5:17 I think you got dodge and burn mixed up. When you dodge, it leaves the area brighter as you are stopping the light from hitting the paper. When you burn, it darkens the image as you allow more light to hit the paper. It's the opposite of a negative where more light = brighter image.
photos on film I was scratching my heard that, was I doing it all wrong for 30 years! Weston was another photographer, thats like saying Picasso was another painter. We shot B&W because thats all we had and every sheet of film was precious. All in all a nice effort.
Google Minus but how many people of his generation would even know who to google? I think he did a nice job of introducing Adams to people who might never hear of him otherwise.
That was exceedingly well put. When you started by saying “I got interested in him several weeks ago…” I literally rolled my eyes, but luckily, age has taught me humility so I kept watching, and I’m glad I did.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Loved it man.The trend photography and videography sometimes forget the rich concepts and masters of our arts, and going back to them always makes us "level up the game" (hate that expression, maybe "developing more our arts"?) and love it more. The majority of landscape photographers pratically have a base on the form of Adams and romantic painting like David Friedrich and his "Wanderer above the sea of fog", so they do, or try to do, take less photos, they observe and apreciate more before taking a photo, it's kind of a philosophy on how to apreciate, observe and truly see nature and express how our eyes, heart and mind had a emotional connection with the scene. A slow rythim and living a full experience and love for our home (Earth), our nature. In this liquid world, where everything is so fast, everything is always quickly changing, a slow pace maybe can be all we need to live well and be at peace, that's one of the lessons I get with Adams and other landscape photographers, but hey, I have always been a nature's lover and surfer since kid hahahah.
Great video! Those photos of the waterfalls actually feature an extremely low horizon with the tops of the mountains just below the top of the frame. Same basic concept though and you're correct he uses extreme horizons to enhance his style!
Thanks for making this video, Aidin. It is an entertaining and concise overview of Adams’ work and process. I discovered his images in 1979 on my first visit to Yosemite and have based my own professional photographic process on his teachings ever since. By chance, I was fortunate to visit his darkroom in Carmel - unfortunately, he wasn’t there at the time but it was an experience nevertheless. It’s great that you have shared this video with your younger audience. His books, ‘The Camera’, ‘The Negative’ and ‘The Print’ are still relevant today. In fact, I believe that Ansel Adams would have been a brilliant digital photographer and shown us how to get the most from a pixel ‘negative’.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
I really enjoyed your video and found a great deal of admiration for the amount of effort you put into it. You grasped and presented the concept of his work at a higher than average level. You didn't just skimm the surface, you really went pretty deep! I studied the Zone System a few years ago and was taught that Ansel Adams developed his system to a degree that was very scientific. He used spot meters to read a subject scene and took many notes that he would later use in the lab. He purchased large lots of film and paper because he knew that when doing so the materials had been made with the same batches of chemicals. He made sure his materials came from the same batches. When manufacturers produced film or paper they eventually had to use new chemicals because they were spent... but even though they used the same formulas with the same measured ingredients, the final product varied in sensitivity always giving different results in the lab. So when he set up his cameras and evaluated a scene, he took his readings and already knew what the print would look like in his mind! He really had a true visualization of the scene. Using his Zone System he would know at the time of making the exposure that he would either have to contract or expand the zones in the image (according to whether he got high contrast or low contrast readings). He used the information from the readings and used it to process the film, as well as when developing the paper. He used Spectrometers to learn about the density of the batches of film he had to ensure that he would accurately get the desired results... every single time!!! When printing his images he often wouldn't just use the tools you mentioned... he would use his hands and fingers to dodge or burn parts of his prints. He would twist and gnarl his fingers to apply what he wanted to them. I don't know if it would be worth it for you to do a little more investigation into the process of using the Zone System and maybe making a video about it? Thanks for bringing back some good memories and sharing some very awesome knowledge
As a film photographer (i know, I sound like an elitist douchebag) it just annoys me so much. I get that its for the aesthetic, but wouldnt a basic white borders look just as good? Maybe more minimalistic I guess. Other than that I thought this video was super interesting and i learned alot, so it doesnt really matter
Valerie Giacobbe haha they're definitely not accurate, just the template I already have set up from past vids. Gotta cut a few corners to get these out every week 😉
In a previous career as a commercial printer one of the jobs I has was printing the posters and books of Ansel Adams through Little Brown and Company, the publisher. There was a special high tack dense black and a grey (Ansel Adams Grey) that we used as well as other specialized materials to get the cleanest dot on a printing press. We were also using the highest dpi in the industry at the time for detail. First time through the press was the duotone pass. Let it dry then run it through again for a high gloss varnish. Let that dry. Then turn the sheet upside down and run it through the press one more time to "polish" the sheet - essential removing all of the spray powder used to keep the sheets from sticking together. Best job ever, but that was back in the late 80's. I found a picture of Ansel and Dave Gardner (Gardner Lithograph) on a press check in a drawer in the pressroom. Still got that today.
