters 1 through 9 deal almost entirely with film, leaving only Chapter 10 for digital techniques.  While it’s true that many concepts covered in the first nine chapters carry over to digital, many don’t.

That being said, let’s just go straight to my list of likes and dislikes about this book.

Likes:

• The luscious black and white photographs which fill the book.  If nothing else, they give you something to aspire to.
• The clean and methodical presentation of the Zone System as it relates to film.
• That the book encapsulates a thorough and complete explanation of the Zone System into one relatively concise and highly readable volume.

Dislikes:

• The photographs’ captions, which provide no information beyond the photographer’s name.  They contain no camera or lens information, no location (contextual) information, not even a mention of how the photo relates to the topic discussed on the page.
• The lack of references to the photographs in the text.  Almost without exception, the textual portion of the book never references the pictures or explains why a picture is even there.  Are the photographs supposed to illustrate the concepts in some way?  If so, the relationship between the text and the photographs is not obvious.
• The color photographs included in Chapter 10, which are nowhere near as eye-popping in quality as the book’s black and white ones.  I assume that they were created digitally because, as I previously stated, no information is provided about the book’s photographs.
• The deceptive nature of the book’s title, which I believe implies a greater coverage of digital than is actually included.

Even with its flaws, I actually did like this book because I like any book that teaches me something new.  The book is excellent for understanding all the nuances and subtleties of the Zone System.  Dr. Glenn Rand takes a refreshing methodical approach, thoroughly explaining all variables involved in the process and how to control them.  So if you use film or are at least an advanced amateur, this book might be to your liking.  The book contains concepts worth knowing, even if you don’t explicitly use them, and I would consider it required reading for any serious student of photography.

On the other hand, if you’re new to photography, then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.  This book is not meant for the digital photography beginner, unless you’re just interested in the topic.  And those who work exclusively with digital may be disappointed with the lack of digitally related content.