Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters
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- ISBN13: 9780240812434
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was a lead the way of landscape photography, whose imagery-especially his iconic views of the American National Parks–is widely published and straight away recognizable. While he is undoubtedly one of the best-loved and best-known visionaries of American art, photographers also admit him as a lead the way of technique, a theoretician, and as one of the fantastic teachers of the craft of photography.
His zone system has been widely adapted, but Adams unique imagery also relied on his determination and application at every stage of the photographic process; he spent years in his darkroom, as well as out in the open air. For decades, this kind of attention to detail required the kind of equipment, time, and facilities that were out of the reach of most photographers–but now, in the digital age, equipment has finally made his techniques accessible.
This book will show you what can be learned from Adams effective process, and how these lessons can be applied today. The craft of Adams photography is discussed, and the ZONE SYSTEM is related to the digital age. Sections on light, composition, mood, and the darkroom all show what can be achieved today using and understanding his thinking. Michael Frye’s own photography provides many stunning examples of the results that can be achieved and, as one of Adams’ natural successors in the meadow, he is well placed to analyze the inspirational shots which open each chapter.
* Demystifies the art behind the iconic shots
* Contains a number of breathtaking works by Ansel Adams and additional landscape masters such as Edward Weston and Elliot Porter
* Written by one of the most reputable fine landscape photographers, who (like Ansel Adams) uses Yosemite National Park most frequently as his theme
* Breaks the zone systems (legendary to Adams) down in a way that digital photographers can use
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Every book I have bought from Amazon has had some form of hurt!! Torn pages, bent corners, and loose binding seems to be a common theme. I reflect Amazon gets the “rejects” from the printing house and the excellent copies go too the real book stores.
This book is fantastic and is very detailed. I just wish my copy didnt have a giant tear on the take in. I want to know how my copy made it into the shipping box to start with??
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
There are times I pick out a book not because I know it, but because I want to evaluate it as a student of the theme. Not being a photographer of any particular skill, and knowing just enough about Ansel Adams to know that his Zone System is a pretty vital part of a photographer’s education, I figured I’d grab this one.
Well, it’s certainly a stunningly gorgeous book. Frye is a top-notch landscape photographer, and the bulk of both his and the additional artists in the book’s pictures are taken in California, particularly in the Yosemite. The Zone System gets a brief rundown (the zones are essentially approximate light/darkness values, numbered 1 to 11), and is applied to the best of the leader’s ability to the new digital world. But there is also wide attention paid to post-production (the “digital darkroom”, as the book puts it), including information on retouching, tweaking colors, and data handling.
Here’s where we get to a bit of a problem though. It’s hard to really control your shooting with a point-and-shoot camera, but that’s what your average beginner is probably going to start off with. In that situation, post-production becomes much more vital, since it’s only in the $80-$150 range that the digital point-and-shooter is going to start to get much of any control at all over the process, and lower than that (children’s cameras, keychain cameras, and the like) you may as well be heading into Lomography territory, where the rules are completely different and the establish object trumps all additional artistic considerations. For a photographer who doesn’t have a lightmeter or the fine-grained control of a digital SLR, this book won’t be useless, but it will certainly be limited largely to post-processing the image in Photoshop, Aperture, and similar programs. As I mentioned years ago in my review of the first edition of Michael Rubin’s Small Digital Video Book, this is a risky thing to do because it fleeting-shrifts artists effective on a shoestring, and I consider it a serious flaw. But there’s still a lot to be learned from it.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Next to the iconic images of the Civil War by Matthew Brady, Ansel Adams is by far one of the most well known photographers of all time. His stark, chilling black and white, large scale photos of Yellowstone and additional National Parks have become the standard bearer for what all landscape photographers are to aim for. Adams used lengthy exposures and large format cameras – his resulting prints were all contact prints. If you see an 8×10 photo by Adams, the negative was 8×10. How does one translate this effect into the modern cameras of today? Adams passed in 1984, but were he alive for the digital age, this is perhaps the book he would have written.
Leader Michael Frye takes you, the modern-day digital photographer, through the footsteps of Ansel Adams, through the filter of the digital age. Not only are there photos by Ansel Adams, but also far more by the leader – before and after photos of RAW images, then processed RAW. He goes over Adams’ legendary Zone system, but goes well beyond the limitations of film with software enhancements that are available to today’s hobbyist and professional.
