Ansel Adams

I chose Ansel Adams because his work with incredible landscape shots really stuck out in my mind as unique. The way that he adjusted the contrast in his photos gave his pictures an amazing amount of detail, making the landscape shots even more spectacular. Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist.Adams, with Fred Archer developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulted in adding more depth and characterized his photographs. Adams tended to use large-format cameras because their high resolution that helped ensure sharpness that have been associated with his images.

I chose this picture because of the different elements that come into play. We can clearly see that form  and depth come into play in this photo because of the way that the shadow of the mountain gives it a 3D look and makes it pop out of the photo. The trees at the bottom of the image give a scale of the distance and sizes of everything in the photo which give the picture an extreme sense of depth. Tone is an immensely important factor within this image as we are able to see the enhanced shadows within the image. This pairs with the light in a way that shows all the detail within the image and the texture of the mountain.

I chose this photo that Ansel Adams took because i feel that it really highlights depth. We can see this from the way that Adams uses a road to highlight this effect over a long distance. I like this photo because of the way that as the road gets further away, the quality of the camera starts to decrease and adds to the overall sensation of depth. Lines are a major feature within this image. The road features different colour tones that form lines that follow the road into the distance. The lines within the image can be used to study the distance within the photo as we can see how they change over different distances. Contrasts can be seen within the light colours of the road and the dark colours of the surrounding background.

I like this picture for the way that it manages to demonstrate colour in a black and white picture. in this picture we can see clearly that it is a bright and sunny day from the way that the tone of the cliffs change colour gradually at different angles. this also give some amazing detail to the photo as it reveals the individual details of the lines in the cliff face, creating an overall more detailed picture. The image features interesting examples of contrast. The black and white filter allows for the white colour of the cliff face and the clouds to stand out against the dark background. The light being shone across the cliff face allow for the rough texture to be more visible within the image.

finally,  i chose this picture for the way that movement is shown in this photo. The detail of this image is so great that everything seems to have come to a complete standstill with no notable blur occurring. This is assisted by the black and white filter that allows us to see the droplets of water spray into different directions in a smooth motion in a natural setting. Contrasts can be seen within the image. The dull colours of the cliff face clash with the colours of the brighter colours of the sky and the flowing water. The dark trees in the foreground of the image stand out against the white colour of the water, creating a silhouette effect. The light within the image creates tone within the image, causing the detail within the cliff face to be more visible.

Summary:

To summarise, Ansel Adams is able to capture a vast array of different landscape images. His technique allows the images to be immensely detailed due to his use of equipment. His black and white filters highlight the tone and detail within the image by enhancing the shadows.

Influence:

I would like to replicate Adams' style in my work by taking some interesting landscape shots. In order to show some of the formal elements that Adams has represented in his pictures, i would also like to use a black and white filter to help bring out some of the elements such as tone and form. I could attempt to replicate his landscape shots by focusing on large and interesting areas that I could use to property fill the frame with detail.

This is my example of some of the methods that I have taken from Adams. I haves attempted to use his style of landscape shots on a smaller scale. I also used a black and white filter in order to further replicate Adams' style. I feel that this has had a positive impact on my work as I have been allowed to experiment with filters and formal elements such as depth in order to improve the quality of my images.