What It Does
Fixel Zone Selector generates luminosity masks in Photoshop using Ansel Adams’ Zone System. This approach divides the tonal range into 11 distinct zones, from pure black to pure white, allowing you to create precise selections based on brightness values. Instead of manually building complex selections, you pick a tonal range and the plugin generates the corresponding mask.
The tool is particularly useful for landscape and portrait retouching where you need to brighten shadows without affecting highlights, or vice versa. For example, you can select just Zone III (dark shadows) to lift detail without washing out midtones, or target Zones VII-IX to control blown highlights.
Key Features
11 Tonal Zones. Follows the traditional Zone System scale, giving you granular control over which brightness levels to select. You can choose a single zone or combine multiple zones for broader selections.
32-bit floating point precision. The plugin calculates masks at 32-bit depth, producing smooth gradients without banding or posterization. This matters when making subtle tonal adjustments.
Quick View. Toggle between seeing the mask itself (grayscale) or the composition view (how the mask affects your layer). Helpful when fine-tuning selections.
Multi-CPU acceleration. The plugin distributes calculations across available processor cores, speeding up mask generation on complex images.
Who It’s For
This is for Photoshop users who regularly work with tonal adjustments and need repeatable, predictable selections. If you find yourself manually creating luminosity masks with Apply Image or using actions to build them, this plugin automates that process. Note that it’s a Photoshop plugin, not an After Effects tool.
Pricing
$47.20 (reduced from $59). One-time purchase with a perpetual license. Owners receive free minor version updates and a 50% discount on major version upgrades. The plugin is currently marked as discontinued on aescripts, so availability may be limited.