Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) created some of the best black and white photographs the world has seen. His photographs are not just brilliant because they are technically spot on and the scenes he capture are fascinating, but because they are timeless and will never go out of fashion.

Ansel Adams was not only a photographer but also an environmentalist and so the bulk of his photographs feature landscapes in the American West where he lived and especially in Yosemite national park.

Ansel Adams photographed a number of very iconic American scenes like the above but he also encaptured the bleak and undiscovered vast landscapes of America. I like his images because of this and also the feeling of ambitiousness and adventure in his photographs.

Applying Mathmatical Theory to Photography

The golden Triangle rule is a practical spin off of the golden section rule and is used effectively where a scene is comprised of many diagonal lines. When taking a photo using the golden Triangle you should imagine a line going diagonally from one corner to another. Then with the two remaining corners, a perpindicular line is drawn off the diagonal into the two corners.

I found a diagram visually explaining this on google images, here is the example:





'The Golden Spiral':
The Golden Spiral is another mathematical equation that can be applied to photography to create brilliant photographs. The Golden Spiral has been used for hundreds of years in architecture and art however one of the most interesting artists that used it was Salvador Dali, it was most famously used in his piece 'The Sacrement of the Last Supper'.

I'm not going to try and explain it in its mathematical form but this photograph and diagram over the top explains it beautifully.

AS Things To Do

1. Initial research into traditional landscape- this could include painting
2. Identify what the key aspects are (Back, Middle, Foreground)
3. Analyse in depth key important archetypal works
4. This will then include obvious pieces and works by the likes of Ansel Adams
5. Bring in a new alternative to the traditional landscape with a modern touch
6. Proceed onto city scapes
7. Create a collection of images that explore natures reversal of urban development with a central theme of nature taking over what it once had before humans used it for alternative uses.

Possible Locations

I have a few ideas about where to go for my urban exploration part of the project. My brother told me of a place near the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells where an old train tunnel has over grown and been abandoned. I looked into this and found this article:
http://anke.blogs.com/anke/2010/10/way-out-west.html

The images show the tunnel in 1986:

Im going to look into the accessability of the tunnel and possibly look at trying to get close enough to take some decent photographs. As the photograph was taken more than 20 years ago I would have thought it would be a lot more over grown than this and may fit in with a concluding part of the project exploring natures reversal and taking back the land it had before.

What Is A Landscape?

''Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms, water bodies such as rivers, lakes and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including land uses, buildings and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions".

Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect the living synthesis of people and place vital to local and national identity. Landscapes, their character and quality, help define the self image of a region, its sense of place that differentiates it from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives.'' (Source: Wikipedia)

I realised it was important to go back to basics and find out what a landscape was in its most basic form so I first looked at John Constable. He pioneered the painting of British landscapes around 1800, the basic structure of his painting was the use of a background, middle ground and then a foreground encapturing a romantic scene.

Here is an example of his work:

While looking at Constables work and the way he created his paintings I thought I would create my own landscape with a modern touch and encorperating monochrome which I had looked at before:

I then looked at Joseph Turner another British painter around the same time. He used the same principles of Constable but focused on lighting as a major issue. His paintings encorporated more exciting events and have a much more modern touch to them. Here is an example:

While being quite moved by Turners work after researching him I decided to go a step further by looking at Japanese landscapes which seemed to break all conventions seen in Constable and Turners work. I liked the sketches because they had a more three dimensional look to them and have started thinking about a way that I could create the same type of image with a camera. Here is an example of Japanese landscape:

Monochrome

Left is a photograph I took to coincide with the idea of traditional landscapes with a modern twist; cityscapes as it were. I took the photograph close to waterloo station on a small cannon compact camera. I decided i wanted to enhance the point of London being a dirty city and so changed the photo into a negative on photoshop. This gave the effect of a smoky sky with ghost like buildings.

I then thought about the idea of colourizing the photo to give it that extra dimension as it felt a bit flat. I did this by copying the original layer to unlock it and changed the hue and saturation. I clicked colourize and changed the hue to a dark red tone. I then changed the lightness and made the red a more maroon colour, to create that dark and slightly mysterious look, almost like a scene in an early noir film.

I Liked the finished product because it didn’t really fit in with the tradition British landscape that Constable painted and later Turner because it didn’t have a foreground middle and background just a middle and background giving it a 2D effect.

Using Levels

1) A histogram shows the distribution of brightness in a photo. If its a very dark image then the histogram will visually show this. It is usually good to have a histogram that shows an even distribution of colour.

2) An under exposed image is very dark because less light has been let onto the film, a correctly exposed image is 'normal' and has had the right amount of light allowed onto the film, An over exposed image is very light as it has had too much light let onto the film.

3) If an image is high key it means it has predominantly light tones however if its a low key image it means it has predominantly dark tones.

4) Levels let you adjust colours and the contrast of a photo so you make a photo brighter or darker so it doesn't matter if the original exposure of a photo isn't perfect because you can change that.

5) The selection tools let you concentrate on a certain area of a photo which means you can edit that particular section in any way you like it whether its by changing the contrast or smudging it with the distortion tools.

6) Channeling means you can take an image and mask a certain part you dislike by altering the colour of the section you want to mask. Its very easy to use and for best results it should be used on a black and white photo or night time shot of a horizon with dark sky.