Exposure Bracketing is where a sequence of pictures with different exposures are taken, these are then blended together to create a photo with a much higher dynamic range. It makes all the details of the photograph stand out so that you can create the exact image you had in your head. Exposure Bracketing is beneficial for landscape photography because it accentuates the dark darks and the light lights. Exposure bracketing it useful for this because in one photograph it isn’t possible to get both light and dark exposures at one time.

For exposure bracketing you should always have at least two photographs that are the exact same image but with a different level of exposure. A tripod would be good to use to get stable images that are all the same to ensure that exposure bracketing is easy to do.

For this, I went onto photoshop and selected “Merge to HDR pro” to enable me to select the 3 photos I was using. I then merged these together to create a very detailed picture where all the colours were extremely vibrant and detailed. This can also be done in Adobe Light room to merge the photos together.

Exposure Bracketing links back to Ansel Adams, this is because he also had complete control of the exposure.

HDR

Selection:

One of Americas most famous photographers, Ansel Adams spent most of his time developing and perfecting photos, that he captured in the American Wilderness and in many national parks. Exploring places such as the High Sierra in California, while also developing wilderness and survival skills which allowed him to access some of the most spectacular scenery, in which he showcases in his photography.

In 1932 at the M.H San Francisco Museum, eleven photographers, who included Edward Weston and Brett Weston announced themselves as Group f/64. It was called this as it referred to the smallest aperture available in large- format view cameras. The large- format view cameras captured the world as it was, as Edward Weston said that the cameras captured the live world, recording life. The camera was used as it showed clearly the detail, that the Human eye wouldn’t be able to see. They specifically used aperture f/64 which provided the greatest depth of field, and created sharp focus. This meant that the print could be printed across larger areas, and still be as sharp and focused.

Ansel Adams was best know for his realist style, which was shown through his sharp contrast, which dramtised the photo, closely linking to romanticism.

On Lightroom I merged 3 images using HDR after using exposure bracketing. This is where you take an image slightly under-exposed and another slightly over-exposed through either negative or positive exposure compensation. By doing this, I am then able to combine the images to get a perfectly exposed shot to capture all of the details that I can see myself. This makes sure I don’t just rely on the camera’s dynamic range and are able to visualise my image before I take the shot and can capture all the tones in the image. This technique is inspired by Ansel Adams zone system.

After I blended my images, I used the graduated filter and pulled it downwards from the top of the image. After, I lowered the exposure on the marked area as this creates a gradient in the sky, darker towards the top of the sky and lighter the closer it gets to the trees. By doing this, the clouds are more visible and doesn’t leave the sky looking so blank and dull. This will also make the environment that I’m shooting appear brighter due to the contrast.

I also decided to create a blank and white version of this image as Ansel Adams’ images were also monochrome:

I decided to experiment with the tones and temperatures of the graduated filter alongside the actual image itself:

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer who lived in California, he was mostly popular for his reputation of being a ‘technical master’ of black and white photography. He used a brownie box camera with most of his popular images taken with 8×10 and 4×5 view cameras. His images were seen as minimalist, with a multitude of photos shot in black and white with a sharp contrast. Ansel’s work is known for its realist style with an unenthusiastic and inspirational approach.

A quote from his book ‘The Ansel Adams Guide- Basic Techniques of Photography‘ says:

“The photographs he created speak eloquently of the heroic nature of our mountains, the tragedies of displaced people, and the extraordinary beauty of the world.”

The American West.

Adams mostly took photos in Western landscapes. His views of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada are most known. His photographs emphasize the natural beauty of the land and display the American West and its true beauty. The reason why Ansel moved to the west, is the constant bright and sunny weather that help to carry the beautiful views that he captured.

Connection with Group f/64 and its members.

Group f/64 was created by the photographers Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke who was Edward Weston’s apprentice. They chose to gather fellow photographers in order to promote a common aesthetic principle. During the 1930s, William Van Dyke created a small photography gallery in his home at (683 Brockhurst) in Oakland. The group of people consisted of:

• Ansel Adams,
• Imogen Cunningham,
• John Paul Edwards
• Preston Holder,
• Consuelo Kananga,
• Alma Lavenson,
• Sonya Noskowiak,
• Henry Swift,
• Willard Van Dyke,
• Brett Weston,
• Edward Weston.

The Zone System.

The Zone System was a combination of 11 zones in Ansel Adams system which were defined to represent ‘the gradation of all the different tonal values‘ that you would see typically in a black and white print, this would help him calculate the exposure of the image he is going to take with his camera and get a rough sense of what his whole frame will look like before he shoots To fully understand the principles behind the Zone System, he explained the necessity to appreciate the relationships between the subject brightness, film exposure, development time, negative densities and the print tones. He explained how it is obvious from an technical side of inspection from his prints that “Reducing the exposure of the film, products a darker print value“.

Ansel Adams also simplified the Zone System into 3 key parts.

1. Measuring the subject brightness range
2. Determining the exposure
3. Developing the film for the appropriate duration.

Ansel Adams – Romanticism.

