Monolith prompted Adams to coin the term "visualization". Monolith broke through straight photography and introduced "visualization" as a method in which a photographer knows the way they want the photo to look, and carefully controls aspects of the scene, emulsion, filter, and developmental process to create their exact "envisionment". Adams said, "I see my finished platinum print on the ground glass in all its desired qualities, before my exposure". With the Monolith, visualization was an essential element to its creation. In regards to the photograph, Adams stated, “I began to think about how the print was to appear, and if it would transmit any of the feeling of the monumental shape before me in terms of its expressive-emotional quality. I realized that only a deep red filter would give me anything approaching the effect I felt emotionally." Additionally, The Zone System Adams created a structured way photographers could use dark-room and development techniques to achieve their visualizations. The "Zone System" works to carefully control exposure and development of the negative, and promotes using the dark room and framing techniques to emote a visual experience. Adams created ten different zones to describe a numerical range of the whitest photos to the blackest photos. A photographer can visualize how he wants a print to look, choose the corresponding number in the zone range, then follow subsequent exposing, developing and printing methods to create exact desired tones.
