1. Unit 57: Photography and
Photographic Practice
Research of other
photographers work
2. Photographer:
Ansel Adams was born and raised in San
Francisco. He took his first photograph in 1916,
and after training to become a concert pianist, he
changed directions and became a photographer.
Adams is mainly famous for his spectacular
images of American West and is also known for
his technical skill, pioneering the zone system
method of exposure and development control. He
authored numerous books and published several
portfolios of his images. He also wrote a series of
very influential technical books on photography.
In addition, Adams was highly regarded as a
teacher, lecturer, and conservationist. In 1980, he
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
the country's highest civilian honor.
4. Image Description
Yosemite National Park is one of the United
States' most breath-taking parks, showcasing
California's most magnificent natural wonders.
Dozens of dramatic waterfalls, serene meadows,
and lengthy hiking trails make almost every
corner of this nearly 1,200-square mile park a
truly unforgettable destination to California
visitors and residents alike. Merging exquisite
natural attractions with accommodations and
activities for the whole family, Yosemite National
Park is a unique oasis that gives the park's more
than 3.5 million visitors per year a chance to get
an intimate and personal glimpse California's rich
historical and natural tradition.
5. Composition
Ansel Adams was very knowledgeable about photography and co-
created with , Fred Archer, the zone system. This is a system for
photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities
on negatives and paper, which gives more control over the finished
photograph. He also pioneered the idea of visualization which is
trying to determine how the finished photograph will look before it is
exposed. Ansel's received many awards for his work including three
Guggenheim fellowships, election as a fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
awarded by Jimmy Carter in 1980, and 2007 he was posthumously
inducted to the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts
by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
6. Techniques used
Ansel Adams was an early proponent of "Straight Photography" as championed by Paul Strand. This meant that instead of
soft focus or hand treatments, the photographs were clear, sharply focused, and an attempt to show what the artist saw at
the actual scene. To do this, Adams used the typical photographic equipment of his day: view cameras with large-format
negatives at 4x5 inches, 5x7 inches, 8x10 inches or even 11x14 images. Even though photographic equipment evolved to be
smaller, lighter and easier to use with the 35mm cameras beginning in the late 1930s, Adams stayed mostly with large-
format view cameras throughout his life.
One reason for this is that with view cameras, the relationship between the plane of the lens and the plane of the film can be
adjusted, giving the photographer some control over near- and far-ground focus. Also, composition is somewhat easier since
the ground glass is large. And of course one huge advantage of the larger formats is super detail with very little grain - very
important considering the film emulsions of the day.
Adams was part of a group called "F64" including Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, where they believed in
everything in the image being in focus. They achieved this by using small apertures (thus the name) thus providing a lot of
depth of field in focus.
Additionally, Adams began experimenting with filters in the 1920s to render different parts of the scene more closely to how
he visualized them. For instance, he pioneered the use of a red filter to darken blue skies in his photos, giving contrast
between the sky and the clouds, for instance. Along with this, he adopted the technique for exposure, development, and
printing known as the "Zone System" which is a way of carefully controlling tonal values to achieve the widest range of light
and dark in his prints, despite the very limited range available in printing paper. Although he did not invent this system, he
has been associated with it for many decades, and he has written books on the subject (his three-part set on photography)
that have become the bible for many generations of photographers.
Finally, he was very patient and deliberate in his selection of subjects and the timing with which he used to take the pictures.
I have heard it said that "he did not photograph landscapes as much as he photographed the weather." (paraphrased). His
"C learning Storm, Yosemite Valley" photo, for instance, would not be nearly as dramatic without the clearing fog with the
snow on the ground.
7. Strengths & Weaknesses
The photograph to the
right is one of my favorites
the main reasons for this
are the idea of reflection
and keeping the colour
consistent. Also, keeping it
basic but making it look so
advanced.
8. Photographer:
Yousuf Karsh has taken
photographs that tell a story, and
that are more easily understood
than many others. Each of his
portraits tells you all about the
subject. He felt as though there was
a secret hidden behind each
woman and man. Whether he
captures a gleaming eye or a
gesture done totally unconsciously,
these are times when humans
temporarily lose their masks.
Karsh’s portraits communicate with
people.
