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Writer's pictureRiju Samanta

How the EL Zone System is helping digital cinematography !!

Updated: Aug 21



The term EL stands for ‘Exposure Latitude’ and this technology was developed and patented by cinematographer, Ed Lachman, ASC. Turn your camera into a live spot meter on set.

Sample image of how EL Zone System can be viewed over a log image in camera.

Color coded representation of reflected light reading in interval of f-stops.


We came across this technology through a very informative interview published by Cinematographer Shane Hurlbet, in his channel, The Inner Circle podcast. In this video (link provided below) Ed Lachman brilliantly explains his journey and objective behind the development of the EL Zone System. As cinematographers, we are trained to measure light in f-stops. The false colour technology which has been there for a way too long does not communicate in the same language of f-stops but as a percentage. Therefore we found great merit in this new approach. When testing the same on quite a few projects in the past few months, we found it to be useful and consistent in the colour correction stage.

Ed Lachman pays tribute to the famous American photographer, Ansel Adams who is accredited for the Zone System in exposure in Black & White photography. His system used 11 zones of exposure, 0 being the purest black and 11 being the purest white, the remaining 9 zones were all shades of grey. You can see a detailed article on the Ansal Adams’ zone system in our blog.



The Inner Circle podcast, Shane Hurlbut, ASC takes a deep dive with Ed Lachman, ASC into the El Zone System


WHAT IS THE EL ZONE SYSTEM?


The EL (Exposure Latitude) Zone System is an exposure tool developed by cinematographer Ed Lachman, ASC to accurately measure light values in stops, conveying 1-to-1 with lenses and light meters. The camera’s sensor data is used as a reference point for a more intuitive process. With the EL Zone, filmmakers can view the entire exposure of a shot to reference like a spot meter to make lighting adjustments easier.


Below is an example of the normal vs false colour representation.



EL Zone

Comprised of 15 zones, the EL Zone is measured by 1 and + — ½ increments above and below 18% gray. Keep in mind, 18% gray is the universal standard for photography.

Note below on the color scale how overexposure is +6 white and underexposure is -6 black. Between those values are 13 other unique colors that represent each zone — altogether there are 15 zones.




Currently, EL Zone system is available as a inbuilt feature with Page OS 5 series of Small HD monitors. Its a convinent way to use the zone sysytem over your live feed, when used as an onboard camera monitoring. The process is explained in the video link below.


Just keep in mind that it is not possible to use the EL Zone simultaneously with a LUT. And if you use it with the SmallHD monitor, you can only do so with a LOG signal.






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