Fact File

• Romanticism began in the 18th century​
• 3 key elements to romanticism in art is imagination, emotion and individualism​
• It is the contrast to rationalism and order​
• It was originally inspired by the political and economic atmosphere during 1798 with inspirations such as the French revolution evolving​
• In modern times realism has taken over from romanticism​
• Jean Jack Rousseau is the “founder” of romanticism

 

The Sublime

The Sublime is a concept which emerged in the seventeenth century and is art that’s supposed to inspire awe and wonder. It is defined as “a quality of greatness or grandeur that inspires awe and wonder.” – according to https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime#:~:text=The%20sublime%20has%20long%20been,relation%20to%20the%20natural%20landscape.

JMW Turner

• Turner is a famous English painter born April 23 1775 in London who became known as “the painter of light” for his talent of creating incredibly skilled landscape paintings able to capture light at different times of the day and in different settings using bright and vibrant colours which happened to be because of his un-diagnosed colour blindness and therefore wasn’t exaggerating the colours.​
• He began attending the Royal Academy of Art at 15 years old where he first exhibited his Fishermen at Sea oil painting in 1796.​
• Turners last words were “The Sun is God” before he died of cholera in 1851.

John Constable

Constable was an English landscaper born on June 11th 1776 in Suffolk. He was known to be the one who revolutionised the genre of landscape painting. Constable focused on painting the surroundings of his home and once write to a friend “I should paint my own places best” “painting is but another word for feeling”​

.Though in modern times his paintings are extremely valuable and popular he was never financially successful in his lifetime however his work was popular in France, and was only elected to the Royal Academy of Art at age 52. ​

He then died at age 60 in 1837 in London of coronary artery disease.

Terms and Words Associated

• Apostrophe​
• Glorification​
• Nature​
• Awareness and acceptance of emotions​
• Celebration of artistic creativity and imagination
• realism
• idealism
• enlightenment
• classism
• neo-romanticism
• symbolysm
• affinity for the natural world

Timeline of Landscape Art And Photography

The earliest known of cave art was found to be from 40,000 years ago so art has dated back to the very first humans.

A work during the bronze age around 1627, found in Santorini a Greek island preserved under volcanic ash until 1967. At this time Greece was ruled by Ottoman Empire also called the Turkish empire who was Islamic believing.

The renascence began in the 14th century Italy.

The Renaissance meaning rebirth was the first big movement to influence on landscape art. The renaissance was a movement to revive the Greek and Roman philosophical way of thinking. It encouraged people to express themselves and encouraged individuality and new ideas instead of sticking to the way things have always been done.

The Renaissance came after The Black Death killed half of Europe’s population which left business owners with little to no competition meaning the economy grew especially in Italy known as The Cultural Capitol of Europe at the time.

Ideals and attitudes towards the church and medical knowledge began to change, many began to question their authority after so many died during the black death despite appealing to god such as flogging and even following medical advise like cleansing the air by wearing masks filled with nice smelling herbs to combat miasma. This new attitude and encouragement of questioning was also expressed through art and the boundaries of what art was. Realism in art was widely developed and realistic drawings of nature and humans became popular.

During the renaissance time period artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo rose to fame. To this day biblical interpretations from Leonardo da Vinci are still famous such as The Last Supper.

After the renaissance during the 17th to 18th century was the Age Of Enlightenment where Romanticism took off with artists being inspired by the French Revolution. Society began to emphasise on emotion key artists such as JMW Turner and John Constable as mentioned before lived through this time. Many political changes were made through this era and attitudes and way of thinking changed. Science began to proceed and slavery was abolished. People began to idealise individuality and connection with nature. The Sublime began with this thought process as people began to explore beauty past religion and find a godly aspect to nature especially in the UK as the rules to religion were changing constantly due to the arguments between Catholics and protestants. Art like the dramatic style of Rococo architecture became more popular.