10. Image Description
• Pablo Picasso, 1954
The maestro's villa was a photographer's
nightmare, with his boisterous children
bicycling through vast rooms already
crowded with canvases. I eagerly accepted
Picasso's alternate suggestion to meet later
in Vallauris at his ceramic gallery. "He will
never be here," the gallery owner
commented, when my assistant and two
hundred pounds of equipment arrived. "He
says the same thing to every photographer."
To everyone's amazement, the "old lion" not
only kept his photographic appointment with
me but was prompt and wore a new shirt.
He could partially view himself in my large
format lens and intuitively moved to
complete the composition."
11. Composition
Anyone who stood in front of Yousuf Karsh’s camera knew that they were going to be
immortalised. All of them freely posed for him, because people knew that a master was
photographing them. Karsh photographed thousands of distinguished men and women from
varied fields, during a career that spanned more than six decades. The portraits he made are
admired for their styling and their place in history; he described the sum of all his portraits as a
panorama of the ‘great world theatre of the twentieth century’.
“The past has no claims on greatness, for arresting personalities are always among us. I know
only that my quest continues.
After his family escaped to Syria to avoid persecution during the Armenian genocide, Karsh was
sent to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer based in Canada. He let go of his
original desire to be a physician because of financial constraints. Instead, he roamed the fields
and woods with a small camera gifted to him by his uncle. Seeing his potential, Nakash sent
Karsh to John H Garo, a portraitist based in Boston. It was here that Karsh’s photographic career
really took shape. He learnt different techniques and processes present at the time, and he was
also exposed to the concept of great lighting, design and composition. Garo’s studio provided
Karsh an opportunity to mingle with international artists and political celebrities. He then decided
to photograph the influential people of that era. He returned to Canada four years later in 1932,
and established a studio in Ottawa. Here, he was introduced to the use of incandescent lighting
through his interaction with the Ottawa Little Theatre. It became a defining influence on his style,
as he saw that with this lighting moods could be created, selected, modified, and intensified.
12. Techniques used
Karsh like many of the other portrait photographers of his generation often used point source lights and
large format cameras to capture their portraits. Karsh often keyed his subject from at or behind stage
line leaving large amount of his subject in shadow. This technique required and exact amount of fill light
meticulously placed in order to provide detail throughout the shadow area while maintaining the drama
the key light had established. Karsh also routinely used understated background and hair lights also
known as accent lights in order to create depth and separation. The accent and background lights were
always subordinate to the key or main light and provided separation but did not compete for the viewers
attention. As in black on black many of Karsh's portraits were low key. That is, much of the information
in his images would occupy the left side of the histogram. None of his photographs lacked detail. This
was truly a delicate balancing act between lights.
Critical in this balancing act between lights was a strict adherence to the rules of fill placement. Much of
Karsh's subject were in the shadow created by the key light. The fill light was very critical in his set ups
or much of the subject's features would be lost to this shadow. The fill light, being a point source, left a
sharp cast shadow. In order to minimize the shadow it had to be placed in the shadow of the key light.
Therefore it was imperative for the fill light to remain above the lens and to closely approach but never
cross the axis of the picture. Similarly, the background light had to be placed so the brightest spot was
actually behind the subject and out of view of the camera. This would allow the light to feather away
from the subject allowing the camera to see only the most outer part of the glow. This would provide
separation from the background and would assure the highest point of contrast was not on the
background but on the subject where it belonged. Karsh was able to create low key seemingly soft
portraits with very bright, hard lights. Once again proving it is not what light one uses but how one uses
it them that matters.
13. Strengths & Weaknesses
Yousuf Karsh’s work
aspires many people
around the world and
the main outlook for
me is the fact he
created his own
camera technique
named ‘Karsh light’.
14. Photographer:
Robert Capa has taken many famous war-time photographs. He has covered
five wars, even though the name “Robert Capa” was only the name placed to
the photos that Endre Friedman took and that were marketed under the “Robert
Capa” name. Friedman felt that if you were not close enough to the subject,
then you wouldn’t get a good photograph. He was often in the trenches with
soldiers when he took photographs, while most other war photographers took
photographs from a safe distance.
