Born in San Fransisco, 1902, Ansel Adams was a famous American photographer in the 20th century, most known for his landscape photography capturing Americas natural beauty. His photoshoots specifically were devoted to capturing the remaining fragments of untouched American landscapes and preserved wilderness. Mainly taken in national parks and areas of remaining beauty in the American West, Ansel Adams first captured his signature style of landscape in Yosemite National park. After summating a mountain peak carrying a heavy camera, tripod and additional gear, he reached a place called the Half Dome this is where he would first use ‘visualisation’, this started of his career in photography leading on to him creating numerous famous photographs such as:
‘The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942’
‘Denali and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park and Preserve, 1948’
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, c 1937
His love for the American West came from his love for nature, quoted by Adams the national parks he visited such as Yosemite and Sierra Nevada were “Coloured and modulated by the great earth gesture”. His first trip to Yosemite, in 1916, started his love for the place and his passion for photography. It was there his father gifted him his first camera, an Eastman Kodak No.1 Box Brownie.
What is Visualisation?
Quoted by Ansel Adam’s Visualisation is “to see (an image) clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print”. Put simply it is the concept of being able to see the scene prior to shooting and using your mind to make the that scene as a final product. In addition to using visualisation, Ansel Adam’s alongside his fellow photographers in their group F/64 developed the ‘Zone System’.
What is the Zone system?
Using a chart ranked from numbers 0 to 10, this could be used to determine which areas of the photograph would fit into these zones of tone. Combined with visualisation this is helpful in deterring what the image would turn out to look once printed from film.
Using a Kodak Brownie Box Camera, Adams carried two filters: One red, one yellow, these where used to pick more detail in tone on certain parts of the picture. For example, the Yellow made the brown hillsides and tree bark for visual, standing out better, the red was to darken the sky and create that dramatized appearance.
Group F/64 –
Being an environmentalist and conservationist, he helped found the group F/64. This group consisted of photographers advocating “pure” photography, this consisted favouring a sharp focus and the use of full tonal range within an image. This group saw the invention of the zonal system and produced some other often overlooked photographers who’s work slowly grew into the spotlight like Ansel Adams. Some of these include Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange and Imogen Cunningham. The name of the group stemmed from a suggestion by Adams as a nod to the F-stop there photos often used.
Edward Weston, like Adams has now become far more recognisable for their work, this can been with his still life pieces of vegetables in dramatic detail of visuals.
(‘Cabbage Leaf’, 1931)
“I can’t tell you how swell it was to return to the freshness, the simplicity and natural strength of your photography … I am convinced that the only real security lies with a certain communion with the things of the natural world“
— A letter from Edward to Ansel in 1936
Adams links to Romanticism –
Composing some of the 20th century’s greatest pieces of landscape photography, Ansel Adams can be said to have modernised transcendentalism, the idea that society and its institutions spoil the purity of the individual, with this in mind it can also be stated his work brought about the American revision of European Romanticism from the 18th and 19th century through the use of photography albeit in a visual composition similar to the paintings from the past.
In comparison to the paintings from the Romanticism Period, it is more clear to see where Ansel Adams possibly took inspiration from with his photoshoots.
Ansel Adams (Cathedral Peak and Lake, 1938)
Wilhelm Bendz’s Berglandschap (mountain landscape, 1831)
Inspired by Alfred Stieglitz, who he met in 1933, and held a one-man exhibit for in 1936, the influence of his work is visible when shown in comparison to each other.
(Stieglitz)
(Adams)
Image analysis –
In response to looking at Ansel Adams work, I will use his technical skills to help improve upon my landscape photoshoots and try to create an interesting set of photos based similarly to his visual style.