Frye does not obsess over any software program in particular. Whether he used Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom, or one of hundreds of additional software titles available for PC and Mac, is not the focus of this essential in landscape textbooks. While I don’t know if the leader proposed this to be a textbook or not – if I were to teach a class in landscape photography, this would be the textbook. Frye clarifies how (boosting saturation, tweaking levels, etc.) he accomplished the “after” in the before/after examples via software in very simple, simple-to-follow terms that anyone with any software package could follow. This is not a step-by-step on how to use software – it’s a step-by-step on how to achieve incredible landscape imagery through the viewfinder to final product.
Whether he is dealing with camera position, repeating patterns, long vs. fleeting lenses, vantage points or even the weather, no stone is left unturned here in opening your eyes and your creative spirit on how to capture with the camera what you see in your mind’s eye. You may see a phenomenal site that you know, like Ansel Adams stated, “is an inevitable photograph,” but you can take the photo and examine it later only to sigh, “well, you just had to be there – it was more impressive in person.” While Frye’s photos are predominantly color, as opposed to Adams’ legendary black and white prints, the master touch is still evident. There is certainly a different emotion and energy coming from a black and white image than from a color one- but Frye’s images are still stunning. An untrained eye would easily turn the same exact scene photographed by the leader into a dull snapshot.
By reading this book, studying the techniques and meditating on them so you can be ready the next time you have an incredible vista in front of you, you too can produce memorable landscapes. The vast majority of landscape photos taken by amateurs are dull, flat images with no soul… even though the camera does an effective job of documenting how light reflects off the objects the photographer is shooting. Apt a student of these techniques can transform the average, ho-hum landscape into a compelling image that draws the viewer in.
This is truly one of the best books on the theme I have encountered. The subjects are similar to Adams’ subjects – stunning vistas. I’d delight in seeing a sequel to this book with urban landscapes, focusing on the light challenges of urban canyons, varying, unnatural textures, etc.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
The anticipated audience for this book appears to be serious landscape photographers.
The title, as well as the back take in, of the book suggests that it may contain in-depth discussions of the works of Ansel Adams and additional pioneers in the meadow of landscape photography. In fact, most of the book is dedicated to acknowledging the advances that have been made in photography through digital imaging. Because of persons advances, it is much simpler to produce a technically hard digital color master file today than it was to produce a correspondingly hard black and white negative in Ansel Adams early career. It could be argued that the greater challenge today is visualizing and composing a compelling photograph.
Michael Frye does a commendable job of relating the zone techniques developed and espoused by Adams, and others to High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques currently gaining popularity by today’s digital photographers. Frye’s explanation of HDR is understandable lacking going into fantastic detail.
The book provides a perfect overview of photography from capturing a compelling photo to rendering of the final print. In the first chapters, Frye presents the impact of white balance, aperture, focal part, shutter speed, and filters on the captured image. He clarifies the pros and cons of Raw versus JPEG file formats for capture within the camera. About two thirds of the book is devoted to additional areas in which noted landscape photographers have excelled – the use of light, composition, visualization and “darkroom” (now largely Photoshop®) techniques to produce memorable images.
The book is well organized. The provided examples are clear and understandable. They give the reader insight into many of the challenges faced by a landscape photographer as well as guidance on how persons challenges may be addressed.
My main objection to the book is its use of a tiny (7 pt?) font. The font makes it hard to read the book for an extended period of time lacking experiencing eyestrain. Despite this drawback, I painstakingly loved reading Frye’s insights and viewing his examples.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Many digital photography books are filled with images of computer screen shots and the emphasis is on the software and not the photography itself. Michael Frye’s book is different — it is filled with photographic images and the emphasis is on photographic technique. Frye shows how the Zone System of photography, which was developed by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer, can be applied to digital photography. Amateur and professional digital photographers can both benefit from the examples in this book.
What I like is how the book is laid out. Rather than pages and pages of text with photos at the end of the chapter, a spread might include a page of text and a page of images. The text is information-dense and Frye doesn’t waste the reader’s time. He does a very excellent job of explaining the basics of the Zone System and how to use it with digital cameras.
The text is broken down into tiny segments, which makes this book approachable even if the reader doesn’t have much time. Because of its organization, it’s possible to jump around in the book and glean information lacking having to read the entire text, but it would be a bring shame on to skip any of it. Like most technique books, this one will work best for the reader who tries Frye’s suggestions rather than just looking at the pictures.
The book is divided into three sections: Technical Foundations; Light, Composition, and the Art of Seeing; and The Digital Darkroom: Editing, Processing, and Printing. The first section covers image quality, sharpness, use of camera filters, white balance, and histograms. The second section discusses the artistic aspect of photography — light, composition, mood, and color. The third section delves into digital workflow, the best way to process a photo, contrast range (including HDR, or high dynamic range), depth of meadow, and printing your work.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5