A quick go at Ansel Adams

petebarnes

petebarnes

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One from this evening, unfortunately I was reading a bit about the late great Mr Adams whilst I was processing this one so naturally had a go at replicating his black and whites, as I didn't have Yosemite park on my door step I made do with a lamp post. I really liked the texture of the snow on the wall. It's hardly his snake river shot but I like to have a go now and then. Thoughts welcome guys :)

A-black-and-white-landscape-photo-of-a-lamp-post-at-sunset-IMG_1001-Edit-2-Edit-Edit.jpg
 
Very nice image but would like to see it larger.

The main thing about Ansel Adams techniques is that he used the zone system of exposure integrated with a method of adjusting the processing t compensate for his perceived exposure.

Thus for a high contrast scene such as yours he would have underexposed it at the time of taking and then increased the process time to compensate thus extending the dynamic range, whilst on a low contrast subject he would have overexposed the image and then over developed the negative to increas the contrast in the image.

This is difficult to do with a digital sensor which already has a lower dynamic range than a standard monochrome film.

A very good effort though and a really nice image which has lots of interest.
 
Very nice shot, I'm often not a fan of b&w but this is simple yet interesting. (y)
 
I think that is really very nice, works well, I like the curve wall bringing you round to the lamp post and the sort of thing many people would buy to hang on their walls:clap:....


that is once you have become famous like Mr Adams:):)
 
petebarnes said:
Thanks for that Ed, I think camera makers will soon concentrate on expanding their dynamic range, as opposed to the mega pixel race.
Click to expand...

Lets hope so!
 
Pete, I love everything about this shot. The light is bringing the snow to life and that lamp post is obviously a star in the making. ;)
 
NIce shot Pete, really nice


stew
 
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well you can take multiple frames at different exposures (using ND filters)

How much more dynamic range did Ansel Adams achieve (Back then) compared to today's modern sensors?
 
@EdBray

I was watching a video last night on digital exposure using the zone system and it said to expose for the midtones and check for highlights, since you can bring out shadow detail but you cant bring back blown out areas. This was done using the spot meter, to find your zone 5 tones (I think). I found it pretty helpful, it was called 'Perfect Exposure for Digital Photography'.
 
Richard King said:
well you can take multiple frames at different exposures (using ND filters)

How much more dynamic range did Ansel Adams achieve (Back then) compared to today's modern sensors?
Click to expand...

HDR images done well would enable a similar and possibly even greater tonal range than AA was able to acheive.

I have to say that to date I have not seen a printed digital monochrome image that had the depth of tone and quality achceived by AA.

We do have to remember though that most of his more impressive images were shot on a 5"x4" or 10"x8" view cameras. The only image that really stood out that I remember which was shot on a smaller format was 'moon over Half Dome' which was shot on a Hasselblad 6x6cm.
 
agree with the lampost is the star, well spotted of course to make it into one!
 
Fuuudge said:
@EdBray

I was watching a video last night on digital exposure using the zone system and it said to expose for the midtones and check for highlights, since you can bring out shadow detail but you cant bring back blown out areas. This was done using the spot meter, to find your zone 5 tones (I think). I found it pretty helpful, it was called 'Perfect Exposure for Digital Photography'.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that is a load of tosh, if you expose purely for the midtones then you will blow out your highlights, and if you think you can underexpose shadow detail you will not be able to bring detail back without suffering a lot of noise in those areas.

For a standard digital image you should expose for the subject and if the main subject is bright, meter for the brightest area in which you wish to retain detail and then increase your exposure by 2 full stops if the main subject is dark, then expose for the darkest tone in which you wish to retain detain and then underexpose by two full stops. if you need more than this 7 stop range then you need to use HDR to acheive it.

At the end of the day if the sensor only has a 7 stop dynamic range, unless you use HDR techniques 7 stops is the best you can get.

Thanks for the heads up with the book, but I used the zone system as it was intended for sheet film more than 20 years ago, and also taught photography technique for a number of years!

I know how to expose, and have on more than one occasion pointed members to this thread which may help.

My apologies to petebarnes (OP) for going off thread as his image is superbly exposed under the shooting circumstances I doubt any better could have been acheived with a single exposure!
 
i love the textures in the snow very spooky looking
 
That is a great image but it's certainly no Ansel Adams. It's a Pete Barnes though and that's exactly what it should be. (y);)
 
Thanks again guys, I'll stick this one up too while I'm here, not as strong in my opinion but thought it might be of interest if we are going down a bit of a tonal range path.

I was consious of keeping detail in the snow on the tree as opposed to making a simple silhouette, I think an interesting sky would have helped things but there you go :)

 
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I really love both shots. Amazing.

I can't quite work out if something is wrong with the lampost shot. There are long shadows from the trees but no shadow from the lampost. Or am I missing something.?
 
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