This is a very famous painting which was created by John Constable in 1821. John Constable was one of the first artists of the Romantic movement to create landscape paintings which were directly inspired by nature, rather than idealised depictions. He was also, interestingly, one of the first painters to paint trees green, rather than a yellowish-brown and he was known for his realistic paintings of the sky/clouds. After realising how low landscape art was in the hierarchy of art, John Constable created his ‘6 footers’ in an attempt to put landscape art out there to more people. Altogether, Constable succeeded with this and, as a result, he increased the hierarchy of landscape art. This oil painting was originally titled ‘Noon’ and it depicts a rural landscape near Flatford Mill in Suffolk. John Constable painted this landscape in his London studio on a canvas measuring 130.2cm x 185.4cm canvas. This painting depicts 3 horses which appear to be pulling a large farm wagon across the river and a small cottage to the left named ‘Willy Lott’s Cottage’. Constable’s father owned the Mill nearby and this cottage belonged to a tenant farmer, Willy Lott. The name of this piece being changed to Hay Wain, a hay wagon drawn by horses, suggests that the subject of the photo is in fact the horses pulling the wagon. It is suggested that the horses where stationary in the water in this painting so that the wagon’s wheels could cool down, as well as them, and so they could have a drink of water. What we don’t see in this image is that it was based on the times of the Industrial Revolution, where workers would have been going to work in factories, rather than on farms, leaving the people working on farms having to struggle and work harder, making them suffer in poverty because machinery was taking their jobs. In addition to this, he subject being the wagon in this image may be a way of emphasising the hard work that the lower class had to undergo at the time of the industrial revolution to survive. Finally, this painting was presented to the National Gallery in London by Henry Vaughan in 1866 and it has been there ever since.
Roger Fenton was a War Photographer and previous lawyer who was known for staging his photographs, manipulating the truth. For example, this image, ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’:
This image displays cannon balls on a road which are believed to have been placed there, perhaps between exposures.
This is another image by Roger Fenton, much different to my previous example. This image features the location in which the painter Samuel Palmer had been inspired by the natural beauty of this river valley. As a result, this indicates that Fenton was also inspired by nature and romanticism when taking this image in Wales. By looking at this photograph, it is clear that Roger Fenton wanted to emphasise the beauty of subject matter, tonality and composition of this image, rather than document the reality. Finally, it looks as if this image had been taken using a slow shutter speed to show the movement of the water. This can be seen by what looks like white haze amongst the water which makes the picture look heavenly.
Fernando Maselli is a Photographer, based in Madrid, who is inspired by Edmund Burke’s romantic conception of the sublime and its connection to nature. Maselli creates montages of mountains to make one extraordinary landscape from various existing landscapes that will produce concepts of the Sublime. Maselli takes photographs of mountains at different times throughout the day and at different angles then used fragments, cuts, repetitions and overlaps to build the artificial landscapes. He is fortunate to have trained as a climber to make his photographs possible.
Fernando Maselli stated ‘I seek to recreate an imaginary landscape, almost perfect, where the repetition and accumulation of the elements creates in the viewer a disturbing sensation.‘ This shows that the aim of his photographs are to represent the Sublime.
These are my Storm Ciaran photos that I took at the reservoir, there was a lot of storm damage like uprooted trees and broken branches along with piles of tree logs and lots of devastation.
Ansel Adams was born in 1902, he was born in san Francisco, California and was known for being a photographer and environmentalist. When Ansel Adams was only 4 years old he was struck by and earthquake and a fire which threw him to the ground causing him to break his nose and left life long damage to his face. Ansel Adams was an only child and was born when his parents were already in their middle ages. This caused his growing up environment to be very Victorian, and both socially and emotionally conservative.
What was Ansel Adams famous for?
Ansel Adams was most famous for his black and white images of the American west. Ansel Adams is one of the most famous American photographers known for his stunning photos of the American wilderness and his passion for conservation.
Why did Ansel Adams use the west side of America to take photos?
Most of Ansel Adams photoshoots were taken in the western side of America in and near California. He chose to do his photoshoots here as the west was where there was the most light as it was bright and sunny whereas in the east it was winter so it was dull and not very bright.
Why and who did Ansel Adams influence?
Ansel’s photography has had great impact on people and mainly other photographers, not only in awakening people to the beauty of nature but in inspiring many other photographers to turn their efforts to the natural scene and to use photography in the interests of environmental preservation.
Who influenced Ansel Adams?
Adams was strongly influenced by Alfred Stieglitz, he met him in 1933 and went on a one-man exhibition for him in 1936 at Stieglitz’s, An American Place gallery in New York City.
what was Ansel Adams connection with the group F/64?
f/64 was a group founded by seven 20th century San Francisco Bay Area photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharply focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 20th century, but moreover, they wanted to promote a new modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects.