The earliest known landscape photograph was taken during the 19th century between 1826 and 1827 by Nicephore Niepce a Frenchman and inventor who invented the Pyréolophore an internal-combustion engine. The image was taken using a camera obscura out of the window of his estate based in Saint-Lop-de-Varenees, Burgundy, France.

Carleton E Watkins born on November 11th in 1829 New York began his career in photography at age 5 when he began his apprenticeship in a portrait studio. Throughout his photography career he became known as one of the greatest photographers of the American West

Watkins was unimpressed with the performance of his regular camera as it could not capture the entirety of the landscapes he was photographing so in 1861 Watkins hired a cabinet worker to create a massive camera so he could use mammoth sized negatives.

After Romanticism came Modernism from 1900 to 1930 before the great depression began. Modernism culture rejected many traditions and looked to fundamentally rethink the world especially after and during World War One. Many political events were taking place such as the Russian revolution and the League of Nations was formed however almost all countries had faced epic losses within the economy was declining and the population had too.

Other changes were happening too, including in America the roaring 20’s. Women’s rights and opinions on gender roles began to shift however crime was rising. Artists searched for new way to express themselves and their opinions on the world without the constraints of realism.

Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gough all arose and are still famous to this day. Modernism art often uses very bright and vibrant colours and experimented with abstract art.

My Work

Ansel Adams born in 1902 was an American landscape photographer. Adams was a rebellious child and was pulled from school at age 12 and before finding his passion for photography in 1927, Ansel was a successful pianist and musician. Ansel Adams took photos all through he 1920s where he was a part of the Sierra Club, An organisation who’s mission is “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.”

Adams believed in “true photography” where he would use the highest resolution available and full tonal range and assisted in founding the group f/64 in 1932 in California. The group also believed in Ansel’s’ mindset surrounding photography and took images of the American landscape including mountains and lakes. Ansel Adams also partnered with Fred Archer created “The Zone System” a way of representing the different tonal gradient in a black and white picture. The Zone System is still used today

The popularity of Adams work has only increased since his death in 1984.

Technical

The lighting is natural and the type of camera used was a Large Format Camera so Ansel would’ve had to use a tripod to steady it as he would’ve needed to have a longer shutter speed to capture the landscape in such high resolution. Large Format photography consists of images within the 9 cm × 12 cm (3.5 in × 4.7 in) range or bigger. The view finder is large and Ansel would’ve needed a portable dark room as well as multiple films per image however in modern times it is possible to make large format cameras digital.

Ansel Adams sets his contrast high to dramatize the images.

Visual

Though coloured photography was available to Adams it didn’t become common until the 1960’s and would’ve been a time consuming and difficult process therefore all of his images were in black and white. There was a range of tones within Adams work as he was good at using The Zone Method himself.

This image also used leading lines to draw the eye to the dramatic sight if the mountain and add depth to the image giving it a 3D concept.

Contextual

This image was taken in the Grand Tenton National Park in Wyoming, America and was of the Tetons and the Snake River and was taken in 1942 so Ansel Adams would’ve had around 20 years experience while taking this.

Conceptual

I believe the idea behind this is to showcase the beauty of the landscapes to the American public to encourage them to want to preserve the nature through national parks ect.

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and conservationist. He was mainly known for his monochrome images of national parks. Adams was a life-long advocate of environmental conservation, It was at age 14 when Adams was given his first camera during his first ever visit to Yosemite Park, he later developed his earlier work as a member of the Sierra Club. He was later contacted by the United States Department of Interior to take pictures of the national parks for which he was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.

Adams and Fred Archer were the inventors of a thing called the zone system, which is a method of achieving the wanted image through technical understanding of the tonal range in the image. The zone technique is what helped photographers in that time determine the optimal film exposure and development. ” The Zone System provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results. ” – Quotation marks pasted from Wikipedia.

F/64

Adams was one of the seven founders of the group f/64 which founded in in the San Francisco Bay Area in the American 20th century which was an association which was advocating for ” pure ” photography which was a style of photography which favoured the sharp focus and the use of full tonal range without the image, as well as a carefully framed image.

