study of digital artist two
Ansel Adams

Introduction

I have chosen to study the photographer Ansel Adams.
I have chosen them because I really like how he captures natural beauty of huge landscapes and nature.

Analysing 1 of their pieces of work:

The subject matter of the work to the right depicts a sheer cliff with a forest underneath it, when the viewer immediately sees the photo they will be drawn to the moon that is off to the left. The moon is so prominent due to the fact that the photo was taken in black and white so all objects are intensely contrasting, which is what makes it so interesting.
Any other information about the work that is important?
Ansel has paid particular attention to Compositional Rules in this work, as they have intentionally used Rule of Thirds, diagonal lines, tone and colour (contrast in the photo), a small use of negative space you and you could argue for the use of repetition.
Ansel has also used the Formal Elements of shape and form, negative space, texture and tone.
The effect of these visual devices are that the contrasting colours ( just black and white ) are accenting each other. The edges of the cliffs are the leading lines that kind of guide the photo and shape it. The texture of the cliff face also is very sharp and visible allowing you to see all the little details on it.

Mood:

I think the work feels remote and isolated. The artist has created this mood by photographing the bleakness of some naturally occurring amazing topography.
The colours used in the work are completely restricted to black and white which are very Low Key, because he only uses black and white photography the moon is very noticeable because of its, almost protruding, white. The effect of this is the viewer isn't distracted by the colour and is only attentative to the scenery and the actual objects of the photo.

Technical analysis:

I think that this work was probably taken using a camera, a really big tripod, natural lighting and natural landscapes. The effect of this is that it feels almost real and clear.
The artist has used natural lighting from the time of day that it was taken, because it is in black and white the shadows are very obvious and it could be possible that the sun was coming somewhere from the left of the photo. The lighting is very hard which makes the contrasting so harsh.
I know for a fact that it is not edited at all, these photos were probably taken in from when he got his first camera (1916) to when he died (1984) and there were no such soft wares to edit photos with until 1987.

In this work the camera has been focused on everything, everything is in focus.
The artist has used a big aperture to create a long Depth of Field. I can tell this because everything is in focus and in the top photo you can see mountains in focus even though they are really far back.
This causes the viewer to notice all of the photo and not some parts.
I can tell that Adams has also used a fast Shutter Speed because the entire photo is in focus and clear with no blurs. I think he did this to capture the entire landscape.
It would have been best for them to use a small ISO like 300] to take this work because it contrasts between the lighter and darker parts creating a really nice effect on the different areas.

Intent:

From looking at it, I think the work is about…
Researching Adam’s work, I have found that he made this work because he was in a photography group called f.64 who photographed sharply detailed and pure photography. So capturing natural landscapes and taking it as it is was his aim
I think his work is about how places can be untouched by humanity and need to remain so.

Relate to your own work:

I will try to imitate him by using black and white photography, taking photos of landscapes such as mountains, forests and potentially deserts.

I will try and keep the photos as unedited and natural as they were when i took them.

Katya Ward