Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Eliot Porter were amongst the greatest landscape photographers of the twentieth century. Unlike many of today's photographers, they used film. The book "In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters: Digital Landscape Photography" tries to translate their techniques into the language of modern digital photography.
The first part of the book, called "Technical Foundations" deals with the basic techniques of digital photography with emphasis on how those techniques might be applied to landscape photography. Experienced users may find little new here, although the explanation of the zone system may introduce people who have mastered the histogram to another method of calculating exposure. At the same time, the explanations of the fundamentals may prove much too pithy for beginners. Perhaps the section will most help those already familiar with the basics to understand how to apply these techniques like the masters.
The second part of the book, entitled "Light, Composition and the Art of Seeing" evokes the masters, mostly by quoting their words. The images presented are primarily those of Frye, but those familiar with the masters will recognize that much of his work is clearly derived from their style, except for being captured digitally and usually in color. Although this aspect of photography is the most amorphous to describe in writing, Frye does a good job, and his lovely pictures, taken mostly in Yosemite and other favorite locations of Adams, are well worth studying.
The final part deals with "The Digital Darkroom: Editing, Processing and Printing" and it is here that Frye shows how I imagine the masters would use modern image processing software and hardware rather than the chemical darkroom. Although quite extensive, it is certainly not a Photoshop primer. Instead those who already know how to use such software will see examples of how Frye uses it to emulate the style of the masters. Since most Photoshop manuals do not show many examples of actual applications, this can be quite useful.
My only complaint with the book is that I would have liked a few more photographs by the masters included, with some deeper analysis of the images to reveal the techniques they used to fulfill their vision. There is still plenty of room for the photographer to view and analyze their works in other books.
No photographers should expect (or fear) that after reading this book they will take pictures like the masters. Instead, they should expect that some of the techniques, if adopted, will be incorporated into their own style and add to the quality of their images. Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters
I've been a fan of Michael Frye's work for some time and was eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this book. When all was said and done I felt unfulfilled. He lightly touched on the masters and their techniques with only a few examples. I wish there head been more depth to the discussion. Same for the digital darkroom. Very high level suggestions. Finally, the book had a *lot* of typos, some grammatical errors and the zone/histogram diagram on page 43 was obviously wrong (which the author now mentions on his website). In short worth a read, but the book lacks depth and could have used a proof reader.
I have been a customer of Amazon since 1997. This book inspired me to write my first review. I took up photography, February, 2010. I wanted to learn how to take better landscape photos, to create the eyecatching photos that Ansel Adams and the other greats are known for. I have read a very complicated book about the Zone System and, although I understood the concept, putting it into practice was another matter. This book, however, made it so simple and easy to understand, from a digital standpoint, that I now use it quite often.
Before this book, I see something I like, I shoot it. Now, I stop and analyze the light. Why? Because the writer spoke of the fact that we are really photographing light and the way it is being reflected. So, now, even though a scene is pretty, if there is nothing special about the light, I don't bother shooting it. I am aware of the meaning of the word "photograph." This book has really help me to "see" differently.
Last, but not least, I like the organization of the book. It follows the natural workflow from picture-taking to processing and printing.
Well worth the purchase for the chapter on editing, processing and printing alone!
This is a relatively slim volume - 160 pages - given the breadth of the subject matter covered. If each of the chapters were given a full treatment this book would easily be 3 or 4 times the size. That's not the point though. What the author appears to be attempting, and achieves in my opinion, is to enhance the readers visual literacy and show how you can use the tools of the digital darkroom to mimic the approach the masters used in the traditional darkroom. How did the masters approach subjects and develop emotion in their photographs? This is illustrated through a combination of photographs from the masters and also from the authors own work - much better this way than pages and pages of text. The section on editing, processing and printing I thought was particularly good - I liked the dodging and burning examples and would happily have seen this section doubled. I'm sure that this book will be well thumbed in the weeks to come. - Nature Photography - Frye - Landscape Photography - Photography'
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