Film Assignment
Part One
- I chose Ansel Adams as my “mentor” photographer because I love his style of high contrast black and white landscape photography. Ansel Adams was also known for his use (and co-creation) of the “Zone System”, which allowed for his photographs to have true blacks and true whites without editing (although he wasn’t able to edit photos much, since there was no photo shop).
-
3. Photo 1 – “Jeffrey Pine”, 1940
This image, like most Ansel Adams photos, has high contrast, which adds dimension and interest to the image. It also has good leading lines/directional viewing with the way the trees branches bend and point to the right.
Photo 2 – “Moon and Half Dome”, 1960
Like most Ansel Adams photos, this image also has high contrast, which adds dimension and showcases the texture of the mountain.
Photo 3 – “Rose and Driftwood”, 1932
This image has high contrast, which helps in making the rose look three-dimensional, as well as bringing out the texture of both the rose petals and the wooden background. It is an image where centering the subject actually works, since the subject is so detailed.
Part Two
- I plan on shooting my photos by using the Zone System. I will bump up exposure for pure whites, decrease it for pure blacks and keep the exposure set to zero for mid-tones. This way, I will have photos with high contrast, just as Ansel Adams did. I am also going to photograph nature, mainly landscapes, which was Ansel Adams usual subject. Often, Ansel Adams has a lot of visible texture in his photos, so I want to choose subjects that I can show the texture of.