Who did the F/64 consist of?
The group F/64 consisted of these photographers:
Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston, and Edward Weston.
Ansel Adams mood board:
Description:
Ansel Adams photography creates a sense of adventure and awe, when taking photos Ansel always had a vision and did whatever he could to bring that vision to life within his images, he was able to create a variety of different shades of blacks, whites and greys within his images which really made his work stand out and influenced other photographers to take more time within their work and to explore things deeper when taking photos.
What is the zone system?
The Zone System assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to different brightness values, with 0 representing black, 5 middle gray, and 10 pure white; these values are known as zones. To make zones easily distinguishable from other quantities, Adams and Archer used Roman rather than Arabic numerals.
personal opinion:
What I really like about Ansel Adams work is how he made sure there was a variety of different shades within his photography this made his images really stand out and would draw peoples attention to various different parts of his images rather then just having one small focal point. I lobe how his photography really captures the in depth beauty of the natural world and its surroundings.
My response to Ansel Adams:
Contact sheet:
Description:
For this mini photoshoot I decided to go to Plemont beach and take photos in the style of Ansel Adams. I am very happy with how these images turned out as I would say they are very similar to his work and represent it very well.
Charleston Watkins:
Biography:
Carleton Watkins was an American photographer of the 19th century. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favourite subject of his. His photographs of the valley significantly influenced the United States Congress’ decision to preserve it as a National Park.
What was Carleton Watkins known for?
Carleton E. Watkins is considered one of the greatest photographers of the American West. Traveling the western United States, he made thousands of mammoth and imperial plate photographs of the Yosemite Valley, Columbia River, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific Coast in Oregon.
Carleton’s photos:
Carleton Watkins photos are very similar to Ansel Adams work. He also uses his photos in black and white and tea stained coloured images. They are all of very similar locations and he has taken the time to in vision what he wants to achieve within his images before he takes them.
Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins Photo Comparison:
As you can see Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins photography style is very similar, I would even say Carleton was inspired by Ansel’s work which may have led him to have such a similar style in photos. Ansel Adams uses the Zone system which is where a bunch of different shades range from 0-10, 0 being the darkest and 10 being the lightest shade within the images. I like both of their types of photography as they both take time and effort within their images and both visualise what they wanted to produce before they produced it.
Edward Weston
Biography:
was an American photographer. He has been called “one of the most innovative and influential American photographers” and “one of the masters of 20th century photography.” Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies.
Who was Edward Weston inspired by?
Edward Weston’s early influence was Margrethe Mather, who was also one of Weston’s models and studio assistant. She was also more well read on current issues of photography and helped Weston further develop a modernist theory. A few years after Weston changed in style he also met and was encouraged by John Hagemeyer.
Edward Weston photography:
Description :
Edward Weston’s photography is a very unique type of photography, he takes photographs of objects such as food up close and gets really detailed shots of the objects. As well as Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins he also uses the zone system with the objects he photographs while they use it for landscape images.
The sublime originated from the Latin word sublīmis, it means the quality of greatness, whether its physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. In terms of photography the sublime is a western aesthetic concept of ‘the exalted’ of ‘beauty that is grand and dangerous’. It refers to the wild, unbounded grandeur of nature.
Above is a mood board all around the meaning of the Sublime within art, below is one about the Sublime in photography terms.
Photographs which display a sense of sublime are ones which show beauty but also terror, for example a storm. The sublime can also make you feel at the mercy of something for example when looking out to the ocean it is beautiful yet it makes you realise how insignificant you are in comparison to it.
Edmund Burke and the sublime
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish Statesman and philosopher who spent majority of his career in Great Britain. Burke was born in Dublin however he relocated in Great Britain and served as a member of parliament from 1766 to 1794 in the House Of Commons with the Whig Party. Previous to becoming an MP Burke released a book named ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ in 1757 where he discussed his views on the meaning of the Sublime. In this book Edmund Burke noted there were certain experiences which supply a kind of thrill or shudder perverse pleasure, mixing fear and delight.