Fascinating. I recall reading about how deeply involved AA was in the printing of his work, (other than the darkroom work of course). I have a couple of the books and I have to say: you done good! 😂
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Yooo Aidin, I really enjoyed this format! I Definitely learned some important photography history and the way you present it is just perfect, it keeps the attention so well!💪🏼💪🏼
“It’s the negative stupid.” Km pretty sure he did not spend too much time dodging and but Ing because that’s his quote. His focus was on the perfect negative, from which he could make the perfect print. This was why he developed the zone system and what pre visualization was all about. Picking your shadow in the scene, exposing for it, picking your highlight with details, and developing for it, after calculating the number of stops between the two values you would determine how to develop (push, pull, normal) to “place the highlight where you had pre. Visualized it. Sorry, I’m old. I spent my high school years learning the zone system…
I'm assuming that, like most middle schoolers, you guys once had to at one point do a presentation on an important historical figure; did she do a presentation on Ansel Adams?
Love it man, great content! I especially needed to hear the part about visualization, spray and pray far too often. Heading out for a backpacking trip this weekend, so this video was perfect timing as well!
Adams began using lighter cameras, the older he got. He used a Hasselblad and tested the early Hassie models for Victor Hasselblad. In the last year of his life he used a Leica, though not exclusively. His biography is great reading, and the PBS American Masters program on Adams is excellent. It’s very instructive to go see his work in an art museum and look at it firsthand.
I don't know a lot about photographer that's why I didn't know of him but seeing his work right now it looks so amazing he definitely was a legend and a master of photography
My dad was a well-known commercial photographer for over 70 years and used view cameras (the ones with the bellows) almost exclusively. His largest was a monster 16x20 Deardorf with a 5" lens, used mostly for taking really high resolution photos and transparencies of very small objects, like diamonds and jewelry. It stood about 9' tall. He used all the tricks and techniques also used by Adams (and all commercial photographers of that era) and I used to watch him work in the darkroom all the time. To a small boy it all looked like magic. I'm glad to see you taking an interest in the old masters, like Adams. My dad met him once in the 1950s, but never talked much about the encounter.
Seeing the enlarger made me miss my dark room class in college - also I think you mixed the dodging and burning effects in the video but great video anyways!
Correction to time stamp 5:16 - 5:28: DODGE and BURN in printing a negative causes the opposite effect from exposing. Dodging reduces light on specific areas of the paper (though all those paper shapes at the end of a wire) so the paper will be bright / whiter. Burning (with the holes in stiff paper or cardboard) increases light at specific areas and causes darkening of the printed paper. Did this all this in my younger days, pain in the ars to get just right, using up loads of paper to get the final print just right. Also, IMHO, it is a lot easier to compose (visually) a photo with a larger camera under a drape than with a small one. It is so hard for me to see all the elements in a scene when one eye is glued to a view finder with light filling in the space on the sides or on the 3" back screen in the daylight. But at least I won't come hope with a backache after lugging tons of camera gear and tripod when using a smaller (FF or APS-C) camera.
