Oh what a week!

We're currently in what's called a "shoot week", meaning that we don't go to classes and instead have a TON of assignments to shoot. I never thought I'd say...I'd rather be in school. This is an incredibly hard week. Especially since a couple of my assignments involve the need for sun and there hasn't been any for the past 4 days!!! I'm sitting here biting my nails hoping that by tomorrow there will be. Time is ticking. And after this week is our exam week. Just nutty.

Anyhoo, one of my assignments is to write about a photographer that I admire and enjoy their work. I chose Ansel Adams. He rocks! But rather than just saying that, I'm supposed to look more closely at his work and talk about his style, format, camera, etc for the teacher on this blog site. So, here goes....

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

I've learned a lot about Ansel Adams in the last month or so. And now that I've worked a bit in the darkroom, I understand more about his process for the best image. He, along with other California Bay Area photographers formed a group called f/64. These photographers concentrated on what they termed 'straight' photography rather than the soft focus style that was popular at the time. f/64 because it is the smallest aperture you get on most view cameras which gives the most detail and sharpest focus of the subject.

Ansel Adams used a view camera for most of his work. This is a large-format camera that allows the photographer to control every step of taking a photograph. The downside of it, is it's heavy, the film must be loaded in total darkness and taken out in total darkness. That's why when using a view camera the photographer uses a large dark cloth to cover their head and the back of the camera, and they can see the the subject upside down, glowing brightly, making it easier to focus precisely.
View cameras also use sheet film rather than roll film. The sheet becomes the negative after it is developed. Why this makes a difference in the sharpness of the prints is that the sheet negative is much larger (ex. 5x7 to 35 mm roll film) so there is less distance needed to go from the negative in the enlarger to the photographic paper to create the image (he used an enlarger like the one we saw at Lab Works on the railway track). Allowing the image to be sharper, clearer, have minute detail, and lack of grain. In addition, sheet film can be processed in the darkroom one sheet at a time, unlike roll film that is processed all at once.

The Zone System

Allows photographers to consistently control the tonal range in the negative. From the blackest black to the whitest whites. Formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer in 1939, it is a set of techniques that controls the characteristics of black and white film. It works best with sheet film that can be exposed and developed one piece at a time.


Using the Zone System

1 - previsualize the subject scene in different shades of black and white using the zone chart
2 - take a light meter reading of target zones using a hand-held light meter
3 - adjust exposure to effectively record light on film
4 - determine if the contrast will need to be adjusted by varying the development time of the film.
5 - analyze print to see if it corresponds to what you previsualized.

A Few Samples of Ansel Adams work

Tree with Snow on Branches, Yosemite, California



The subject here is centered but has leading lines drawing our eyes down the path to the back of the photograph to the mountain. The inclusion of all the trees behind the first tree definitely give a sense of space. It is sidelit to create the shadowing that gives us dimensions to the snow on the trees. But also the brightness on the snow gives a sense of being cold. You can see that the whole tonal range is used from the whitest whites to the darkest blacks, yet everything is in detail including the trees on the back mountain. I would imagine he helped the tonal range by dodging and burning in the darkroom and of course by exposure times.


Church, Taos Pueblo National Historic Landmark, New Mexico



I like this photograph for a few reasons. One, because it's different from what I think of as Ansel Adams work (although now that I've researched him I see that he did many types of images, not just large, magestic landscapes).
He has framed the subject a bit off-centered, using the crosses to draw our eyes back and forth from the buildings and the tops of them draw our eyes upwards. The structures are front lit, which brings out the texture in the stone walls. The depth is created by one structure being in front of the other.
I also like the photo because of it's simplicity. The lighting and the sand make me feel hot (I like being hot - no comments pls).
And finally I like this photo because I've been down to that area, so seeing a photograph of it brings back all the other amazing images that I saw there.


Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico



This is definitely one of Ansel Adam's most famous prints. It says alot about his mastery of his camera and the darkroom. He took this picture spontaneously while driving with his son and friend. He saw the shot, pulled over and quickly set up his equipment. But he couldn't find his light meter so he had to go on his experience to meter the moon and the buildings, etc.
Once again, we see details in all image and there is huge depth of field. And the whole tonal range is covered. I've never seen mention of it, but I think that the moon actually has a face on it.
What is really cool is that there are many different versions of this print. When Ansel Adams first printed it it was a lot grayer and the sky wasn't nearly that black. He changed all that with darkroom techniques.

Here's something I found on www. photo.net that sums it up nicely-
"Moonrise was Ansel's most difficult negative of all to print. Though he kept careful records of darkroom information on Moonrise, each time he set up the negative, he would again establish the procedure for this particular batch of prints because papers and chemicals were always variables not constants. After determining the general exposure for the print, he gave local exposure to specific areas. Using simple pieces of cardboard, Ansel would painstakingly burn in (darken with additional light from the enlarger) the sky, which was really quite pale with streaks of cloud throughout. He was careful to hold back a bit on the moon. The mid-ground was dodged (light withheld), though the crosses have been subtly burned in. This process took Ansel more than two minutes per print of intricate burning and dodging. Ansel created Moonrise with a night sky, a luminous moon and an extraordinary cloud bank that seems to reflect the moon's brilliance. Moonrise is sleight of hand. Moonrise is magic."

All in all, I'm glad I chose Ansel Adams as my Photographic Hero. His ability and techniques live on and on. There is a lot to learn from him and I amassed quite a bit of knowledge that I didn't have before and was definitely able to appreciate him more now that I'm in school myself.

Ta for now,

Kate