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ZONE SYSTEM
The Zone System gives photographers a scientific way to evaluate a composition's tone range. It also instructs the photographer on how to modify the camera's exposure settings so that the image is captured exactly as the photographer envisions it. The Zone System is a tone scale with eleven different tones. Pure black is the darkest, and pure white is the lightest. Zone 0 is black, while Zone X is white. Between these two extremes, each grey value is exactly one photographic stop difference from the grey tone on either side. Zone III is therefore one shade darker than Zone IV and one shade lighter than Zone II. Zone VII is one shade darker than Zone VIII, and Zone VI is one shade lighter, and so on.
In this photo the rather dark sky is placed into the V. It is placed in the VI zone if it is too revealing with one-stop, leading it to be brighter than the truth. It will be placed in Zone IV if it is less exposed by one stop, causing it to be darker than the truth. The shadows are dark, but not completely black, and fall within Zone II.
In this photo the green area is average until it is placed in the V. Zone down, it becomes brighter, right around Zone VI. In the upper part of the light, it is a brighter X zone. Clouds are white but still defend the detail, so they zone VIII. The tree behind is darker than average, so it is considered zone iii. The trench area is around the stop -1 is darker than the average, so it is considered zone IV.
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