Storm Ciarán
Storm Ciarán, known as storm Emir in Germany, was a European windstorm which hugely affected areas of Europe from late October to early November 2023. Ciarán impacted north-western Europe and killed over 20 people. It also hugely affected Jersey and has been seen as the worst storm since ‘the great storm of 1987’. The storm was a terrifying and tragic experience for many people living in Jersey and many implications followed the storm such as schools being closed and trees being down all over the island. It has been estimated over 400 trees were lost during this storm. Experts have said one of the things which was likely to cause Storm Ciarán is climate change. This is believed due to the heavy rainfall we received which is caused by temperatures warming, there is also some evidence stating that storms such as Ciarán will continue to become windier. Storm Ciarán is just one of the many examples of how nature can be beautiful however it can also be deadly, this is an example of the sublime.
Peter Mitchell is a British documentary photographer, known for documenting Leeds and the surrounding area for more than 40 years. Mitchell’s photographs have been published in three monographs of his own.
A selection of Peter Mitchell’s most inconic photographs, some of which had been sat unseen for over 30 years, are now available as A2 poster prints, printed on 200gsm paper.
These photographs can be seen in his publications, Early Sunday Morning, Memento Mori and Strangely Familiar. Hundred-year-old terraces and cobbled streets sit flanked by concrete flats, with newly cleared ground to either side are presented with Mitchell’s, typical graphic framing.
“It is as if Peter Mitchell has taken the atmosphere and mood of Edward Hopper’s famous painting and established it as a matter of documentary fact in the north of England at a moment when collapse can lead to further desolation or possible renewal. So these beautiful pictures are drily drenched in history – social, economic and photographic.” – Geoff Dyer
Photos
Colour Photography
Peter’s striking images were an essential part of the colour documentary scene in the seventies and eighties and often featured shopkeepers and factory workers outside their places of work. I was interested in talking to Peter about his days back then, and how he came to photograph the changing face of the city, he now calls home.
Story Work
Many of Peters work portrays a story for example,
Rave On
The argument among some is that the term ‘Rave On’ didn’t originate until the acid house and rave explosion in the late 80s. I did my best to explain that it was popularised during the rock and roll and jazz eras of the 1950s. When I caught up with Peter, he found this hilarious. “I’m a Buddy Holly fan, that’s why I took it. The single ‘Rave On’ was released in 1958, and it’s one of my favorite Buddy Holly tracks!”
Image Analysis
Kingston Racing Motors in Olinda Terrace, spring 1975.Is the man with the wrench a mechanic? Why is the woman with the clapped-out Porsche looking so naughty? Will James C Gallagher, whose business it is, always have his back to the camera? And after painting the wall, why did Barry have to leave Leeds? The council demolished the lot shortly after this snap
Mitchell’s photography tells a story, he uses visual imagery to portray meaning, he knows what aesthetic he wants and how to achieve it. He does this by how and when he chooses to shoot his photos, for example the photo above has been taken on what looks like a cloudy maybe even rainy day, which creates an atmosphere surrounding the image, and pulls on people’s emotions. Mitchell knows what he is doing here. He has photographed a group of bikers, who already have a reputation of bringing trouble wherever they go, and Mitchell has added to this by photographing them under vandalism and a grey sky. He has used over exposure to create a lighter sky and make the blacks darker. This image has been shot with a wide lense, which shows a whole entire view of the situation, to ensure the whole story is being told.
Ansel Easton Adams was born February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California. His family came to California from New England, having migrated from Ireland in the early 1700s. His grandfather founded a prosperous lumber business, which Adams’ father eventually inherited. Adams is most known for his stunning photos of the American wilderness.
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. Ansel’s photography is known for its realist style. Rather than using a pictorialism style. Adams’s career spans over seven decades and a wide range of subject matter, including portraits, still life’s and the landscapes for which he is most famous.
Visualization
Ansel Adams describes it as the ability to see the scene you photograph and recreate in your mind, relying on the information you receive from the scene and on your developing intentions that you picture inside your head and the way you take the photo can resemble you as a person as your the one who pictured it to be or look a certain way.
A Legacy exhibition is a comprehensive survey of Adams’ artistic career which he is famous for and made loads of money from it.
What is Ansel Adams famous for?
Ansel Adams is one of America’s most famous photographers and is known for his stunning photos of the American wilderness and his passion for conservation. He outlines the beauty within America with the way he looked at art and his perspective towards it.
Here is one of his quotes.