Ansel Adams helped to escalate photography as a valued art form in early 20th century America .Adams was inspired by the the ‘American value of nature’, which led to the establishment of the National and State Park systems in the U.S. He was also drawn to these painters’ romanticism, this then led him to use his techniques which increase the drama and capture his heartfelt passion through a photo. Ansel decided to embrace Romanticism through his black and white film to create breath-taking images of towering mountains, elegant lakes and snowy hills. This gave his pictures an extra effect and made his work stand out compared to other artists such as Edward Weston. The black and white effect created a look to the sky which darkened the blue tones to a more mysterious and shadowy, and blackish grey colour which continues into the mountains and hills which ties his photography into the subject of romanticised in landscape photography. Ansel Adams had a vision of what he wanted all his images to look like- this is called visualisation in the minds eye.

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.”

 He was sometimes questioned and negatively judged for not including humans in his photographs, and instead he would represent an’ idealized’ wilderness that no longer exists in the modern world. He justified putting his images into black ad white by saying it was distracting for the viewer and diverting their attention from his miraculous achievements when taking the photograph.

MOST POPULAR IMAGE.

His most famous image is Monolith, the Face of Half Dome. It was taken in April of 1927. It is the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park after a difficult hike with his fiancée Virginia and two friends. He used a 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 Korona View camera, which had 2 lenses. 2 filters, a large wooden tripod and 12 ‘Wratten Panchromatic Plates’ made of glass. Whilst using his last plate, he attempted to replicate the image in his head that carries the qualities he was aware of when making the exposure.

He reduced the filter down by a factor of 16. He then pressed the shutter release for a 5-second exposure at f/22 this image perfectly represents his ‘first conscious visualisation in his minds eye.’

He explained it to be one of the most exciting moments of his photographic career as he removed the plate from the fixing bath and it revealed his beautiful negative interpretation. This was Adams’ first photograph that gathered the attention of the public and the art world.

MY FAVOURITE IMAGE.

The Golden Gate Bridge. In 1932, Ansel Adams decided to capture this photograph of the Golden Gate before the bridge had been constructed. This photo is both historical and beautiful. It allows the person looking at it to have an insight as tolife before the famous bridge was created and became part of the landscape. It was taken on a morning after a previous storm and Adams said “I looked out the window of our San Francisco home and saw magnificent clouds rolling from the north over the Golden Gate. I grabbed the 8 x 10 equipment and drove to the end of 32nd Avenue at the edge of Seacliff. I dashed along the old Cliff House railroad bed for a short distance, then down to the crest of a promontory. From there a grand view of the Golden Gate commanded me to set up the heavy tripod, attach the camera and lens, and focus on the wonder evolving landscape of clouds.”

During the 1960s, The Sierra club- including Ansel Adams decided to oppose the idea of construction upon high-rise apartment building on these hills. As his act of protest, Ansel chose to place small pictures of apartment buildings on top of hills in As a protest, he pasted tiny pictures of apartment building on top of the hills in this photograph and exhibited it in a San Francisco storefront. Due to this the ‘Golden Gate National Recreation Area’ was created in 19762 and protected these beautiful headlands, thanks to the Sierra Club.  

Ansel Adams Inspired Photography.

For this photoshoot, I decided to go to Greve De Lecq and photograph the beautiful rocks and water that could really relate to Ansel Adams’ locations as he often photographs mountains and water. I also visited Beauport beach and decided to photograph the beach, sand, sea and rocks from above instead of actually going onto the beach. This helped me to photograph from a more upwards angle. I feel these images had to be in black and white in order to be more similar to Ansel Adams’ work, he did this because he saw the colour as distracting for the viewer and took their focus and attention from the landscape they are actually appreciating.

Born in 1902 and died in 1984, Ansel Easton Adams was a famous American environmentalist and landscape photographer who well was known for his black-and-white images of the American West using his large-format camera. He was a relentless activist for the cause of nature and the environment.

He aimed to make people acknowledge the importance of preserving the last remaining wilderness lands. For him nature was always “a mystique: a valid, intangible, non-materialistic experience”. His work was not intended to be realistic, they were documents of nature which provided people a psychological experience of natural beauty.

He said one of the reasons for his images being in black-and-white was because he felt colour could be distracting, and could therefore distract an artist’s attention from taking a good photograph and reaching their full potential. He did however start taking colour photographs after the Kodachrome film was invented in the mid 1930s.

Adams was responsible for founding a group called Group f/64, this was an association of photographers, such as Edward Weston, who supported pure photography; photography that attempts to represent a scene or subject in sharp focus, detail and drastic tonal range. He had also developed an idea called visualisation; you picture the outcome of something before it happens, because his images didn’t turn out how he saw them in his head.

This is an example of one of Adams’ famous photographs which became his first conscious visualization. This is an image of the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park where he took the majority of his photos. At first he used a yellow lens on his large-format camera, however he swapped it for a dark red one which created much more depth as we can see in the image above.

The reason for his work being mainly based on Yosemite National Park was because for most of his life he was inspired by it’s natural beauty. He had first seen this park when he was in his childhood when his family took a vacation there in 1916. This was also when he had received his first camera, a Kodak No. 1 Box Brownie. 

