What 'zone' for white shirt?

BetterSense · Jul 19, 2009

I was at church today and I started wondering, suppose you spot-metered a person wearing a white dress shirt, or white t-shirt. How many stops would you add to the metered value to account for the shirt's being white rather than grey? 2? 3? 4?

I'm thinking you would place the shirt at zone 7 so you would add 2 stops.

david b · Jul 19, 2009

You would be correct.

WGibsonPhotography · Jul 19, 2009

I'm thinking zone 7, too

mike c · Jul 19, 2009

Depends if the shirt is a important part of picture or if face is or something else.

David A. Goldfarb · Jul 19, 2009

With B&W neg film, I'd process for the shirt to be on Zone VII or two stops over middle grey.

With color slide film, I'd expose for the shirt to be about 1-1/3 or 1-1/2 stops over middle grey.

Nikanon · Jul 19, 2009

It depends, if in sunlight i would make the highest shades of white from the sun zone VIII, and let the lower values fall, in the shade id do about zone VII or VIII, of course i may make it zone III but this is all depending on my visualization, for me zones are never fixed

Usagi · Jul 20, 2009

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I second what NIKANON wrote. It all depends on visualisation. Perhaps mostly I would use VIII.

Christopher Walrath · Jul 20, 2009

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White shirt in sunlight would be further seperated from the subject's skin tone than in shadow. And their skin would be of more import to me.

BetterSense · Jul 20, 2009

so...bright sunlight or harsh stage lighting....zone 8, shade or flatter lighting maybe zone 7. Cool. When I finally get my spotmeter finished I'll be able try it out.

ic-racer · Jul 20, 2009

I don't "place" a white shirt, I let it "fall." So, depending on the low areas, it could "fall" on a number of zones under different conditions. (B&W Negative Film)

naeroscatu · Jul 20, 2009

I voted for zone VII as a general assesment but I always measure both my shadows and highlights and determine what is the contrast range so I know how to develop. Also you need to measure your subject (I doubt that would be a shirt) proably the face so you know where it will fall if you open up two stops to put the shirt on zone VII. It all depends on the existing light.

memorris · Jul 20, 2009

I agree with ic-racer. Meter and place the skin and let the shirt fall where it may. I would probably meter it and if it was too much, might consider doing a N-1 development.

keithwms · Jul 20, 2009

This is (always) a matter of priorities in the scene, but indeed my starting point would be 7.

BetterSense · Jul 20, 2009

I agree with ic-racer. Meter and place the skin and let the shirt fall where it may.

of course that would be optimal, but consider a situation where metering the shirt itself would be more practical than metering anything else, because of the distance to the target, the poor angle of your spotmeter, the fact that they are moving etc. The shirt makes a good target.

If you measured white skin, I supposed you'd only add one stop. The palm of my hand is always exactly 1 stop brighter than a grey card.

Christopher Walrath · Jul 20, 2009

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I good placement for caucasian skin is zone vi, darker asian skin zone v, african skin zone iv. Has always worked for me.

JBrunner · Jul 20, 2009

VII in the most simple of scenarios. I'm just as likely to place it elsewhere depending on the scene, what film I'm using, and how I intend to develop given the other information.

At least you are putting your church time to good use!

Nikanon · Jul 20, 2009

Get a pentax digital spotmeter, or S.E.I. Exposure meter, again don't set
yourself up for any zones, let your visualization and technical ability control your tones as well as development, as you visualize

Martin Aislabie · Jul 24, 2009

JBrunner said:
VII in the most simple of scenarios. I'm just as likely to place it elsewhere depending on the scene, what film I'm using, and how I intend to develop given the other information.

Yup! - me too

Thats the trick/skill of zoning

You can only place a couple of tones, the rest end up where ever they happen to fall.

Knowing which tones to place and which tones to let fall - thats the skilful bit - and of course not often discussed as people are usually to busy just applying the mechanism of the Zone System

Martin

Mike1234 · Jul 24, 2009

Meter for the Shadows (where detail is needed) and Develop for the Highlights...

... (where detail is needed)... unless shooting roll film for which no adjusted development is intended. In that case, meter for the shadows and let the highlights fall where they may... unless shooting chromes, for which you must be more carfeful with the highlights and find a happy balance.

There's really no correct "all inclusive" answer so I didn't vote.

What 'zone' for white shirt?

how many stops would you add to a spotmeter'd white shirt?

1 stop/zone 6

2 stops/zone 7

3 stops/zone 8

other

BetterSense

david b

WGibsonPhotography

mike c

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

Nikanon

Usagi

Christopher Walrath

BetterSense

ic-racer

naeroscatu

memorris

keithwms

BetterSense

Christopher Walrath

JBrunner

Moderator

Nikanon

Martin Aislabie

Mike1234

What 'zone' for white shirt?

how many stops would you add to a spotmeter'd white shirt?

1 stop/zone 6

2 stops/zone 7

3 stops/zone 8

other

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency