Landscapes (pg. 202-217)

Landmarks in Landscape Photography

· Carletion E. Watkins (1829-1916)

o Wanted to capture the grandeur of the American West

o Learned photography in 1854

o Open his own gallery in 1858 in San Francisco

· Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

o Best known for his Black and Whites

o Primarily shot Yosemite National Park

o Born in San Francisco

o First camera was a Kodak Brownie

· Timothy O’Sullivan (1840-1882)

o Most well known for documenting the Civil War

o Provided the first photographs of the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Colorado River

o Responsible for the “New Topographics” movement

§ A documentary approach to landscapes

§ Shunned the romanticism of Adams

§ Popular in the 60s and 70s

Photographing the Landscape

Thinking Artistically

· Composition is one of the most important aspects of landscape photography

· Viewpoint is most important of composition

· Pay attention to where you position the camera

· Explore all the variations when you set up a shot

· Go as high as you can then as low as you can

· Move the camera to the right and left

· Move closer and farther back

· Achieve a balance between unity and verity

Camera Settings

· Stop down a lens-f/16, f/22, f/32

· f/64 is usually the smallest f-stop

Light

· professional photographers do most of their work just after sunrise or just before sunset

o light is wonderful at these times

o angle of sun is low so shapes and textures are emphasized by side lighting

Film

· recorded as much information as possible

· use 100 ISO flim with 35mm

Lenses

· Wide-angle lenses

· Really close and distant objects in same shot

Filters

· Yellow brings out the clouds

· Red filter adds contrast

Camera Support

· Tripod

The Grand Landscape

· Big view for pictures of the outdoors

o National, stare, or city parks are great locations to explore landscape photography

Landscape Details and Close-ups

· Sunny days can be bad for the landscape photography

· Light meters are designed to create an exposure that makes medium or middle gray out of the scene being metered

Abstracted Elements in the Landscape

· Abstracted element

o Images composted of lines, shapes, values, and textures