The biggest change in my photography came from a single realisation – a photograph relies far more on tone than on colour. I discovered that the underlying structure of all images, the 3D form, spatial distance, and the very sense of light, is dictated almost entirely by tonal values. This led me to a complete reversal of the traditional workflow. – Instead of creating colour images first, I now set out to create a solid, structurally perfect black-and-white image first. Once that foundation is solid and realistic, I overlay the colour information. This shift in perspective didn’t just improve my photography; it totally transformed how I see, think, and create images, and it has a sound, science-based logic underlying it.

This logic is the foundation of “The 20:1 Tonal System” I share today. – It’s where science meets art: our eyes have 120 million rods for tone and only 6 million cones for colour: a biological 20:1 ratio that shows we perceive the world primarily through light and structure first – not colour. My workflow embraces this biological reality, challenging popular belief by prioritising the creation of a strong structural foundation – before adding the artistic transformation and colour finish. My images are the proof that this logic works. – Look at the images below, I’ve separated the tonal and colour information: the tonal layer carries almost the entire image; the colour is only a thin overlay. – The tutorial explains more.