Tag Archives: Rural Landscapes

Independent, Reading, Task

ANsel Adams Comparison

Leave a comment
  • Anecdotes - The Ansel Adams Gallery
    Ansell Adams
  • Michael Kenealy

Above are two rural landscape images. The image on the left was shot by American photographer Ansell Adams and the right by myself.

Both images feature a low key, greyscale profile. The use of an ND filter and specific film allowed Adams to create an image with dominant dark tones whilst still allowing for the counteractive sharp highlights to come through in the image. I recreated this by shooting with a large aperture to include as much data in the image as possible and then altering the saturation and temperature of the image in post production. These methods allow for both images to feature a highly romanticized landscape. For example the dramatic moon in the center of a dark, almost fully black sky tucked behind a whisping blanket of clouds which are being pierced by a gathering of sharp snowy mountains is a typical depiction of an exaggerated, sublime landscape.

Both images feature a large tonal range from the dark sky’s and foliage to the white mountains and sand dunes.

Both images have similar form with the empty sky taking up two thirds of the image with the bottom of the image being filled.

They both contain a strong leading line horizontally through the image

Conceptually, both these images represent the idea of death and moving on. The images both feature dark, mournful tones. Adams image features a graveyard symbolizing death and my image contains a sublime landscape which was once flourishing but is now more baron symbolizing life and death. The images both feature bold horizons which alludes to the idea of “new horizons” and moving on from death.

Independent, Reading, Task

Final Display

1 Comment

Contact Sheets

Final Edits

Exposure Bracketing Technique

The above is an example of where I used a technique called exposure bracketing.

This is when a triptych or series of photos of the same landscape is taken but each with a different exposure.

I did this by positioning the camera, with a tripod in the exact same place. I then took the tree photos but each time changing the ISO. The first photo was had an ISO of 500 the second of 300 and the third 120. I then sliced and collaged the three images into one.

Independent, Reading, Task

Ansel Adams

Leave a comment

Ansel Adams is an American photographer born in 1902 and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in landscape photography.

His work aims to convey the scale and the power of natural scenes. He does this in a unique way by romanticizing these landscapes. This means he enhances the landscapes past what the eye can see.

He was also a pioneer for a tonal system called the Ansel Adams Zone System – his photographs would convey a very large tonal range from true blacks to true whites in the exact same image.

Ansel Adams: The Formative Years - precise-moment.com

He was part of a new wave of photographers in the early 20th century who divorced themselves from pictorialism and he became an advocate for “pure photography”. This is a style of photography which focuses on sharp focus high clarity and great tonal ranges.

He is known for his stunning landscapes of American national parks specifically the mountains he captures.

The above image is of the Snake River in the Grand Tetons in 1942.

The first discernable feature of this image distinctive to Ansell Adam’s work is the impeccable contrast and tonal range where he has captured every tonal level from the pure black in the foliage in the bottom left and some of the mountains to the pure whites in the river, the snow and the clouds. Ansell probably used a lot of burning when exposing this image to get these pure whites. Knowing Ansel’s past and his emphasis on the pure photography movement we can relate this to the above image with the emphasis on a high clarity crisp image with high contrast. This detail adds a sharp texture to the image which can be seen to emphasize the sharp summits of the mountains in the background.

The image also has a great depth of field. There are many components layering the image from foreground to background. The distant mountains contrast with the near foliage. The winding river adds perspective of depth with its ripples which create a sense of detail being prominent in the foreground, these details and the rivers size slowly diminish as it meanders and winds like a snake through the middle of the image.

The summit of the mountain is framed in the center of the image which creates a sort of aesthetic pyramid form to the image.

Independent, Reading, Task

Rural Landscape Intro

Leave a comment

A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features.

Landscape photography is a broad genre of photography, it focuses on the capturing of a this landscape scene and brings the viewers to this scene. These scenes can range from broad and vast landscapes to more microscopic focused landscapes.

They can be rural or urban. Rural Landscapes are subjectively delusive of anything manmade and they focus on the sublime and nature. Urban landscapes highlight mans disturbances on these natural scenes.

Rural Landscapes Mood board

  • Ansel Adams
  • Ansel Adams
  • Carelton E. Watkins
  • Carelton E. Watkins
  • Des Jacobs
  • Edward steichen
  • Edward Weston

Independent, Task

Romanticism/Ansel Adams inspired Photoshoot

Leave a comment

Photoshoot Plan

Romanticism/Ansel Adams inspired photoshoot

I believe the images highlighted in green are my most successful images in terms of Ansel Adams style of photography. I feel like these images have a better sense of romanticism because of the colours, tones or the interesting shape of the clouds. Putting these images in black and white through photoshop would further develop the same style that Adams is widely known for.

In general, these photos would be better quality if they were taken with a camera rather than a phone, however I did not have access to a camera for this photoshoot.

Photoshop development

Original Image
Edited Image
Original Image
Edited Image
Original Image
Edited Image

To edit these images, I used photoshop to give the photographs the same monochromatic theme that is iconically known within Ansel Adams work. I also adjusted the brightness and contrast curves to create more intense shadows and highlights, similar to the ones in the work of Adams.

Comparison between mine and Ansel Adams work

My Work
Ansel Adams work

I believe my work and the work of Ansel Adams have both similarities and differences. In terms of similarities, the use of the black and white filter allows for the tones in both images to be accentuated and there is a sense of the sublime in both images. On the other hand the images are different because Adams photograph is taken on a much larger scale, he also practiced the use of using the tonal values of an image to it’s full capacity, whereas I had to alter the contrast and brightness levels in order to achieve the level of contrast that Adams is known for.