The group mainly formed in opposition to the pictorialist movement which was dominant for the majority of the early 20th century. Whereas the f/64 group wanted to encourage a modernist take to photography which focused on precisely exposed images and natural forms.

examples of the pictorialist movement:

Adam Analysis

Technical

the type of lighting in this image is harsh natural lighting, with high contrast. As well as the image having a sharp focus. I think the aperture of this image is f/32 as everything is in focus and crisp and nothing in the image is blurry. I think the ISO is 100 due to the clarity of the tones and the good tonal range of the image, you can tell this due to the contrast of the lightest tone in comparison to the darkest tone.

Mise-en-scene

This is image is taken using a film camera and the genre of this photography is landscape.

The mise-en-scene presents the Tetons mountains and the snake river cascading down the middle of the image. The tone of this image has a good range due to the zoning system, however there are some darker spots for example a lot of the forest and a few parts of the mountains. The use of light in this image is harsh, however, it is natural lighting as they are in the Yosemite park. The focus distance is long as the mountains and the river is far away and the depth of field is large as everything is in focus. The  leading lines of the images would be the lightness of where the sunlight is hitting the bend of the river the and top of the mountains that are being hit by the light draw your eye along the image.

I believe the ISO is 100 as everything is in as most of the image is in focus however the background is blurred and grainy. I believe that the shutter speed is 1000 as everything is clear.

Photoshoot

Edited Images

Personally I really like this image because I like the way that the singular rock is the main subject of the image and against the light colour of the sky it looks really nice.

One thing that I have done to edit this image is I created a mask and placed it over a section of the rocks on the left and edited it separately compared to the rest of the image because the way that I edited the whole image made that one area look too dark so I added the mask to be able to lighten it up.

As well as I added vignette to all of the images I took for Ansel Adams to give it an older feel.

I have edited this image by:

Virtual Gallery

Beauport or portlet bay or Boulay bay

these could be two possible beaches I could take photos in inspired by Ansel Adams

as u can see in the photo examples, I would take photos from these sorts of angles from on top or on the beach taking photos of the big rocks.

photoshoot – Beauport

exposure compensation –

within all of these photos iv tried using exposure compensation, which took 3 photos at a time with 3 different exposers low exposure, middle and high exposure.

best raw photos –

experimentation –

from this image I edited it using HDR merge and the edits also, plus some more but in different styles such as black and white.

from any of my edited images such as this one I have used exposure compensation, which I merged the 3 different exposures, and before I did this I changed it to black and white preset. from doing this it made an balanced exposure overall that u can see more details within the under exposed areas. But still leaving some completely back areas to make is seem like there is more drama within the image, I did this by increasing the contrast.

experimental edits –

best edits –

final photos –

visual gallery –

the final phots have been places next top my other final photos from my first photoshoot

Landscape photography has its roots in, like many other forms and genres of photography, art. Specifically, the romanticism movement of art that began around the start of the industrial revolution – as a sort of rejection and rebellion against the billowing smoke and ugly buildings. The romanticism movement focuses on the beauty of nature and scenery, and this is where landscape photography began.

The first landscape photo was taken around 1826, by an inventor.

Ansel Adams was a pioneer in landscape photography, taking photos of vast american landscapes.

Whilst photographers were taking photos of nature scenery, another type of person was inspired by the industrial revolution, seeing vast structures as inspiring and not ugly, and this was generally the beginning of urban landscape photography.

Countryside Daguerreotypes – these were some of the earliest types of landscape photos taken and were taken by american and french photography.

Western Panoramas – American photographers had a vast natural landscape to photoshoot, so they began to photograph their own landscape.

City photography –  suddenly images of the city started to appear – despite the difficulties of city photography due to long exposure shots being necessary, and photos would get blurred.

City portraiture – as tech improved, film became more sensitive and photos of hustling bustling cities became possible.