This quote shows us how and why he loved photography. He perceived them in a way of a beauty and such natural photos. He didn’t go over the top and just took photos of a his natural setting.
Adams assisted Beaumont Newhall and David McAlpin in forming the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940.
Group f/64
This was created when Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke, an apprentice of Edward Weston, decided to organize some of their photographers for the purposes of promoting an aesthetic principle.
Where landscape artists used colour and brushstrokes to show the beauty of the places that became part of the National Park System, many of Ansel’s photographs were minimalist, shot in black and white using sharp contrast and deep focus. Ansel’s photography is known for its realist which also relates to romanticism and sums it all up in nutshell.
The zone system
The Zone System assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to different brightness values, with 0 representing black, 5 middle grey, and 10 pure white and there known as zones.
Analysing Adams photos
Many of Adams photos have either balance or symmetry but mostly balance as its a landscape with some elements of romanticism in them. He goes into a lot of depth in his photos and shows us beautiful, aesthetic nature. The mid ground are usually all in line and the background are usually calm with dark colours. The scale of each photograph is large. It shows a massive background and loads of different elements to be looked at, not all drawn or focused on one thing as it has a wide variety of things in the image which is what makes it so interesting and unique. The light intensity of Adams photos are usually quiet dark colours such as grey black and white, usually not using many colours, the temperature is cold and intense. the colours are cold and the effects of these colours are a lot as it sums up the whole picture. There are quiet a lot of shadows in his images as they are all quiet dark colours. It has a strength evoke emotion and energy, reflect mood, and give a narrative to images. The texture seems to be quiet smooth with some edges and corner because of the landscape photography and the surface is very detailed. Last but not least his tonal values are quiet low as shown in the image below.
All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal, a format of printed matter or screen display that is wider than it is high. It consists of the geographic features that mark, or are characteristic of, a particular area. The term comes from the Dutch word landschap, the name given to paintings of the countryside.
Fay Godwin
Fay Godwin (17 February 1931 – 27 May 2005) was a British photographer known for her black-and-white landscapes of the British countryside and coast.
Composition in Landscape Photography
The Rule of Thirds is very simple. Just imagine a grid of 9 rectangles on your image and try to compose the photo so that the main points are situated on those lines – or better still at the point where two lines intersect. Generally, when following the Rule of Thirds, I would aim to place the bottom of the horizon on the top third line (occasionally the bottom third) and put a focal point on the top left or top right intersection of thirds. I would then try to find a secondary point of interest and place that on the diagonally opposite intersection of thirds. This creates a diagonal within the photo which tends to add depth.
he Golden Ratio can be seen in nature and it has been used by us, either consciously or subconsciously, in architecture and art dating for a long time. When key elements of a painting, building, or photograph are positioned in the Golden Ratio they are thought to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Perspective in landscape photography
The height also gives an important perspective in a landscape scene, there are two dominant zones: the ground and the horizon. The closer a photographic element is to the horizon, the more distant and smaller it will appear. The closer an element is to the lens, the further away from the horizon, the larger it appears.
We are probably all aware of the impact of atmospheric perspective without necessarily ever having thought about it. It is most obvious in scenes where we can see a long way. Notice how, in the above photo, the landscape features become less well defined as we progress into the distance.On very clear days distant hills might look closer than normal, an illusion created by the clarity with which we can see them but, when compared to foreground, distant landscape features always look less saturated and have less contrast, giving them a slightly hazy, often blue, appearance.
Even without atmospheric perspective, we would still interpret interlocking hills as a feature of a 3-dimensional scene. We know that where one hill slope is broken by another we have an overlap of features, and one is nearer than the other.But this type of perspective is often used to create illusions, such as having someone nearer the camera, effectively leaning against the top of a tall building or holding a distant object in their hands.
Depth in landscape photography
You already know how to get more depth of field, you stop down the lens aperture. Stopping down a lens to smaller apertures means more of the view will be in focus then if shot with a wider aperture.Having foreground interest goes hand in hand with the previous tip, or you can implement this technique on its own. Foreground interest tends to make a view as though they are part of the image, since the foreground element may be seen as a substitute for the viewer.
A leading line brings the viewer somewhere. Depending on intent, you can lead the viewer from one side of the image to the other or it can lead the viewer deeper into the photograph.
