Posted on 12/19/2009 11:03:55 AM PST by arslion
Landscapes can be a tough subject for any photographer. Black and white landscape photos can be particularly tricky to make interesting. This collection, however, manages to bridge that gap and create some astonishing images. If you would like to try your hand, then check out our list of tutorials at the end of the collection.
(Excerpt) Read more at news-world.us ...
Stunning contrast!
Thank you for posting.
Nice pictures. Very Ansel Adams-like.
arslion
Since Dec 9, 2009
Allah creates everything perfect!
I hope you are not a foolish Muslim.
Yes, “Allah” can be Christian however it is mostly Islamists that use that name. I don’t think you want to identify with Islam, do you?
A “great” photograph is one we’ve never seen before. These are pretty much Ansel Adams / Minor White rippoffs. Well crafted, yes, I agree. But craft only gets you so far.
After all, Adams did have a bit of expertise in the subject:
amazing. what a talent!
That picture looks like 3D. Startling.
btt
Thank you for this wonderfully creative post.
#1 was an old B&W of a cemetery, which I think was in NM, but not sure. I don't see it doing an image search. Too bad, it really was something that took your breath away, like these photos.
That's the Zone System grayscale balance. He figured out how to find the neutral gray part of a picture, and then use that to expose the negative to make sure that all of the really dark areas still had enough light in them. Then when he printed the photograph he would flip the concept, and shade the bright areas so that they didn't wash out. As a result, he got true light and darks that still had details in them, enabling your eye to take it all in at once and get blown away by the amount you could see.
Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1948):
Thanks. Reading about the zone system brought back a lot of happy memories. I remember reading about Ansel Adams in those TimeLife photography books. It wasn’t long after that that my number of really good photos began increasing quickly. The “expose for the shadows” worked wonders in getting good photos. And the opposite for slide film resulted in so many good slides.
That’s the one, thank you.
Zone System is absolutely indespensible
As well as an understanding of how to use color filters. Note the black sky in one of the photos and the contrast between sky and clouds. It’s possible to achieve these effects somewhat by ‘burning-and-dodging’ during the printing process but without the knowledge of how color filters effect panchromatic B&W film, your pictures will remain merely “snapshots”.
You beat me to it!
Good point - it's true that Ansel Adams used them constantly, and was also able to keep in his head how much they would shift gray values while composing the shot.
Here is an interesting description of how much calculating he could do on the fly - Adams talking about taking the photo Moonrise, Hernandez, N.M. (picture posted above):
"We were sailing southward along the highway not far from Espanola when I glanced to the left and saw an extraordinary situation – an inevitable photograph! I almost ditched the car and russed to set up my 8x10 camera. I was yelling to my companions to bring me things from the car as I struggled to change components on my Cooke Triple-Convertible lens. I had a clear visualization of the image I wanted, but when the Wratten No. 15 (G) filter and the film holder were in place, I could not find my Weston exposure meter! The situation was desperate: the low sun was trailing the edge of the clouds in the west, and shadow would soon dim the white crosses.
"I was at a loss with the subject luminance values, and I confess I was thinking about bracketing several exposures, when I suddenly realized that I knew the luminance of the moon – 250 c/ft2. Using the Exposure Formula, I placed this luminance on Zone VII; 60 c/ft2 therefore fell on Zone V, and the exposure with the filter factor o 3x was about 1 second at f/32 with ASA 64 film. I had no idea what the value of the foreground was, but I hoped it barely fell within the exposure scale. Not wanting to take chances, I indicated a water-bath development for the negative."
Great post!
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