16. Image Description
In early September 1936, with the Spanish Civil War less
than two months old, a 22 year-old Robert Capa took a
photograph that was to become a symbol of the
Republican struggle against General Franco's fascist
insurgents. The story of the iconic image that both made
and, years later, challenged Capa's reputation as a war
photographer, is just one strand of his life explored in a
timely new show at the Barbican in London.
The Spanish Civil War broke out on July 19 1936 and in
early August, Robert Capa and his photographer
companion (and lover) Gerda Taro arrived in Spain to
cover the events. In September, Capa and Taroíarrived in
the village of Cerro Muriano near Círdoba where
Republican militiamen were mouting an offensive against
the fascists. Here the pair produced a series of images
showing a small band of militiamen posing on a hillside,
holding their rifles up defiantly and running across ridges
and gulleys.
As Capa was watching one of the soldiers (later identified
as Federico Borrell García) a stray bullet struck and killed
the militiaman right in front of his camera. Two weeks
later, Capa's striking image, alongside another shot taken
on the same hillside, appeared in the French magazine,
Vu, in an emotive photo-essay that aimed to bring the
Republican's struggle to a wider audience.
17. Composition
The biography of Robert Capa is as captivating as his portfolio. After a short
encounter with a communist leader in Hungary got him imprisoned, his new life on
the road would be anything but ordinary. Fortunately for Capa, his mother was a
seamstress for the head of police’s wife in Budapest. When she learned about her
eldest son being arrested for “communist associations” she was able to negotiate his
release. This would be the first of many sticky situations that Capa danced through
during his life. The terms of his release were that he had to leave Hungary and never
return.
Understandably upset Capa went to Germany to complete his education until Hitler’s
role forced him to move on. Finally settling in Paris, Capa met the love of his live
Gerda Taro, who was working as a photo assistant. The combination of her creative
marketing and Capa’s photographs soon solidified his role as a serious
photographer. The two of them created the identity of Robert Capa. Its had a good
ring to it and Taro spread his images all over town, talking up his genius to the
photography editors. Even after they were confronted for fraud, it was too late. The
not so famous Endre Friedmann had successfully established himself as a prominent
photographer of the Spanish Civil War. This is one of my favorite stories of positive
thinking. He wanted to be a photographer, so he declared himself one.
18. Techniques used
Simple Diagonals: Capa worked in both 35mm and square medium formats. Unlike Cartier-Bresson,
who was educated formally in art, Capa’s work is less complex. The basic design of 90% of Capa’s
images were conceived on a single diagonal. While some of the pictures fit into the 1.5 and Root 4
grids, they were not a part of Capa’s working language. But as we will see, sometimes a successful
picture works simply because no one else was there to take the shot. If only one line is used in a
composition, we will see how Capa organized off of the diagonal to move our eyes through the scene.
Figure To Ground Relationship: What is this you ask? Figure to ground relationship is the term used to
talk about how your subject relates in value of the scene or ground. Its like making a black dot on a
white background or a white dot on a black background. This is a primary design tool used throughout
human history. If you would like an example think of the design of a Greek vase. The terra-cotta figures
on a vase are light in value against a black glazed background. If we want our pictures to have carrying
power they need to be clear. Artists put a light figure on a dark ground or a dark figure on a light
ground. Highest Contrast in the Subject: Working in film, without the aid of Photoshop, Capa knew from
countless successes and mistakes, that the area of highest contrast needs to be in the subject. As
objects receded in the distance they become less contrasty. We want our subject to have the lightest
light and the darkest dark because that is what our eyes notice. Even though Capa’s compositions are
not complex, he knew to look for a well lit subject. Finding the Unbelievable: When John Morris of Life
Magazine first looked at the work of Robert Capa, he remembers not being too impressed. But thirty
years later and about one thousand arguments later with Capa, he realized the strength of Capa’s work
was the simple fact that Capa was there to take the picture that no one else took. We will see some
incredible scenes that have more in common with the Surrealist painters than our expectations of
reality. Many of the scenes Capa made during war time were too shocking to imagine. But when cities
collapsed and people made life from the ruins Capa was there with a bottle of wine for their wounds
and a camera for the us remember their hardships.
19. Strengths & Weaknesses
Robert Capa used a multi choice of techniques
this is what made him stand out more than other
photographers. For example Simple Diagonals,
Figure to ground relationship.