A tool for creating depth in landscape photos that may not be completely obvious is adjusting exposure and also contrast levels from light to dark or vice versa.
The way this works often depends on the percentage of light to dark, how extreme the difference, and where in the photo we place the differences. This is similar to the previous tip about light to dark and vice versa, simply using color differences instead.
Scale in landscape photography
Perhaps the most common way to show the size of a grand landscape is to include a person for scale. Some find this technique overused, but there is a reason it is so popular — people are easy to find. In the same way that it is easy to judge the size of people in a landscape, other animals also are quite good at providing a sense of scale to your photos. Of course, it is difficult to find a beautiful landscape with picturesque wildlife in the same frame — which is why it is easier to use people for scale, if that works for your image.So far, I have discussed the living creatures that can provide scale to a scene — people, wildlife, and plants — but nonliving structures can do the same job. Everything from roads to houses can be incorporated into a landscape photo, and they make it possible to demonstrate the size of the scene as well. Though not as exact as including objects for scale, it also is possible to compose your photos in a way that shows the size of your scene. Sometimes, this isn’t feasible — for example, it can be impossible to show the size of a distant sand dune without including an object for scale — but other landscapes can be put into perspective simply by the way you frame your photo.
Light in landscape photography
Landscape photographers talk about two essential lighting characteristics: the quality and the direction. Lighting quality refers to the hardness or softness of the light, where soft light produces limited shadows and saturated colors, while hard light adds lots of contrast and heavy shadows.And lighting direction refers to the direction at which the light strikes your subject. For instance, noontime sunlight hits the subject from above, evening sunlight hits the subject from the side, etc. Reflected light, also called bounced or diffused light, occurs when direct sunlight reflects off an adjacent surface. It can make for stunning photos, thanks to its soft, even, beautiful effect.Light on overcast and foggy days is soft, subdued, and bluish. Shadows are negligible, and light directionality essentially disappears.Note that you can have partial backlighting, when the sun comes from roughly behind the subject, and you can have total backlighting, when the sun beams out from directly behind the subject. You can also use human-made light to carefully illuminate subjects with a flashlight (this technique is known as light painting).
Colour in landscape photography
Colors have different psychological associations. Different combinations of color determine how we comprehend a photograph. For example the harmonious combination of blue and green cultivates a relaxed atmosphere. The color wheel contains all the colors in a readable format.All creative applications of color exist within the color wheel. This allows photographers to refer to the tool as a handy guide. Here is a version below.
You can use analogous groups like autumnal reds, vermilion, and oranges in landscape photos. Or you can use marine greens, teals, and blues. These create depth and visual resonance.
Shadow in landscape photography
The visualization of a photograph, whether it is a landscape or not, arises from the creative intention of the photographer, which in turn leads to the framing of the composition. From there, the choice of the quality of light (e.g., the directionality and color temperature) provides the photographer his or her most powerful tool to translate that artistic vision into reality.
Texture in landscape photography
Textures are all around us; especially in the natural world. By paying close attention to the details found in nature, you’ll be able to incorporate textures into your photographs more easily.One way to make a big impact with texture is by looking for contrast. Whether it’s soft, billowing clouds contrasting with rugged trees and mountains, or a smooth, flowing river and rugged rocks, look to combine contrasting textures for maximum visual impact.
Tonal Values in landscape photography
Tonal range in photography is the brightness levels of light captured by your camera. This can range from pure blacks to pure white and shades of grey in-between. An image with a wide range of tones will have pure black to pure white in your image. A small or narrow range of tones will include a smaller range from shadows to highlights, no pure white, or no pure black, or neither black or whites. The brightness levels within your photo also determines the extent of contrast. If you capture an image with a small range of tones, the overall contrast will be flatter vs. a larger range. In post-processing, you can increase the range of tones to add more contrast by stretching the image to the outer edges… by adding pure black and pure white.
How can landscape photography portray meaning?
Creating emotion is very important during landscape photography, it can portray an emotion with a dramatic and drastic scene. These photos are the ones that draw people in, making them feel like they are within the story line and immersed in the image. Lighting and weather is a really big one when it comes to portraying emotion within a landscape, weather can heavily instantly affect a persons mood and attitude towards a photo. If a landscape photo is taken in the rain it will instantly change a persons attitude to be more gloomy and sad, whereas the sun generally brings out the best in people.
