LightZone: Discover
Description: Introduction to the breakthrough features of LightZone.

LightZone Help
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# Discover LightZone

LightZone is a breakthrough in photo editing software that makes it easier to edit digital photos and quickly achieve professional quality results.

LightZone is designed for photographers and differs in many fundamental ways from pixel painting programs that force you to think in terms of pixels or use complex mathematical concepts like histograms and curves. LightZone uses a model based on the physics of light and methods derived from the experience of photographers through the decades -- in the field, behind the camera, and in the darkroom.

## Key Features

LightZone has a number of key features that set it apart from other photo editing applications.

Styles
| LightZone comes bundled with many ready-made styles that in many cases enable you to improve the appeal of your photos dramatically with a single click. Styles are intelligent combinations of LightZone's tools. After selecting a style, you are free to manipulate the settings of the individual tools ever further. You can also create your own styles for not only yourself, but share them with others. More on Styles...

Relight
| The Relight tool allows you to "relight" all or parts of your photo as if the lighting were different when you took it. The Relight tool does this by reducing the large scale contrast and, at the same time, increasing the local contrast. This mimics the behavior of the human visual system and makes your photo more appealing and easier to work with. More on the Relight tool...

ZoneMapper
| The ZoneMapper tool allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of your photo for any combination of the highlights, midtones, or shadows in a way that is far more intuitive than using either "levels" or "curves" tools found in other applications. The ZoneMapper tool shows 16 grayscale zones each differing by 50% brightness or half an f-stop from the next. The ZoneMapper is based on the Zone System invented by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer. More on the ZoneMapper...

ZoneFinder
| The ZoneFinder shows a miniature version of your photo that has been segmented into 16 grayscale zones each differing by 50% brightness or half an f-stop from the next. The ZoneFinder allows you to see where the highlights, midtones, and shadows in your photo are in order to make adjustments using the ZoneMapper. More on the ZoneFinder...

Vector-based regions and masks
| Using regions to create masks, you can restrict a tool's effect to just specific areas of your photo. Unlike other applications, LightZone allows you to draw (rather than paint) regions. Regions are therefore always editable. Additionally, every region has a feathering area that smoothly blends the region into the surrounding area preventing sharp edges. More on regions...

Linear color space
| LightZone always works in a 16-bit linear color space. Unlike a non-linear gamma-corrected color space, a linear color space doesn't introduce errors (such as increasing noise, edge distortion, and hue shifts) during enhancement operations such as sharpening, blurring, or saturation adjustments.

Direct raw file support
| LightZone can open and edit raw files as easily as TIFF or JPEG. Raw files from Canon, Epson, Fuji, Kodak, Leaf Valeo, Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Ricoh, Samsung, and Sony cameras are supported. Therefore, there is no need for an intermediate "raw conversion" step. Additionally, LightZone can open DNG files.

Non-destructive editing for all tools
| LightZone organizes the tools used to edit your photo into a stack similarly to "layers" in other applications. Unlike other applications' layers, every tool becomes a layer in the tool stack. (For example, you create a sharpen tool as a layer rather than sharpening an existing layer.) This means that every tool is non-destructive and therefore can be modified or deleted at any time. More on the tool stack...

Simple (and small) workflow
LightZone's workflow consists of an original image file (be it JPEG, TIFF, or raw) obtained from a digital camera or scanner and an associated "LightZone JPEG" file that contains the tool stack you create. These two files are all you need to create beautiful photos. You can make stunning prints of your photos directly from LightZone. Optionally, you can also convert your edited photos to TIFF files (for use in other applications).

### See also:

- New features
- Table of Contents