Read his autobiography about a year ago He was very talented and complex beyond his landscape photography. I have a couple reproductions of his prints in my home office
Watch THIS first. ua-cam.com/video/7zxancgfDVg/v-deo.html Adams made photographs in his head PRIOR to exposure, based on the light, the characteristic curves of both film and printing paper, over-under exposure which required over-under development determined by his invention, the Zone System for placing exp values where he wanted them. Who's doing THAT in digital? It was NOT what photoshop has led to - use an evaluative light meter recommendation to take an image and manipulate it in a computer. I have yet to see evidence that of photographers testing their digital cameras prior to purchase to discover the characteristics of that camera's exposure curves, Image processor, etc. In fact, shooting RAW and using photoshop BYPASSES the image processor built into the camera and uses generic software built by NO ONE who makes cameras or imaging sensors. If there were a large cadre of photographers like this, RAW wouldn't be the predominate method of exposure where folks "fix" things in software.
Nice video and editing. Great production values. I’m also in the process of studying the master after having just bought my first 4x5 camera. Ansel Adams wrote three definitive books on the process and it would have been beneficial to read those prior to making your video. There were several small errors in the video that have already been pointed out in the comments.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Well done! You made the essentials understandable and presented them in an entertaining, clear and friendly way. And you've sparked interest in finding out more about Ansel Adams and discovering your own ways of taking better pictures. Maybe some of the commentators are right and there are really a few mistakes in your video ... and if so ... who cares? (I did not) Ansel Adams and his art of photography were the focus of the video and not the presenter (like almost everywhere else on UA-cam). Such a short video presentation can only be a "teaser" to do your own research after watching it. And your video served this purpose very well. This comment comes from someone who, decades ago, developed even more interest in analog (there was no "digital"!) slide photography (no post-processing possible!) because his jaws fell on his chest when looking at Ansel Adams' photos in a large-format illustrated book ... ("book", that is something big and flat for reading and looking at, made of printed paper; it works without batteries ...) For me Ansel Adams' pictures didn't lead to "f64", but to "ISO64" ... I just say "Kodachrome" or "Fujichrome" ... those were magic words back then ... A very slightly underexposed landscape shot in the bluish light of the Scandinavian sun, back then on Kodachrome 64 with my beloved Olympus OM2 ... the slide projected onto a white wall as big as it gets - that just knocks you out! Without having seen Ansel Adams' work, I would never have taken such photos!
Film used in camera is "negative" with means that source of light wil darken it. This dark area from film will allow less light to hit the paper so this area will be lighter In final photo. Using this little circle on a stick you showed will make photo even brighter becouse you block light that hits it (paper is white). Big cartboard with hole in it will darken the image in the spot you allow the light to hit the paper, so it is exacly oposite of what you said.
Aidin please make a video that how can we achieve the video result like yours. I mean like the what camera or filters you use then what you do in post production to achieve that result. I am confused bro. Please make a video. Luv your work. Thanks
@@AidinRobbins you are insporation bro although you are much younger than me lol. i think if you create a preset of your video look that would be amazing!
Mmmm. Adams def did not invent or create anything 'new'. His large encompassing landscapes, for which he is best known, are inspired by the archetypal nineteenth-century idealized panorama, which was a typical genre in early painted and photographic depictions of the American West. Adams was influenced by these examples, but he was also an experimenter and a modernist. In many of his most famous photographs, Adams renders skies almost completely black through a combination of filtration and darkroom technique. ... Adams was adept at dodging and burning, but he still made extensive use of filters when shooting. Ie he used a combination of already widely used techniques. It may be successfully argued that what he did bring was an acceptance of photography as an art form within the 'fine art' world. Other than that a nice video.
He also photographed the Japanese internment camps in California during World War II along with my favorite photographer Dorothea Lange. Their work brings a poignant dignity to these forgotten Americans.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Did Ansel really use medium format? I’m only familiar with him using large format. The “medium format” he shows in this video is actually a large format camera just a smaller 4x5 version instead of 8x10 or larger. But I appreciated the clips of Ansel and quotes here.
I have a hard time recommending your channel because I always forget your first name, I remember Robbins alright. Would you consider change your name? I know it's a small request, but anyway. Love your content!