To create his very detailed images, Adams had used the zonal system which allowed him to creatively visualize an image and produce a photograph that matched it. He had also used darkroom techniques such as dodging and burning which changed the exposure of his images which resulted in high contrasting and tonal pieces of work.

Image Analysis

I have chosen to analyse this image by Ansel Adams because I think it portrays what his style of photography looks like.

Technical – As we know Adams had used darkroom techniques and filters to play around with the exposure of his photographs and it looks like in this image he had used this technique.

We can see that natural lighting has been used in the creation of this image and from the angle that this image has been taken, we can guess that it was taken from some sort of hill, high place and or the camera has been placed in a upwards position. The image has a wide depth of field which gradually turns more faded towards the middle of the image.

Visual – We can see a large range of tonal values in this image, ranging from pure black to pure white. There is a lot of detail and texture in this image, however it gets less detailed towards the middle of the image. I think the leading lines of this image are the trees and mountains which point towards the middle of the image where we can see more mountains, snow and even clouds.

Contextual – I know that the photograph was taken somewhere in the Yosemite National Park because the majority of Adam’s work came from there as it was his source of inspiration ever since he was young.

The reason why this, and many other images, have a large tonal range and are very detailed is because Adams attempted to recreate what he had seen in his mind when he saw the landscape, he tried to convert his vision into a photograph by using filters and darkroom techniques to achieve this.

Conceptual – I think Ansel Adams took this photograph because he was inspired and motivated by the landscape: “At this location one cannot move more than a hundred feet or so to the left without reaching the edge of the almost perpendicular cliffs above the Merced River. Moving the same distance to the right would interpose a screen of trees or require an impractical position on the road. Moving forward would invite disaster on a very steep slope falling to the east”.

I first went into all my photos and selected 3 similar photos with different exposures.

I then imported these 3 photos into adobe Lightroom.

I then selected all 3 using my shift button and clicking all 3. I then right clicked and pressed Photo Merge and then clicked HDR.

I then tested all the 4 deghost amounts –

• None
• Low
• Medium
• High

I decided to go with ‘high’, this is how the image was on the ‘none’ setting.

I then set it back to high and selected the ‘Graduated Filter’ button and decided to click and drag it down to darken the sky whilst maintaining the nice bright details of the trees.

I then selected the spot removal tool and clicked an imperfection of the picture in the top left of the sky, this helped to remove and improve the quality of the picture.

These were my final outcomes and edits of my picture. I decided to make a coloured and black and white version.

Here are my editing settings for the coloured and black and white version.

A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasising inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. It began and started to spread quickly throughout Europe and America.

Romanticism came about in the late 18th century. During this time political and economic atmosphere was influenced as many found inspiration from the French revolution. At this period in time there was a lot of social change in society, as it was also the beginning of the industrial revolution. The French revolution also had an impact on romanticism creating new ideas such as freedom and social change as it inspired themes of liberty, equality and individuality.

Many found that romanticism was a form of escapism, as people would use this to escape from their modern realities, into nature, where they could express there emotions and feelings through there expressive mark making and dramatic movements. Movements that came out of the French revolution was romanticism and enlightenment (age of reason).

Romantic landscapes featured dramatic lighting

Characteristics:

• Freedom of form
• Individualism
• Deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature
• Identity
• Celebration of individualism

The sublime describes; of very great excellence or beauty. For example looking out into a stormy sea, with the dark heavy clouds above making you feel a sense of awe, creating this dramatic but inspiring scene, but also creating a unique relationship between human and nature. A good example of the sublime is storms, and seeing all the destruction and damage caused as this creates quite a statement, and dramatic scene. The aftermath of the storm is an interesting concept, as there is quite dramatic scenes created

What did Edmund Burk think was the ruling principal of the sublime?

Edmund Burk best describes the sublime as being the cause of the strongest emotions which the individual is capable of feeling. It is this dramatic illusion, creating different emotions that you feel.

Edmund found that the terror was the overall ruling principal as he found ideas of pain much more satisfied and interesting, than the ideas of pleasure. For example this idea of you standing, with clouds, mountains, or the sea overlooking you creates much more of an intimidating and emotional piece as it creates a very dramatic and daring look.

For this landscapes photoshoot, I borrowed a camera from school and went to a few areas in the East of the island; Gorey, Rozel, St Catherine’s and Archirondel. I found that these areas had views that incorporated nature, as well as monuments such as the castle. I think that these things together make successful and similar approach to Ansel Adams.

Next, I will flag these images to divide them into my most and least successful outcomes. This will make it easier for me to identify which images to use for future final products, and I can also see my areas for improvement and how to enhance my photoshoots.

Once you have your 3 images selected, right click on one of the images and click “photo merge” and then click “HDR“. Next select the deghost amount and change it to “high” to allow your photos to have the best quality and see the difference between each image successfully. This will give you a final result of all three exposure levels merged together to create the perfect exposure for your images.

My first example:

My second example:

My third example:

My fourth example: