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.

Research log

Ansel Adams:

http://www.anseladams.com

Adams is probably one of the most recognised photographers. he mainly used landscape pictures and would photograph amazing natural settings. Adams developed the zone system as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of his final print. This resulted in giving his images clarity and their own character. This work would be very interesting to do as it uses different techniques and examples of formal elements to make the images more dynamic.

Don Mcculliin:

http://markgeorge.com/mark-george/don-mccullin/

Don Mccullin is an internationally recognised british photographer, most known for his war photography. He worked as an overseas correspondent for the sunday times magazine,  and was most recognised for his hard hitting coverage of the vietnam war and the northern ireland conflict. Mccullin focused on photographing the people in these situation in order to truly express the mental state of the people and the harsh conditions. one of he photos is a closeup image of an american soldier suffering with shellshock, it is hard hitting images like these that Mccullin would use in order to fully represent the power of what he was capturing.

Yousuf Karsh:

http://www.karsh.org

Yousuf Karsh was introduced to photography by his uncle who  in 1928, saw great potential in his nephew and arranged for him to apprentice with portrait photographer John Garo. Karsh's work is mainly portrait based with a black and white filter that enhances the shadows and adds form to the image by giving them more tone and his images are widely known around the world. He was able to photograph 51 of the top 100 notable men of the century and was the only canadian to make the list. 

Jerry uelsmann:

http://www.uelsmann.net

Jerry uelsmann is an american photographer that uses a distinctive black and white style and would use more than one focal point by blending images, patterns and textures together. Uelsmann's work played on big ideas, and because the ideas were so vague, there was no room for literal interpretation and instead made his work more subjective. Critics were not accepting of his unique style overall, but eventually his unique interpretations were what critics began to love in his work.

Murray Becker:

http://www.corbisimages.com/photographer/murray-becker

Murray Becker was a photographer whose career included photo journalism, sports photography,  and management of photographic services at the wire service. Becker has been considered one of the worlds most famous photographers largely due to his fifteen shot sequence that he took when the hindenburg disaster occurred as he was one out of only seven photographers able to capture the event. Becker's images mainly focus on medium to full body shots of specific people and events. The black and white style of the images mix well and add to the tone of the picture in order to get your attention and focus it on a character or object in the photo.

David Bailey:

http://www.davidbaileyphotography.com

David Bailey is known as one of britains best fashion and portrait photographers. Bailey made his ascent in vogue, shooting 800 pages of vogue editorial in one year. We can see in his work that he has kept with the black and white colours on his pictures in order to capture the detail of the shadows in the faces. The emotive expressions in the people that he is photographing is used to crate more wrinkles in their face and add more depth to the black and white filter that he uses.

Norman Parkinson:

http://www.normanparkinson.com

Norman Parkinson was a celebrated portrait and fashion photographer and he focused mainly on photographing people. A common trend within his photos is that he tends to use movement in his photos. This continues was a central theme in his work as we can clearly see from the handful of photos above, each person is moving in one way or another, whether it be running, walking, or using an object like a guitar. This approach makes the people seem natural instead of being very robotic, as is a common problem with some people in photos.

Steve McCurry:

http://stevemccurry.com

Steve McCurry's career was launched when he crossed the pakistan border while wearing native garb. He returned with rolls of film sewn to his clothes and the pictures were published around the world and were the first photos to really show the conflict in rebel-controlled areas in afganistan, just before the soviet invasion. McCurry's work in outstanding environments are used to really capture the setting through a use of vibrant colours and a focus on foreign locations and people.

Rankin:

http://rankin.co.uk

Rankin is a British portrait and fashion photographer. His style mainly involves taking portrait pictures with plain backdrops. This causes you to add all your attention to the point of focus that Rankin has created along with giving the photos form by allowing shades of colour to be witnessed against the plain backdrop to give a 3d effect to the image. The point of focus in Rankin's photos tend to be people or celebrities. Another trend is that the subject in the photo has a trait of some kind, whether it be a physical object, emotion, or pose. This gives the photos a more relaxed feel or more information about the subject.

Vivian Maier:

http://www.vivianmaier.com

Vivian Maier was a new york born, American street photographer. She used casual city settings to experiment with different techniques such as shadow and reflection. This use of experimentation gives her photos a sense of diversity and makes us look at a typical city area in new and interesting ways. She would also capture moments of drama in the streets and this alone would allow entire stories to unfold through the picture.

Mario Testino:

http://www.mariotestino.com

Mario Testino is a fashion photographer. His work has been appeared in magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. His career highpoint came when he was chosen by Princess Diana for her Vanity Fair photoshoot in 1997. He has a tendency to focus on people in his photos and has frequently used black and white pictures to draw the audiences attention to the subjects that he wants to highlight in the pictures.

Art Wolfe:

http://artwolfe.com

Art Wolfe is an American photographer and conservationist. He is best known for his color images of wildlife, landscapes and native cultures. A common interest in his photos tend to be people and places that are out of the ordinary. He focuses on people and places in extraordinary detail in order to show us the ways in which the image differentiates from the everyday places and people that we are accustomed to.

Cecil Beaton:

http://www.vogue.com/tag/photographer/cecil-beaton/

British fashion and portrait photographer who created elegant and stylish fashion and portrait images for magazines including Vogue and Vanity Fair from the 1920s-70s. Beaton's work can be seen mainly using a black and white filter, this gives the subject more tone and form as a result that makes the image more interesting than a standard colour image.

Larry Burrows:

http://life.time.com/larry-burrows/

For some commentators, Burrows is one of the greatest war photographers. His hard-hitting photo stories for LIFE magazine helped influence public opinion against the Vietnam War, which he covered for nine years. Burrows' work shows the Vietnam war in an interesting way, the soldiers appear to be vulnerable and he conditions seem harsh. This is different to the fighting a winning war type of photography that would have been used at the time and shows us a era;is tic and gritty look at it.

Bill Brandt:

http://www.billbrandt.com

German-born photographer with his own distinctive artistic vision. Created atmospheric images while working in diverse genres including portraiture, landscape, figure studies and social documentary. A black and white filter is used on his work in order to create interesting tones in both landscape and people.

Bruce Davidson:

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1975355,00.html

American photographer whose documentary work on gang life in Brooklyn, the poor districts of Harlem, New York, and his photographs of the New York subway system in the 1970s broke new ground.

Philippe Halsman:

http://philippehalsman.com

Portraits were Halsman’s speciality and he photographed a number of American celebrities and politicians with his customary panache. Best known for his dynamic and surreal creation, Dali Atomicus.

Lewis Hine:

http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/lewis-hine

Frans Lanting:

http://www.lanting.com

Netherlands-born nature photographer and long-term National Geographic contributor whose work has broken new ground and directly influenced governments’ conservation policies.

Neil Leifer:

http://neilleifer.com

Acclaimed sports photographer who shot iconic images of Muhammad Ali in action in the 1960s and who later went on to photograph 40 covers for Time magazine.