Incident Lighting and Zone System

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I was watching this video today:

View: https://youtu.be/1uH0dL5yCKk?t=300


He first meters key light (f16) and fill (f5.6)

Then here
View: https://youtu.be/1uH0dL5yCKk?t=350
he mentions he used f8 so the highlights did not fall on middle grey so hes opened up (to place on zone vII) I assume.

Its my understanding that incident light metering will put everything in the correct place on the tone scale (in measured light) and in fact you would select f8 probably as to balance the fill and key sides? ( by taking a reading from subject chin with dome to camera)

So is this correct or are terms being mixed up?

Thanks
 
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I don't really understand your question, and I don't understand those videos either. . .

The zone system is/was designed by Ansel Adams to obtain correct exposure and rendition with black and white film, all explained here https://shootitwithfilm.com/using-t...hat is the Zone System,one f-stop in exposure. Those videos don't seem to have any relationship to the zone system, in fact I'm not sure what they're about at all.

Yes, incident light metering will normally do best possible metering job, with the meter pointing towards the camera lens or, in some cases, at a point between the camera lens and the key light, depending on the lighting arrangement.
 
Awesome thanks, the video was confusing me as he was incident metering then talked about opening up his aperture to place the highlights in line with the zone system. You read one thing then someone does something completely different
 
Sadly, that happens a lot with online tutorials - anyone can publish anything.
 
He's basically stating he exposed for "the middle" which would be zone 5; so his highlights are 2 stops over (zone 7) and the shadows 1 stop under (zone 4). Which is about right because the most useful range is zones 3-7... except that is not how the zone system is used/works.

The zone system is a two part process where you set your detailed shadows to expose ~ 2 stops under (zone 3) on the film, and then reduce the film development time so that any highlights that metered above zone 7 would drop into the desired range... anything else is just basic metering.
And the closest we can come to implementing the zone system with digital is ETTL, which is the opposite of film (expose for highlights and process for shadows).
 
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sk66 said:
He's basically stating he exposed for "the middle" which would be zone 5; so his highlights are 2 stops over (zone 7) and the shadows 1 stop under (zone 4). Which is about right because the most useful range is zones 3-7... except that is not how the zone system is used/works.

The zone system is a two part process where you set your detailed shadows to expose ~ 2 stops under (zone 3) on the film, and then reduce the film development time so that any highlights that metered above zone 7 would drop into the desired range... anything else is just basic metering.
And the closest we can come to implementing the zone system with digital is ETTL, which is the opposite of film (expose for highlights and process for shadows).
Click to expand...

He metered with an incident meter though so his highlights should already by in Zone 7 when measured in the light he will be using? It would be find if he has used spot or reflective
 
But he didn't meter with the dome pointing towards the camera, which would have given a single "averaged/correct" exposure reading like you're thinking. In effect he did spot meter (separate) the high and low readings...

Basically he used the incident meter "wrong" making things more complicated/confusing... there are reasons you might meter the lights separately, but that wasn't one of them.
 
sk66 said:
But he didn't meter with the dome pointing towards the camera, which would have given a single "averaged/correct" exposure reading like you're thinking. In effect he did spot meter (separate) the high and low readings...

Basically he used the incident meter "wrong" making things more complicated/confusing... there are reasons you might meter the lights separately, but that wasn't one of them.
Click to expand...
Righhht thanks! So basically if hed incidented to the meter he probs would have got the same
 
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