Zone System
Sistema de zonas
- Date
- 1939-1940 · confidence high
- Place
- Los Angeles, California, United States
- Credited to
- Ansel Adams and Fred Archer
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, dividing the tonal scale into numbered zones and linking the photographer's previsualization to the final result; formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer around 1939-1940.
What it led to
- precise, repeatable control of exposure and black-and-white development
- a standard teaching method in art and technical photography
- later adaptation to color film and digital photography
- a central influence on Ansel Adams's large-format landscape work