Ansels Comments Made me Think

[Robert Watcher]

I ended up watching some Ansel Adams documentaries on Youtube yesterday, and even though I have never been one who really follows his work and I have never taken the time to really get to know about him - - - I found his image creation methodology fascinating and simplistic in nature - in many ways much like I have worked over my 30 plus years as a visual person using photographer to express the way that I see things.

As with him, I come across found subject matter as I walk around doing my daily business or even when out searching for things to photograph. I revel in capturing that fleeting moment that will not be there a few moments or even minutes from when I take the shot. Not much is a deliberate drawn out process as to what I end up photographing.

For me the most important area where our minds mesh, is that I have always viewed the captured image as something that is just kind of a representation of a scene - as he describes it, like the 80 keys of a piano - - - and then that technically sound image, can be interpreted in many different ways through the method of processing the image, so that a photographer can come to a final image that is identified uniquely to its creator, in the same way that Beethoven or Bach manipulate the keys on the piano to achieve their unique experience. As he states, if many photographers created prints from his negatives, each print would be different. He even had in his home, one of his own well known images that he had printed a 3 different times in his life - - - each print different and reflecting his feelings at that time in his life.

Of course a good technical image has to be in the digital file or film frame to begin with - but that is where every competent photographer can produce basically the same photographic capture. Mind you it is true that there is an art in the photographer composing the image so that there is visually useful content and also the ability to anticipate and capture changing elements comes into play - - - the art of seeing. However, for me the photograph has always been indelibly reliant on the time and steps involved with processing the film and print - - - just as it was with Ansel. That becomes the difference between "great shot" and a show stopper that makes people stop in their tracks - whether they like the image or not.


So I looked up this old forum post that I made in 2004. Not necessarily to discuss whether this is a great image or not - - - but more about the value that I have always placed on processing - whether that was in my wet darkroom in my film days - my hybrid days of shooting film and processing digitally - or more recently with digital capture and digital processing. In the case of this image that I used as a basis for a popular thread called "Platinum Print Emulation Instructions", I went through the steps of how at that time I was achieving a look that made me feel very satisfied with my work, and one that my paying clients happened to appreciate as well. The original - taken in decent light - would have been fine for the client, and they wouldn't know any different if they never saw any other version - - - but the final image is an artistic expression of mine that could then become even more identified with me.

I feel that there is even more relevance to Ansels way of labouring over the printing process - today - than even in the past. Everyone now has great technical cameras and tend to follow the pack in getting perfectly exposed and noise free files - applying whatever popular effect is the action of the day - whether that be plastic looking faces, green faded out portraits with lens flare, the list goes on. To move beyond that, a skill still valued by me though - is the ability to use the tools at my disposal to process my images to be unique to me as a creative photographer, and most of the times that means each image even being processed not exactly the same as the last.

The first image from that 2004 forum thread, is my finished work after composing, shooting and processing - - - and the second is a simply a nice wedding picture after composing and shooting. The original was taken with Ilford XP2 film and scanned to process digitally.

Rob

[Robert Watcher]

Some of the steps involved were these:

Cropping the image to my taste and bring the contrast into balance with "levels" adjustment


Balancing the exposure of the print so that the men out in the open would be about the same brightness as the men under the overhang


Adding drama to the image by burning in the edges and grass


This was a day time shot and the lights of the train station were not on - so I turned them on

Rob

[Robert Watcher]

I added mood by creating a Blur layer in Multiply mode


Lighten and Adjust Contrast to taste


Adding color to the Shadows and Midtones

Back in 2004 I used Corel Draw for my procesing and my level of abilites has changed drastically since that time. I would handle the processing of the file much differently now. But the point is that processing and manipulation on the final image, has always been an essential part of my creative process. It is encouraging when I find old masters who felt the same way and put the same effort into that part of their photography.


Rob

[Robert Watcher]

So I'm already in a nostalgic mood - - - and after posting this I realize that 2004 was the last year that I shot film and went to digital capture. 2004 was one of my heaviest booked years and heading into the winter months I decided that it was time to move into digital with the newly released Nikon D70s. I was getting sick of all of the time and effort to scan each of my hundreds fo images from each job, in my 4000dpi film scanner. I purchased 3 digital bodies and several useful lenses to match. I remember being able to easily justify the investment with almost $700 per wedding that I was saving in film and processing lab fees.

BTW - for any who wish to view the Ansel Adams videos - - - here they are:

1 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzYdRUGzTE
2 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgK7rg04KCQ
3 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjXeZUbjjfI


Rob

[Mark Hampton]

Originally Posted by Robert Watcher

So I'm already in a nostalgic mood - - - and after posting this I realize that 2004 was the last year that I shot film and went to digital capture. 2004 was one of my heaviest booked years and heading into the winter months I decided that it was time to move into digital with the newly released Nikon D70s. I was getting sick of all of the time and effort to scan each of my hundreds fo images from each job, in my 4000dpi film scanner. I purchased 3 digital bodies and several useful lenses to match. I remember being able to easily justify the investment with almost $700 per wedding that I was saving in film and processing lab fees.

BTW - for any who wish to view the Ansel Adams videos - - - here they are:

1 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzYdRUGzTE
2 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgK7rg04KCQ
3 of 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjXeZUbjjfI


Rob

Rob,

nice approach to what most people would have thought of a bread and butter work. how would you treat the image now?

cheers

[Robert Watcher]

Originally Posted by Mark Hampton

Rob,

nice approach to what most people would have thought of a bread and butter work. how would you treat the image now?

cheers

The end result may not look much different - - - just that I now shooting images with digital capture and there is no need to scan ane clean up the scans. I am using Photoshop and make use of Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks and painting the different mareas of the mask instead of using the selections tools. So it's more that the way that i would go about getting my results now, would be quite different. I use a different gear, programs and methods - and my knowledge and abilites in all of those areas, has improved drastically in 8 years.


Rob

[Mark Hampton]

Originally Posted by Robert Watcher

The end result may not look much different - - - just that I now shooting images with digital capture and there is no need to scan ane clean up the scans. I am using Photoshop and make use of Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks and painting the different mareas of the mask instead of using the selections tools. So it's more that the way that i would go about getting my results now, would be quite different. I use a different gear, programs and methods - and my knowledge and abilites in all of those areas, has improved drastically in 8 years.


Rob

Rob,

I still cant understand why the guy is crouching down? I cant think of a reason.

I always wondered how to make people pose - do you have an idea of what you want before hand or work on the fly?

cheers

[Robert Watcher]

Originally Posted by Mark Hampton

Rob,

I still cant understand why the guy is crouching down? I cant think of a reason.

I always wondered how to make people pose - do you have an idea of what you want before hand or work on the fly?

cheers

To make the image compositionally strong - and to help isolate and identify the groom.

Some of posing is a concept beforehand and much of it is done of the fly based on what I know works for me based on my experience. With each job I discard a ton of images that are great - but don't fit in to the needs of my edited finals. They aren't lost concepts though as I keep track of them and will often reuse what works from them, on another job.



Rob