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How-To
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When Ansel Adams developed the Zone System with Fred Archer in 1940, he gave photographers a tool great for controlling their images—but only with black-and-white film, and only with view cameras, where sheets of film could be processed individually. Today, any photographer with a digital camera can have even more control, whether working with black-and-white or color.
| Zone System Basics Zone 5 represents a midtone in the scene. Anything one stop darker will render as Zone 4, two stops darker, Zone 3, and so on. Anything one stop lighter will render as Zone 6, two stops lighter, Zone 7, etc. Most digital cameras can hold detail in Zones 3 and 7, but not beyond. In other words, Zone 8 and above are washed out, and Zone 2 and below are black. A light color will lose saturation above Zone 6, and a dark color can’t go below Zone 4 without becoming muddy. |
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 Zone 0 Pure black |
 Zone 1 Nearly black |
 Zone 2 A hint of detail |
 Zone 3 Dark, with good detail but muddy color |
 Zone 4 Dark tone or color |
 Zone 5 Middle tone, medium color |
 Zone 6 Light tone or pastel color |
 Zone 7 Light, with texture but faded color |
 Zone 8 A hint of detail, but essentially washed out |
 Zone 9 Nearly white |
 Zone 10 Paper white |
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Such unprecedented power creates wonderful opportunities, but also can lead to confusion. How do you apply these controls? How far should you go? Do you have to reinvent the whole photographic process? No—because while the tools may be different, the basic principles of the Zone System still apply. The Zone System gives us a vital framework for understanding and controlling contrast in our images and a path to making prints with a full, rich range of tones—the range of tones for which Adams’ photographs are so famous.
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