Driftwood ZONELAB OFX is a patent-pending exposure analysis and color grading tool that brings Ansel Adams’ Zone System to digital motion picture.
ZoneLAB is the first plugin to combine real-time zone-based exposure analysis with professional colour grading tools in a single interface.
Unlike traditional false colour tools and waveform monitors, ZoneLAB overlays a grid directly on the image where each cell displays the precise exposure zone of that region, giving colorists and cinematographers an immediate, intuitive understanding of how light is distributed across the frame.
Key features
- 21-zone exposure map with false-colour overlay and per-cell zone readouts
- 11-zone Ansel Adams mode with greyscale zones and roman numeral notation
- Skin tone selection — manually select grid cells over faces for targeted exposure correction
- Auto Expose with skin-tone awareness
- A/B split view for comparing raw vs graded footage
- Per-zone shadow, midtone, and highlight exposure controls
- Full grading suite — temperature, tint, saturation, contrast, density
- Black & white grading with traditional filter simulation and split toning
- Film grain with exposure-dependent weighting
- Export to PNG, 16-bit DPX with alpha overlay, and multi-layer EXR
- GPU accelerated via Apple Metal for real-time performance
ZoneLAB does not compete with film emulation plugins. It creates an entirely new category: zone-system exposure analysis combined with grading. No other OFX plugin offers this capability.
“I built ZoneLAB because I wanted to see my footage the way Ansel Adams saw a landscape. Not as numbers on a waveform, but as zones of light, and then shape them with precision.”
Nick Driftwood, developer
22 camera profiles are included with pre-configured dynamic range data for ARRI Alexa 35, ARRI Mini LF, Sony VENICE, Sony FX6, Sony FX3, RED V-RAPTOR, RED KOMODO, Canon C300 Mk III, Canon C70, Fujifilm X-H2S, Panasonic LUMIX S1MII, LUMIX S5IIX, Nikon Z9/Z8, Blackmagic cameras, and more.
16 log and colour space profiles are supported, including DaVinci Wide Gamut, ARRI LogC3/LogC4, Sony S-Log3, RED Log3G10, Canon Log2/Log3, Panasonic V-Log, Fujifilm F-Log2, and Nikon N-Log.
Colorists can be up and running in 60 seconds: apply ZoneLAB to a serial node, select the camera’s colour space and profile from the dropdown, and the zone map appears instantly. No LUTs to load, no calibration, no setup.
Pricing & Availability
ZoneLAB is available now at an exclusive launch price of £90 / $113 USD for the first month. After the introductory period, the price will increase to $150 USD. Each purchase includes two machine activations (desktop and laptop). Windows support and Adobe After Effects / Premiere compatibility are coming soon.
ZoneLAB is available now for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) from the Driftwood DCTL Store: https://driftwood-dctl.com/