Industrial revolution – contrasting romanticism, early photographs of the grand industrial buildings began to emerge.

Romanticism in art and photography is about focusing on strong emotions, nature, and individual experience. It highlights beauty, imagination, and sometimes the mysterious or exotic. Think of dramatic landscapes, powerful moments, and emotional expressions. It’s less about strict realism and more about capturing the feeling of a scene. It involves romanticising certain things like nature or a certain lifestyle. For example, in photography, you might romanticise a landscape by capturing the best scenes only and perhaps putting a feeling of otherworldiness/ nostalgia. When you romanticise something, you make it seem better than it really is; in a way, everything humans think about is romanticised: the grass is always greener on the other side. An example of life being romanticised in our minds is thinking about the life of being an underground artist in New York (think Basquiat) is highly romanticised and the image of it looks really appealing/romantic, but in reality it is quite a hard life to live, and that feeling of romanticism that you get when looking at images isn’t necessarily how that person living that life might be experiencing it.

Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe, terror and apprehension. Emotion and feeling were central not only to the creation of the work, but also in how it should be read.​ Romanticism is meant to invoke strong feelings and really glorify the scenes of which it captures.

Romanticism can also have a link with landscape and nature . Landscapes became subjects in their own right and were often charged with symbolism. For romantic artists, nature is a source of inspiration and escape, a refuge from the tumult of the modern world. Landscape is often a key focus of romanticist artists because the nature the photos contain is often raw and places people don’t see very often – creating that feeling of longing for a different path or a different feeling towards life.

Who: artist William Blake and the Spanish painter Francisco Goya have been given the name “fathers” of Romanticism by various scholars for their works’ emphasis on subjective vision, the power of the imagination.​

What: an artistic movement marked by the emphasis on imagination and emotions ​

Where: romanticism started In western Europe around the 18th century at this time the artistic and cultural movement was being revived (Neoclassicism)​

How: With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789.​

Why: Romanticism was born as a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The Romanticist movement celebrated rebellion, sensation, emotion, subjectivity, and individuality and it rejected tradition, reason, rationality, and authority.​

English romantic painter and water colour specialist , known for his romantic paintings that portray colourful imagery and imaginative landscapes. Joseph Mallord William born 23rd of April 1775 inspired modern art by incorporating a view of impossibility into his paintings by inviting unrealistic colouring and faded scenery to give a sense of romanticism

The Sublime

In the critical literature, “the Romantic sublime” refers to the mind’s transcendence of a natural and/or social world that finally cannot fulfil its desire. Revealed in the moment of the sublime is that the mind is not wholly of the world, but this revelation may be triggered by a particular setting in the world.

The sublime as defined by The Tate is : “Theory developed by Edmund Burke in the mid eighteenth century, where he defined sublime art as art that refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.”

The sublime is in most creative subject areas; photography, fine art, film, writing, poetry and many more.

 

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and a smart movement that emerged in the late 18th century as a reaction against the Enlightenment’s focus on reason and logic. Instead, it emphasized emotion, individualism, and the power of nature, often portraying dramatic landscapes, heroic figures, and the sublime. Romantic artists and writers celebrated intense feelings, imagination, and the supernatural, frequently drawing inspiration from folklore, medieval history, and myths.

What is the Sublime?

The sublime is a concept in art, literature, and philosophy that refers to an overwhelming sense of awe, beauty, and even terror, often inspired by nature or grand, powerful experiences. It is something vast, intense, or beyond human comprehension, evoking deep emotions that can be both thrilling and unsettling.

Philosophers like Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant explored the idea of the sublime, distinguishing it from mere beauty. Burke, for example, described it as something that inspires both admiration and fear—like towering mountains, violent storms, or the infinite night sky. In Romanticism, the sublime was a key theme, seen in the dramatic landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich, the wild seascapes of J.M.W. Turner, and the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth, who often depicted nature’s power and mystery.

How did the industrial revolution have an impact on Romanticism?

