The New Zone System Manual

In this age of (almost) all digital photography, the zone system remains a valuable guide to proper exposure. It is all too easy to simply point and shoot, even with more sophisticated cameras, to the detriment of a well thought-out photograph. Minor White's classic needs to be read by anyone who wants to improve their way of choosing exposures (and even composition). I first read White's book years ago when I was shooting all black and white many years before the digital age. Being reintroduced to this thoughtful and incredibly useful way of planning an photograph, taking a proper exposure and then, as we say now, completing the workflow, has been a great way to tighten up my technique. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get back in touch with some real basics.

For more than 20 years, The New Zone System Manual has been the classic introduction to the Zone System, a standardized method of exposure and development of black & white photography that was developed by Ansel Adams. Adams taught the Zone System in workshops, and he never intended his own Basic Photo Series to be a beginner's instructional manual. In addition, Adams' prose style is erudite and often insightful, but it is rather opaque to a beginner. The Zone System Manual was written by Minor White in 1961 to make the System more comprehensible, and it was extensively revised and updated with coauthors Richard Zakia and Peter Lorenz in 1977, and updated again in 1990.I am surprised that this book is apparently out of print, and I hope some publisher will soon make it available again. There are other books on the Zone System, but I know of none as organized and understandable.