LightZone
LightZone is a RAW processor and image editor that provides a set of masking tools based on Ansel Adams's Zone System. It supports all major camera RAW formats with native custom processing, uses small files to store image edits, and in these and other respects is not dissimilar to Adobe Lightroom.
LightZone's key feature -- and where it differs from other image editors -- is the way in which it allows you to create regions by drawing lines rather than by painting. By this means you can adjust the boundary of the region at any time, which is much more convenient for editing landscape photographs. You can blend the region smoothly into the surrounding area with automatic "feathering." LightZone makes the Zone System easier to understand with an interactive grayscale image analyzer called ZoneFinder. It segments a small version of the image into 16 grayscale zones, each differing by half an f-stop (50% brightness) from the next.
LightZone has a full set of enhancement tools including sharpen, blur, noise reduction, clone, crop, spot and rotate, and it comes with an illustrated, 82-page book in PDF format that explains everything about its philosophy and operation in detail.
Comment
LightZone is a pleasure to use and deserves to secure a share of the highly competitive image editing market. Its implementation of the Zone System is logical and genuinely useful to photographers.
Ongoing development, excellent documentation, and favorable reviews have established LightZone as a serious contender. The price has come down from $250 to $100, making it an even more attractive proposition.
Tech info
- OS: Windows XP onward; Mac OS X; Linux
- Price level: Approx. $100
Light Crafts
Light Crafts was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur/physicist Dr. Fabio Riccardi. The company is privately-funded, has a team of software engineers, and is based in Palo Alto, California. Launched in 2005, LightZone won MacWorld Best of Show in the following year when it appeared at Photokina.
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