The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on Romanticism, shaping its themes and attitudes as a reaction against rapid industrialization, urbanization, and mechanization. As factories spread, cities grew, and nature was increasingly altered by human hands, many Romantic artists, writers, and thinkers saw industrial progress as a threat to individuality, nature, and traditional ways of life.

One major effect was the Romantic idealization of nature. As landscapes were transformed by factories, pollution, and deforestation, Romantics like William Wordsworth and J.M.W. Turner celebrated the untouched beauty of nature, emphasizing its power and emotional depth. They viewed the natural world as a source of spiritual renewal, in contrast to the grime and chaos of industrial cities.

The movement also championed emotion, imagination, and the individual in response to the Industrial Revolution’s emphasis on reason, efficiency, and mass production. Many Romantics saw industrialization as dehumanizing, reducing people to mere workers in a mechanical system. This led to an admiration of solitary, rebellious figures—like the Byronic hero—and a nostalgia for the past, particularly medieval times, when life was seen as more organic and connected to nature.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation basically helps you override automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situations with uneven light distribution, filters, non-standard processing, or underexposure or overexposure. It lets you take control of your image’s brightness by manually increasing or decreasing exposure.

Exposure Bracketing

when you bracket your shots you take exactly the same picture of your subject at several different exposures. This technique gives you a range of options to choose from when you’re editing. As a result, it’s much less likely that you’ll end up with a badly underexposed or overexposed photo.

HDR photos

HDR (high dynamic range) helps you get great shots in high-contrast situations. The iPhone camera takes several photos in rapid succession at different exposures and blends them together to bring more highlight and shadow detail to your photos.

My own photos

Merging the images

Final HDR image

Photoshoot Introduction

I took my photos on and around Petit Port beach, as well as near the Corbiere cliffsides to try and replicate the style of Ansel Adams.

Settings – I aimed to use high aperture values to try keep as much of the image in focus and detailed as possible, similarly to group f/64. I also kept ISO to a minimum to avoid visual noise and was able to use shutter speed values of around 1/50 and 1/60 since it was very sunny.

Angles/Perspective – I used Ansel Adams’ visualisation method to visualise an image before I took the photograph to see how it would turn out, and using this I was able to have the camera’s perspective focus on rocks, cliffsides and water since these contrast nicely with each other as well as creating shadows which work well with HDR/exposure bracketing and would create lots of drama when experimenting with black and white in editing. I also aimed to have the sky take up roughly the top third of the image, creating further contrast as well as adding some negative space and drama so the entire image isn’t cluttered with excessive detail.

Timings – I went late afternoon/early evening so the sunlight would be at it’s peak in order for me to be able to capture effective images with a wide range of shadows for exposure bracketing, as well as enabling me to experiment with slightly more atmospheric images with the sunset.

Contact Sheet

Selection

During my selection process, I aimed to choose images that had a sense of drama and would present a range of dark and light tones when edited to be black and white. I also aimed to select images with lots of shadows to allow exposure bracketing to bring out details.

Some of my selected photos:

I selected this image since I thought using HDR would bring out lots of detail in the shadows and create an interesting landscape with balanced exposure, similarly to the style of Ansel Adams. I also liked the composition, with darker shadows on the rocks on the left and more sunlight illuminating the rocks on the right as well as the sky being positioned about 2/3 up the image.

I chose this image because I like the light reflecting of the water in the bottom of the picture, as well as the balance of shadows and illumination throughout the rocks. Although the sky is bleached out due to the sun, I will try and use HDR and masking in Lightroom to adjust the sky to add more detail to the sky as well as contrasting it from the foreground.

Editing/Experimentation

I opened this photo in Lightroom and went into develop mode to use the HDR editing, merging 3 versions of the same image at different exposures to capture detail in less exposed areas.

To achieve this effect, I used the golden hour preset, added some dark post-crop vignetting and used the settings above. This adds a nice colour contrast between the orange sky and blue sea, whilst still maintaining good enough exposure to make out details in shadows and have a range of tones from light to dark.