This is my storm Ciaran virtual gallery from the landscape photoshoots, I picked these images because they all have things in common as they look at the damage that was done to the landscape and the damage that was done to the trees. These photos were taken at Val De La Mare reservoir where there was a lot of damage to the surroundings.
Virtual Gallery New Topographics
This is my New Topographics virtual gallery. I chose these images because they represent The New Topographics style the best. And with the image in the middle, the buildings range from very old to extremely modern, which suggests that the surroundings have been built up over time.
Virtual Gallery Anthropocene
This is my Anthropocene virtual gallery. I chose these images because they capture light pollution the best and showcase what light pollution represents. The balance between the natural light and the artificial light contrasts really well making the concept of the image balanced.
Virtual Gallery Mandy Barker
This is my Mandy Barker Virtual Gallery. I chose these images because they represent her work the best and relate to the theme of Anthropocene because they relate to plastic pollution and just how much plastic there is in the oceans.
A man often considered to be the father of modern landscape photography with his famous work. Being born in 1902 he grew up in California in the sand dunes amid the golden gate. As he grew older after his family being largely effected by a volcano his father helped him pursue his creative roots and ideas even when not fitting in at school with a more traditional style of education. Progress in school until he gained a ‘legitimising diploma’ and soon after spent the majority of his time outdoors hiking, climbing and observing what was on his door step. However his photography career did not begin here so much as he taught himself to read and play music quickly becoming his occupation until he gave it up for photography, not after having learnt many important lessons of planning and patience from the music. He ever strayed too far from home, with where he ‘love of nature was nurtured’ in the Golden Gate. As his love for photography progressed using the Brownie box camera his parents gave him, he joined the Sierra Club in 1919 looking after their memorial cabin located in the Yosemite Valley in which he spent four summers growing and learning while meeting fellow conservation enthusiasts. This club gave Adam’s so much of his life not only did he meet his wife during his time there but it was essential to starting his photography career, starting with his first publishing being in the clubs bulletin. As time continued to progress the clubs yearly month long trip during the summer, quickly grew in popularity with having up to 200 attendees. Adams now being on the board of directors for the club as well as now being the trip photographer/artists, he strayed further from a concert pianist and realised he could make a living off of his work. The most life changing year in Adam’s career was 1927 when he took his first ‘visualized’ photo which became what he was known for and how he created all of his work. he only grew in popularity and fame from here as his work grew and began being featured in more and more shows all the while his new techniques and talents shone through and taught so many others. Later on in his career he met Edward Weston , who himself is a hugely important and influential photographer. This pair was quickly noticed by Group f/64 who did so much for the duo presenting shows of their work together and helping Adam’s have his first solo exhibition in a museum, although this group did not last long they brought a whole new idea to ‘straight’ or ‘raw’ photography works and looking at photography as though it what the eye would see. Time went on and Adam’s was forced to do more and more commercial work but even for this he had an unusual talent for this as well but he felt it limited his creativity that the entire reason he started photography in the first place. Adam’s was revolutionary not only for his creativity but he was a master with all the technical sides of camera, he developed the ‘zone’ system that is still used and completely changed how other photographers looked at their own work and his. He was looked up to greatly in a lot of other aspects of his life, whether it being his social company or his sheer passion for the environment and preserving it.
Visualised work
Left red filter, right yellow filter
In this example he used visualising to realise the morning sun and the yellow filter didn’t fit and in fact he went back the same afternoon and used his knowledge and picturing of the area to realise he needed to use the red lens filter achieve what he saw and pictured.
A useful technique even now, nearly 100 years later, Adam’s created was the visualisation technique. Involving the practise of imagining the final outcome of a photo before it was taken. By imagining the complete outcome of a photo before it was taken allows the photographer to slow and down and get a specific result rather than a lot of mediocre shots that we are all guilty of doing with modern cameras. Adam’s referred to this as creating with ‘the minds eye’ forcing the brain to pick and focus on what you actually want to capture by using your mind to select the most important parts of a scene according to your own eye. This helps photographers frame an image and see the see the composition before taking the photo. Accuracy to the naked human eye is so important to capture the mood and atmosphere, particularly in Adam’s case the vast parks and natural scenes were imposing and bold but taken wrong they could seem flat and uninteresting. (as the example above shows) Adam’s felt that photography was not all too different form the composition on a musical score, ‘where if the photograph was created just right, the final print should serve as a grand performance of the feeling behind his subject.’ Personal emotional response to the scene you were photographing was essential to creating an accurate, good photo. However he did feel that he often failed to convey the same impact the environment had on him in his photos, even with his photos being as impressive as they are with grand, imposing landscape filled with inspiration and romanticism.
