Assignment 4 - A Critical Review of Ansel Adams

Requirement

Essay of up to 2,500 words

Instructions

Select one of Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Fay Godwin, Edward Weston or Galen Rowell. Research and write an essay, covering:

• The life of the chosen photographer
• The style of his/her work
• His/her influence on photography as an art form
• The reasons for your interest in his/ her work 

 

I chose Ansel Adams. Like or dislike his work, it had great impact on the development of landscape photography.

 

Preparation

 

See post with notes: Ansel Adams - notes on selected readings

Synopsis

Life

1902 - 1984. Born and lived in California. Photography and Yosemite were childhood interests that shaped his life. His early style was Pictorialist. Paul Strand's influence converted him in the 1930s to Straight Photography. His most prolific period of image taking was in 1930s and 1940s. Thereafter he increasingly became a lobbyist for conservation and a teacher as well as writer on his craft. Towards the end of his life, President Carter presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His citation ran: "it is through [Adams’] foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans".

Style

His subject was the wilderness of the American West, his craft was his practice of ‘straight photography’ and his message expressed a vision of Man’s spiritual communion with nature.

Influence

His influence was four-fold. 

• As key exponent of modernism, he contributed to photography developing a voice in fine art independently of painting.
• His images, as well as his lobbying, raised awareness of the need to protect the environment. 
• As a hyperactive practitioner and communicator through books and magazines, he contributed to the development of the technical boundaries of photography. 
• As a photographer with enduring popularity, his work tapped into, and so reinforced, key values Americans held and still hold about themselves and their country.

Personal interest in his work
His finest work moves me and his camera craft is admirable.

Tutor's comments

 

Positives:

• Signs of effort and engagement with subject
• Provision of a map of California showing where he did most of his work
• Comparison of the 2 images of Marion Lake, contrasting the pictorial and modernist style

 

Improvement needed:

• Your draft is like a business report rather an academic essay in its lay-out - use continuous text and remove minor paragraph headings.
• Time line is useful but consider placing it in an Appendix
• You must reference quotes and paraphrases using the Harvard Referencing System

Using a polarising filter (35)

Requirement

x images

Purpose

To understand the role of the polarising filter and how to use it to greatest effect

Technical learning

 

How polarising works

• Polarising light typically darkens clear sky, improves the tonal quality of foliage and makes water surfaces more transparent.
• Unpolarised light vibrates in all directions in a plane at right angles to its direction of travel. When light is reflected from a non-metallic surface, it will be partially polarised, i.e. the wavelengths will be more constrained to one direction in the plane at right angles to the direction of travel
• The Polariser does its work by removing glare and so enhancing colour saturation and contrast,  i.e. it screens out light which is not vibrating in a single direction. 
• The effect works best when the camera is at right angles to the sun and requires rotation to fine tune the polarising effect

Ancillary effects to note

• Polarisers reduce the level of light entering the camera between 1/3rd and 3 stops (depending on the strength of filtration). Consequently, shutter speeds will be slower unless adjusted by dialling up the ISO setting. 
• Polarisers work most evenly with standard or moderate telephoto lenses. The breadth of the wide angle lens results in uneven distribution of the effect of reducing glare.

Exercise instructions

Part 1 - Skyscape

Set-up

• Pick a clear or partially clear sunny day
• Work when the sun is relatively low in the sky (e.g. mid morning or mid afternoon in spring or autumn)
• Select a viewpoint with a 360 degree aspect
• Use a tripod, standard or moderate telephoto lens and a polarising filter
• Frame a view that is at 90 degrees to the sun with a significant part of clear sky
• Rotate the filter to establish the lightest and darkest treatment of the sky

Images - standard or moderate telephoto

• Shoot the brightest and darkest compositions 
• Re-compose image so that the sun is directly behind the camera and shoot

Images - wide angle lens

• Shoot at the darkest setting

Review

• Examine impact between brightest and darkest rendering of the sky using the standard/ moderate telephoto
• Compare the darkest (standard/ moderate telephoto) with the darkest (wide angle): is the first more even than the second?

Part 1 - Water scene

Set up

• Pick a relatively bright day
• Select a scene with water  (e.g. a river, lake, etc) with items immediately below the water line (e.g. rocks)
• Aim the camera at the water at the same angle at which the sun strikes the water  (e.g. 30 to 40 degrees) 
• Rotate the filter so as to maximise and then minimise the reflections seen through the viewfinder

Images

• Take a pair of polarised and unpolarised images of the water

Images and review

Waterscape -  Virginia Water

 

Polarised - rocks beneath water become clearer

Unpolarised

 

Skyscape - Beach at Burnham-on-Sea at low tide

 

Polarised
Stronger definition of clouds, more intense
blues

 

Unpolarised
 

Using a grad filter (34)

Requirement

x images

Purpose

To understand the role of the neutral graduated filter

Technical learning

• ND filters reduce light across the whole of the image: they serve to introduce motion blur beyond the camera's unfiltered range. This is a specialist effect that is often used to give water a mist like appearance (see own image below) or to convey motion in  trees. 

Waterfall at Virginia Water Lake
Overcast conditions, ISO 100, f 22, ND filter 4 stop

• Graduated ND filters reduce light progressively over the range of the image: they serve to change the contrast between parts of the scene. Specifically they are designed to address one of the key challenges of landscape photography. Rarely can any camera cope as well 'straight' photography (see what the eye sees) between the relative brightness of the sky and the land. Expose for the sky and the land is usually too dark. Expose for the land and the sky is washed out.

Exercise instructions

Set-up

• Pick 3 scenes (a) a completely overcast day with a featureless sky, (b) an overcast sky with visible tonal differences and (c) a sunrise or sunset (shooting directly into the sun)
• Use a tripod
• Compose so that the horizon line is between 1/3rd and 2/3rds from the bottom of the frame

Images for all 3 scenes

• Bracket 3 images without filter with a wide aperture
• Bracket 3 images with the ND filter (edge at the horizon line) with a wide aperture
• Bracket 3 images with the ND filter with a small aperture

For one of the scenes

• Use a moderate telephoto lens at a small aperture
• Shoot 1 image without the ND filter, another with 

Review

• Examine how the filter balances the contrast between sky and land 
• Identify the differences in transition at the horizon between small and wide aperture
• Consider the impact of changing from a wide angle to a telephoto lens

Images and review

 

Field on the road between Pitminster and Corfe, Somerset

Images without filter - Bracketed +1/-1 EV

EV = 0

EV = -1 stop

EV = +1 stop

Images with 2 stop ND grad filter

EV = 0

EV = -1

EV = +1



Using a Tripod (33)

Requirement

6 images (2 x 3 scenes)

Purpose

To show the role of the tripod in securing sharp images

Technical learning

• Landscale images usually need a wide depth of field. So, small apertures have an important and regular part to play in camera craft. Therefore, tripods are an essential tool.
• One beneficial side effect is that using a tripod prompts a more thoughtful approach than the temptation to 'snap' with a hand held camera. 

Exercise instructions

• Identify 3 scenes
• Shoot each: one without a tripod, the one with
• Examine the differences

Images and review

Salisbury Plain

Abstract rhythm and textures of ploughed winter fields

ISO 100, f 22, 

Handheld on the same settings