In2SciFi

Been thinking about and reading widely on how people think about the Zone System and what Ansel Adams has to say and I was wondering ‘Why bother with Ansel Adams at all?’ The answer for me is very simple, it’s about craft.

As defined at Answers.com, it’s ‘Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.’ For me, that’s what Ansel Adams is about, not all the specifics that I see books written about. As I thought about it, it seems to me that this is overlooked by nearly everyone talking about Adams photography.

What Adams wrote about was taking the time to master photography as a craft As he says in the Foreward to Camera & Lens, ‘ … emphasis on technique is justified only insofar as it will simplify and clarify the statement of the photographer’s concept.’ But you must have a ‘ … fundamental understanding of both technique and mechanics … ‘ to turn out top quality work reliably.

People focus on the Zone System as defining what Adams had to say, but if he were still alive, he’d have modified the Zone System to suit the technology available today. His books talk about the mechanics of using Dektol, testing printing papers, and so on, but those are minor matters. The thing to learn from Adams books is what motivated him to focus on these chemical techniques and how that applies to the digital world.

As I see it, Adams focuses on 3 areas:

1. CAPTURE - exposing the image to provide the raw material for the print as visualized
2. POST CAPTURE PROCESSING - working with the exposure to prepare it for the final print
3. PRINTING - realizing the visualized print on real materials

In the digital age, more of this is concentrated in Post Capture Processing, but it doesn’t for one moment invalidate the idea of treating photography as a craft. Adams focused on landscapes which are generally not grab-shots. They’re best done with consideration and with time enough to capture the image right. However, even action shots such as sports or children playing can be treated from the craft viewpoint. If we treat photography as a craft, then we must:

• Become as proficient as we can at capturing the image with the highest quality possible
• Become so comfortable with our equipment that we can operate it without looking in the dark if need be
• Become proficient with Photoshop or whatever photo editing software we choose to use, so proficient that we can reliably create whatever we visualize
• Learn how to match camera, scanner, software, and printer to make the results reliable and predictable

Treating photography as a craft means a commitment to producing the best image every time. This is a journey with no end. At every step along the way we’ll be better than before, but we’ll never be perfect.

Adams concern was to create a print that communicated his view and his feelings about what was in front of him. All of this is 100% applicable to the digital age.

Mother’s Day

My goal with this photo was to produce a photo for my wife’s computer desktop. However, the background was busy so much of the post-capture processing was devoted to selecting the arrangement and eliminating the background, then sizing it so it would look good on her desktop. It was shot with a Kodak Z730 and processed in Photoshop with only slight enhancement to enhance the colors.

I love reading Ansel Adams. Even today, his books are loaded with useful, practical insights that we need to be focusing on as we take pictures and process them. For example, in the forward he points out that “ … the ultimate objective in photography is the picture … “.

If the ‘ultimate objective’ is the print, then the ultimate starting point is in your mind. You may have taken an hour to set up the picture or only a millisecond, but however much time you took, there was an idea in your mind, some reason WHY you pressed the shutter. Even BEFORE previsualization, there is an idea, a something, a reason, or something that starts the process. Something that catches your eye that causes you to take the picture. I think this is true even for snapshots. Even Adams took snapshots though his most casual shots beat most anything I see others trying to do! Pressing the shutter release is not a reflex action, it’s not preprogrammed or automatic in any way. You press the shutter because for some reason, you want to capture something that you see.

At the other end of the process, that ‘Ultimate Objective’ still exists even in the digital age. It could be on a web page or in a presentation slide or in an electronic picture frame, but whatever form it takes it is still ‘The Print’. Between pressing the shutter and displaying the picture, you’d like to be sure that you not only captured what you wanted so that other people can see it, but you’d like the picture to present what you felt when you decided to press the shutter.

Too many pictures don’t achieve either objective because most people think the process is complete when the picture is taken. What I believe Ansel Adams is about, at least what he’s about for me, is learning to achieve both objectives using those tools available as well as you can.

Adams said “A certain simplicity of approach is essential.” In essence, it’s better to have fewer tools that you are thoroughly comfortable with than the latest, greatest available in the photographic arsenal. We have an absolutely wonderful selection of tools available today, not only cameras with capabilities that were considered impossible only 20 years ago, but software and photographic printers capable of results considered impossible only a few years ago.

Despite the wealth of technology, simplicity beats technology every time. The best technology can’t make up for a poorly conceived or exposed image.

Stevens Pass Snowscape

My Stevens Pass Snowscape was taken with what is basically a point-and-shoot camera (Kodak Z730) and processed in GIMP. No special processing was applied beyond the black & white conversion filter. In other words, I tried to make it as simple as I could because it was part of a series of Black&White conversion experiments I was doing using GIMP, Photoshop, and Paint Shop Pro on Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms.

As the new year is fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about projects to take on. One that appealed to me is ‘Project 365′ which many people are doing … taking a picture every day and posting it. Interesting idea. My problem is that rarely a day goes by already that I’m not taking pictures. But then I came up with an idea that appeals to me even more. Updating Ansel Adams to the digital age.

Before I start, I want to make it clear that I’m not an expert and I don’t claim to be in anything like an Ansel Adams category of photographers. I’ve had training and experience, I attended Community College Classes in creative photography, I did a correspondence course at one time, and I’ve done semi-professional, freelance photography. I’ve done portraits, little theatre, product and advertising photography, and quite a bit more. My father got me interested many years ago and I got personal attention from an art teacher who taught me the creative side to photography. In short, I’ve learned a lot over time, but I don’t hold a candle to the people who do it every day for real. This is a learning experience for me and I hope other people will join in to make it bigger and better.

For my project, I plan to go through Adams’ Basic Photography Series and his Polaroid Land Photography book to try to understand what he’s written in digital terms. I’m working from my older copies of his books

Updated versions of the 1st three books are available from Amazon. I’ve never read the updated copies, so I don’t know how much has changed. I’m pretty sure they predate the digital photography revolution. According to the listing on Amazon, they were published in 1995.

The other three books I plan to go through don’t appear to have been updated, but I don’t really know.

Much of what I’ve seen written about Ansel Adams and the Zone System suggests that it’s only useful as an exposure evaluation system, and even there not as good as more modern approaches. My plan though is to look deeper and see if I can drag something more out of this material. This is a personal exploration of the guidance from one of my heroes. Expect it to be random. The structure will be provided by the books.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ansel Adams in the late 1960’s when I was a student in Monterey California. I used to attend exhibitions at the Friends of Photography center in Carmel and remember meeting him at an exhibit of his photographs. At the time, I also remember that I didn’t really appreciate who I was meeting. In later years, I’ve considered this a lost opportunity. As I got interested in larger formats (4X5 on an old Speed Graphic and finally a View Camera), I came to appreciate Adams more and more and see the opportunity I had missed. I’ve applied the Zone System both formally and informally since that time and found it exceptionally useful. I’d like to do better and that’s what this project is all about.

This isn’t going to be an every day affair online. I plan to report on my progress regularly, but I’ve got a lot of material to go through. I’m hoping to get feedback and help online, that’s why I’m using the blog format. I also plan to include some of my own photos here, some I’ve taken new and some I’ve done just for a specific blog entry. This photo was taken during a trip to Mt St Helens with a small point-and-shoot digital camera (Kodak Z730) and processed in Photoshop and Lightroom.