Zone System
Photopedia
03 September 2008 17:05
The Zone System is a way of controlling your prints’ tonal range. The process begins by previsualising your subject as having up to nine tone zones between but not including, pure black and pure white. This requires the photographer to imagine colours as a tone based on luminance (The amount of light reflected from a surfaces or emitted from a light source). The tonal range of final prints is adjusted by light readings at the shooting stage, and development at the processing stage. With digital photography this would be applied at the RAW conversion stage. The Zone System process was developed and used extensively by photographers Ansel Adams and Minor White.
