Ansel Adams Philosophy

A photographic genius in his own right, created some photographs that are truly fine works of art. This is the result of how much he mastered the medium from beginning to end. He was able to full master and control all phases of photography. From subject selection to final print. This first article gives a broad overview of his methodology which consisted of three primary points:

1. Visualization - See it
2. Equipment - Capture it
3. Development - Print it

Visualization is to picture the end result you want before you ever take a picture. To be able to see in your mind’s eye the frame, color, composition, focus points, etc. It is a proactive view of photography that is hard to find today for many reasons. To be an active participant in what you look at instead of just accepting what you see and reproducing it point by point. It all begins with the selection of the subject. It is a matter of time and place. It may entail scouting the area several times before setting on a subject. One helpful tip he advocates in both The Camera and The Negative is to use a polaroid to quickly create a shot of the subject. The instantaneous feedback will give a lot of information about light, shadows, angle, etc. It may be that the subject is never possible and another one should be selected.

For example, this morning, after dropping off my daughter at school, I noticed that the moon was still visible in the sky. I wanted to get the right shot and had a vision in my head of taking a picture of the moon with the tree line just within view at the bottom of the frame, unencumbered by power lines, business and tall buildings. I was able to take a couple of test shots with my iPhone and my Sony Cyber-shot representative of the frame I wanted (see below) but did not bring my Nikon D40 and therefore not able to zoom in enough to achieve the right shot. So I drove home and got my Nikon and went back on the road searching for that shot before the light from the sun overpowered the moon’s visibility. Needless to say I did not find that angle and decided that I would have to attempt the shot another day.

Equipment is all the hardware and tools available to the photographer to capture the subject. This includes your camera, flash, filters, tripod and film to name a few. It also extends to other non-photographic props. Essentially using whatever physical tools required to capture the shot. I have used tables, counter tops, dashboards and books to help me capture a shot. His recommendation, which is sound, is to start simple. use simple 35 mm cameras before moving on to medium and large format cameras. If it helps visualization, he also recommends using a filter by holding it in front of your eye to try and get a good approximation of the captured image.

To ensure that what you visualize is captured, thorough understanding of your equipment is essential, hence the recommendation to start simple. You must know how your equipment works, what quirks your camera has. Does it tend to over or under expose? How reactive is it to changing conditions? What non-standard settings on the camera will work? How far can you push the camera to produce what you want? Knowing the answer to questions like these will mean all the difference, especially if the shot depends on fast reaction time and cannot be easily duplicated.

He also recommends taking three pictures – as you like it, overexposed and underexposed – to see how the camera handles each situation. It could be that your camera, like mine, tends to overexpose pictures and therefore the underexposed version might look better emotionally and tonally. My example below was taken with the D40. I used the automatic metering and set the exposure indicated. But when I took the picture it came out overexposed (f/5, 5 sec) and not as warm as I would like so I had to underexpose to get the result I wanted (f/11, 10 sec).

Overexposed Picture (f/5, 5 sec)

Underexposed Picture (f/11, 10 sec)

Development is when the picture is produced and finalized, when it is printed. This involves any editing software such as GIMP and Photoshop that is used to again ensure that the visualized image is produced in final form. In Ansel’s time, he used the film development process to transform the negative into a print. Today in the digital era, there are no more dark rooms but there are PCs, software and printers. These three work together to generate the final print. Unlike in Ansel’s day when he worked with black and white film, today you can adjust saturation and color, add special effects, crop and reverse pictures. Photography has changed a lot since his time. In a way, a lot of the freedom and flexibility he had has been automated. But that does not mean that his philosophy cannot still be used. It absolutely can and should.