This image was created using HDR photo merge and then decreasing highlights and increasing shadows. The natural light casted onto the rocks creates an effective contrast between the light and shadows on the rocks, as well as complimenting the lighter tones in the sky with the darker tones in the sea nicely.

Finally, I added some slight vignette and increased the clarity and decreased the dehaze. The final result maintains good exposure on all parts of the image which when combined with the use of a high aperture brings out every detail in the image.

For this image I first HDR photo merged it, and noticed overall it was quite underexposed.

I then increased the exposure and decreased the highlights to bring more details as well as making the photo more visible.

Experimenting with black and white but I don’t like how the sky looks, so I used the masking tool in Lightroom to adjust it and make it contrast more visibly with the lighter tones of the cliff.

Final product, effectively exposed to maintain detail throughout the image as well as having the sky be darker to create a sense of drama.

Before vs after HDR. Noticeably more exposed with more details visible in shadows, creating more drama and taking more influence from the style of Ansel Adams.

Experimenting with black and white, very effective in bringing out the tonal difference throughout the rocks and creating drama although I don’t like the colour of the sky.

Darkening the sky since it was too light and stood out, now creating more balanced contrasts between light and dark tones. Final image has a greater sense of drama.

Original HDR image, with adjustment of exposure and shadows to further bring out detail in areas not very well-illuminated by the sun.

Black and white variation, effective with lighter tones noticeable in the clouds and sky, midtones on some of the illuminated parts of the rocks and dark tones in the shadows created on some rocks from the sun.

Exposure increased on the sky to make lighter tones more noticeable, as well as decreasing highlights and shadows and increasing contrast to bring out darker tones in the clouds.

Initial version of the image using HDR, I like it since the vibrance of the rocks exposed by sunlight contrast nicely with the shadows mainly on the left of the image as well as the sky.

When made black and white, I liked the drama created but noticed detail was lost in the shadows so I will increase shadows/exposure to restore this.

Increased shadows, next I tried to manipulate the sky to make it contrast more nicely with the cliffside and the rocks.

Presentation in ArtSteps

I chose to present all the black and white images together since they all are of similar subjects/landscapes, and this combined with the light and dark tones of each image group them all together effectively, enhancing the drama and atmosphere created by each individual photo. The other two are presented in a diptych, with the darker sky and shadows of the first image contrasting with the lighter tones and sky of the second image, which I found very effective since these two images are creating different atmospheres allowing for this presentation to amplify this contrast.

Photoshoot Evaluation

Overall, I found my photos to be effective in presenting a range of tones as well as creating drama while maintaining Ansel Adams’ style of high aperture values and keeping everything well enough exposed to allow every detail to be visible. Editing also allowed for me to create HDR photos and experiment with black and white, helping me achieve my intention behind each image as well as helping to reinforce the atmosphere each individual image is trying to create.

Comparison Against Ansel Adams

Technical – Both photos were taken outdoors, and thus all of the lighting is natural – both also use a high aperture to create a large depth of field and keep every detail in focus. Finally, there is a visible use of the zone system to have a wide range of different tones from light to dark (also helping to add more drama to the image), so I think I have successfully replicated Ansel Adams’ style.

Visual – Ansel Adams’ image was taken from high up in a mountain range, capturing another mountain range in the distance as well as the river and landscape below all of which uses the zone system to create visible contrast between light and dark tones. My image contains a similar range of light and dark tones, although the sky has been darkened slightly since I found it to be a bit bleached out so it doesn’t have as many lighter tones although the scene itself still has a sense of drama similarly to Adams’ photo.

Conceptual – The idea behind Ansel Adams’ photography was to use high apertures to maintain noticeable detail in every area of the image, showing off the beauty of nature (linking to his work as an environmentalist) and to have a wide range of tones in each image, creating drama. I think both his image and mine make effective use of these techniques.