The easy way
Film
Start with a well exposed negative. How?
ISO 400 B&W film. feks. Kodak Tri-x, or Ilford HP5. (Ansel Adams’ film and developer mostly was Tri-x and HC110)
shoot at ISO 200 (don’t automatically trust your light meter). Film Exposure help here
In the USA or anywhere with the original THICK version of HC-110 developer Process in Kodak HC110 developer using Dilution B, that is 1:31, for 5 minutes at 20 degrees C (68 F) with agitation every 30 seconds for 5 seconds. (For the perfectionist who is cursed with being human)
In Europe or anywhere with the THIN version of HC-110 developer Process in Kodak HC110 developer using Dilution B, that is 1:9, for 5 minutes at 20 degrees C (68 F) with agitation every 30 seconds for 5 seconds. (For the perfectionist who is cursed with being human)
If you need to adjust development film time, start with 25% increase or decrease and then refine.
Read up on benzotriazole (optional)
Make Contact prints, or use a Cold Light enlarger or digital scanning of negative/slide.
For a condenser enlarger you’ll need an inferior negative to avoid the Callier effect.
To go from one zone to another use the next/previous grade of paper or filter for a 1 zone shift of the low values. 2 grades/filters for a 2 zone shift.
Moves the dark values up/down while holding the high values in place.
It is more practical to make these decisions in the darkroom rather
than out with the camera with the clouds or rain or the wind starting to blow or a bus full of tourists about to camp out in front of your scene.
An alternative method:
Use your spotmeter and place the brightest part of the scene on zone 8