Therese Kim

Got it. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who responded. The author's statement came from a subheading, "The Zone System." Here's are some excerpts from paragraphs preceding the statement in question: "In evaluating exposure, we must look at a subject in terms of its light and dark values: the subject range of brightness...What we are measuring is subject brightness (luminance), which can vary in two ways: its inherent reflectance and the amount of light that falls on it. Reflectance is a property of the material itself..." And here's the actual quote I'd paraphrased in my original post: "The brightness range of a typical outdoor subject is about 1000:1. This is 15 stops, but here's the rub: imaging systems cannot reproduce this range of subject brightness..."

Thank you! How cool--I read about you in "American Cinematographer!" Yes, it seems a 10-stop difference should be 1024:1. I didn't understand the "210=1024" in the quote, though.

Not sure it's appropriate for a beginner to post in this forum? But I've been scratching my head about a line in Blain Brown's "Lighting" book. It said that a subject with a brightness range of 1000:1 is 15 stops. I thought it would be 10? Would someone be willing to explain? Thanks!