5 Responses to “Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters”

1. Brian Connors Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 1:00 am

   There are times I pick out a book not because I understand it, but because I want to evaluate it as a student of the subject. Not being a photographer of any particular skill, and knowing just enough about Ansel Adams to know that his Zone System is a pretty important part of a photographer’s education, I figured I’d grab this one.

   Well, it’s certainly a stunningly beautiful book. Frye is a top-notch landscape photographer, and the bulk of both his and the other artists in the book’s pictures are taken in California, particularly in the Yosemite. The Zone System gets a brief rundown (the zones are essentially approximate light/darkness values, numbered 1 to 11), and is applied to the best of the author’s ability to the new digital world. But there is also extensive attention paid to post-production (the “digital darkroom”, as the book puts it), including information on retouching, tweaking colors, and data handling.

   Here’s where we get to a bit of a problem though. It’s hard to really control your shooting with a point-and-shoot camera, but that’s what your average beginner is probably going to start off with. In that situation, post-production becomes much more important, since it’s only in the $80-$150 range that the digital point-and-shooter is going to start to get much of any control at all over the process, and lower than that (children’s cameras, keychain cameras, and the like) you may as well be heading into Lomography territory, where the rules are completely different and the found object trumps all other artistic considerations. For a photographer who doesn’t have a lightmeter or the fine-grained control of a digital SLR, this book won’t be useless, but it will definitely be limited largely to post-processing the image in Photoshop, Aperture, and similar programs. As I mentioned years ago in my review of the first edition of Michael Rubin’s Little Digital Video Book, this is a risky thing to do because it short-shrifts artists working on a shoestring, and I consider it a serious flaw. But there’s still a lot to be learned from it.
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. S. Dondero Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 2:31 am

   In the past year, I have poured through countless books on digital photography and post processing. Of all that I have read thus far, this is the one that I would most strongly recommend or consider gifting to friends who share the same passion. The photography itself is beautiful, and the blend of bringing in the Ansels of the past with today’s modern possibilities was exceptionally well done. As relates to post, I found this to be one of the best tutorials available on the feared-yet-powerful adjustment of Curves. I finished the book inspired, yet dissapointed that it had come to an end. My hope is that there are other similar books by the same author!
   Rating: 5 / 5

3. Benjamin Devey Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 5:14 am

   The look of Digital Landscape Photography is pleasing: inspiring photography in a graphic format that breathes with space and highlights the utility of the book. It’s useful to hobbyists or professionals for tips on photographic principles on composition, exposure, motion, field-depth, and artistry. But it also goes in depth and detail on in-camera techniques and digital after-effects to make the most of the new digital medium, such as filters, color curves, and histograms. If it sounds complex, the author makes it understandable — something you can master as you familiarize yourself with your tools. It’s straightforward to read, and there’s a wealth of information you can use to enhance your photos as artisic works.
   Rating: 5 / 5

4. D. C. Eaton Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 5:26 am

   This book appears to be targeted at advanced amateur photographers. [Whether I qualify as such I don't know, but I have been a photographer for years and currently use a Sony 350 SLR and a Olympus 5050 Zoom compact.] I think that the average professional is already familiar with the majority of the information in this book, and that a complete novice would be over whelmed. This book is not exactly a course in photography, but is a beautifully illustrated book on the effects of various photo techniques.

   I gave this book 5 stars since I really liked it, but there were some things that irritated me. The info on the back cover says, “This book will show you what can be learned from [Ansel] Adams’ working processes and how these lessons can be applied today.” There is, I think, an implication that most of the photos illustrating these lesions will be by “Ansel Adams and the Great Masters” (as the title suggests). I certainly assumed so, but, in fact, only three images are by Adams, one by Edward Weston and one by Eliot Porter. The rest are by the author, Michael Frye. I loved his photos, it was just that I was expecting Ansel Adams. Perhaps this is nitpicking?

   The book is beautifully illustrated and the quality of reproduction is generally suitable. One exception is “banding in the sky” which the illustration (page 113) does not reproduce. The author has selected the illustrations to show the effects of various techniques, often with before and after images. One interesting technique he emphasizes, but which unfortunately gets only 4 pages of discussion, is the zone system used by Ansel Adams. I found the zone discussion especially interesting because I did not understand it previously. On the other hand, sometimes the discussion is trivial, such as the effects of aperture size on depth of field (which everyone except a novice should fully understand). There is also a great deal of information on techniques that can be achieved in the digital darkroom using software such as Photoshop. The author demonstrates how these techniques (such as combining photos to increase contrast) can be used to produce outstanding results. I am a bit of a purist and the digital darkroom sometimes seems like cheating (e.g. on page 12 the author turns a cloudy day sunny). So whether I will use any of these I don’t know, but it was interesting.

   Overall, a very good book and I plan to refer back to it in the future.
   Rating: 5 / 5

5. Sacramento Book Review Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 7:07 am

   Near perfection for experienced photographers, but still pleasant enough for newbies and lookie-loos! //Digital Landscape Photography// uses the works of Ansel Adams along with the author’s pieces to teach the specifics of landscape photography with a digital camera. The book deeply demonstrates techniques such as light, composition, and darkroom processes, often using a series of the same photo from start to finish. This is not a coffee table book– the processes and techniques are specific and professional, although the photos are also breathtaking and a pleasure to the untrained eye. If you ask for a little bit more out of a photography book (such as “How did they do that?”), then this book is for you!

   Reviewed by Allena Tapia
   Rating: 4 / 5