How to use visualisation
-Pick the most impressive subject in your frame
-Choose what you put in the frame, what will look most impressive?
-What do you want to create?
-Consider lines and shadows, how do they meet?
-Look at angles, how can you compose the best photo that all the angles complement each other?
-Work with the light, where do you want the shadows and highlights?
-Consider the shapes the scene naturally creates, what grabs the viewers attention the best?
Zone system
The zone system was created by both Adam’s and a fellow colleague. This was a major breaking point in his career, as his work before hand was not what he actually wanted to create. Along with his visualisation technique this created his best work. The first example of this was the Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California image (as pictured above) taken in 1927 this quickly became Adam’s most famous piece of photography at the time and from then on he always used the two techniques. The idea of the zone system is to divide the photo into 11 different areas or ‘zones’ one for each section of the colour scale he created 9 grey tones and pure black and pure white which is rarely seen in landscape photography leaving the 9 different greys to use. This developed into Adam’s basic rule of develop for the highlights, expose for the shadows. This helped him create his dramatic works with bold dark grey completely contrasting the stark white and light greys. While his zone system doesn’t fit modern day photography and cameras perfectly the basic principles of it are still very useful, teaching, improving our photography a great deal. However Adam’s base rule of, expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights, with modern day cameras and technology is the opposite we need to make sure we aren’t over exposing images and instead it is much better to under expose an image as then it is still recoverable. Similarly to how an over exposed image on film was better recovered than an under exposed one.
Image Analysis
Although I have previously mentioned this photo in this post, it still remains my favourite of Adam’s work. Essential to Adam’s development as the photographer we know him as now this was his first photo using his both visualising and the zone system. By combining the two techniques he has created this dramatic, foreboding photo that simply takes peoples breath away and is a large part of the sublime in romanticism. This particular version of the photo was taken using the afternoon sun and a red lens filter after failing to capture what Adam’s pictured when he saw the scene as earlier that day. The stark contrast makes this photo interesting to the viewer, from colour 11 pure black (on Adam’s zone scale) to colour 1 pure white this photo has it all. The sheer face of the Half Dome paired with the sloping landscapes creates this feeling of adrenaline and admiration for the scene that is the Yosemite Park. Interestingly enough at the time Adam’s hadn’t yet defined the zone system and this was the photo that became the image that helped him name his techniques of photographing from feeling.
The photo starts with having ‘pure black’ in the top left corner with a small fade into lighter grey form the light hitting the rock face of which some details within that are obscured by the deep colour. As the photo continues downwards the juts and rough texture of the rock face become more apparent as the colour lightens up into a soft grey. Just below the rock face the ground is coated in ‘pure white’ with a smattering of dark grey shapes form the trees poking through the snow. The actual rock face itself has two parts the majority of the large part takes up most of the frame having a gradient of colour from ‘pure black’ to soft grey as the photo continues downwards. Curving at the top contrasting the dark colours with a soft line the rock gets rougher and shaper as the gradient lightens downwards. In the bottom right corner of the frame there is a smaller rock face breaking up what could have otherwise appeared a flat image. This smaller rock face is a lot lighter in colour even having some ‘pure white’ blending nicely with the background coated in snow.
This particular image was special for Adam’s as not only did it make the photographer we know now, help create his two world known techniques but it also was used by the Sierra Club to campaign for the environmental movement and the protection of the Yosemite National Park. Of which was incredibly special for Adam’s having created his life and career in the particular park. I think the image the love Adam’s had for the park incredibly well but also the respect he had for it, the vastness of of nature and absolute power nature has over people. Similarly to the romanticism movement and the sublime, Adam’s captured the power and force of nature itself, simply how small we are in comparison.