I have a BFA with Honors from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. It was at Art Center that Ansel Adams and Fred Archer codified the Zone System when they were instructors there. They merely took known techniques and applied a more systematic approach. I learned the Zone System at Art Center, even down to formulating developers from their individual components. I used these techniques when I was a full time commercial/industrial photographer in the film days. You got some things right, but you got a lot of things wrong. Some are glaring errors. I suggest you take this down and correct the errors. I also suggest you do a deeper dive into the history of Ansel Adams and photography in general instead of surfing the net and posting things of which you have little understanding. You seem to think fine art photography began with Adams. You evidently are not familiar with the half century of wonderful photography that preceded him. I'm glad you're excited about photography and encourage you to learn more about its history and techniques. Be a little more thorough on your research before posting your essays. On a side note. I have an autographed copy of one of his books.
Hi Aidin nice video! Do you think you could make a behind the scenes of what your tutorials look like? like maybe what lights you use, where you put them, stuff like that
I really enjoyed the concept of the video, the style of conveying information together with the slick animation and sound design was very satisfying. Thanks a lot for this great video!
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
You never disappoint, NEVER! For me this is your best work todate, every category was an A. Including the showing restraint by not reshooting the guys name, just adding a correction title. If this was a paid deliverable, yes you would have needed to reshoot. It's not, so many other things were right with that take. I always appreciate your audio work, from spot on levels to so many click sounds. How many times did you use that audio clip?
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Good video! A small point though. Adams is always credited with the creation of the zone system. A photographer called Fred Archer contributed a lot to it as well. Ansel Adams went out of his way to give Archer equal credit for the Zone System, he said. "I take this opportunity to restate that the Zone System is not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939-40".
True, but the Zone System is glossed over here, and it's important to know how vital it was to Adams' getting the results on the negative that he desired. Also, Adams used filters to accentuate contrast.
@@JohnProthero I firmly believe in credit were credit is due, lots of people gloss over Fred's contribution. You say that Adams used filters. I'm 63, I started taking photographs when I was 16. Back then film was the only option, B&W was much cheaper than colour and was relatively easy to process at home. Back then all B&W photographers use filters to control contrast, it was one of the tools in your toolbox. Scanning the negatives then using Lightroom wasn't an option!
@@neilfulcher9298 Like you, Neil, I started in black and white, and used my late father's darkroom extensively. I used filters on my large format film camera to great effect.
Hi, glad you've discovered Ansel Adams and thanks for spreading the good news. In the spirit of keeping your video useful to those seeing it for years after, I hope you won't mind a few comments: What's the deal with the fake "KODAK PORTRA 400" film-rebate-border around many of the Adams Black & White images you've shown?? (Not only did he mostly photograph in black and white, but that film didn't even come out until 14 years after his death!) Also, dodging makes the area being dodged, LIGHTER, not darker. Bravo, however, on emphasizing that Adams' main gift to photograhERS (if not photograpHY) was the importance of the *visualization* of the final image before tripping the shutter... and, through the Zone System he co-invented, how to achieve that visualized image. PS: Yes, it's EDWARD Weston .. not "GEORGE" (maybe you're thinking of George Eastman, founder of Kodak) .. Oh! Second PS: Thanks for correctly (IMHO) debunking Cartier-Bresson's ridiculous BS statement about Adams and Weston, which was a self-aggrandizing way to say that only photojournalism [such as his] is valuable to humankind. Dear Henri ..Yes, man needs bread . . . but also roses. .. Don't get all this wrong; I think your vid is generally good and I appreciate and young photographer who, in turn, appreciates Adams and realizes the lessons he's still posthumously teaching!
I'm from indonesia...i dont really understand wht re you talking about ...but the other side...i just focus and exactly intrested on your quality...the real quality of content...Good luck...hope you reach more subscriber
Great video. You've overlooked the contributions of Peter Henry Emerson in terms of the conception of photography as an art. His landscapes had people thinking that way in late 1800s.
Hello Mr Craig. I have many happy memories of Embleton ton Bay over the last forty years or so. Its looking like its going to be awhile before i can tread the coastline again. Thank you for posting this for us all to enjoy. Happy trails. Jan
This is a good, short summary, I think; a whirlwind tour in ten minutes. From my perspective the highlights of his technique were, 1) everything is in focus, 2) the resulting image looks sharp (high resolution). 1 and 2 go together, and were tenets of the f64 Group (not just Adams); the overall effect is similar to what the eye and brain accomplish when you're looking at something, like a landscape. 1 and 2 are also contradictory; that, is if you increase depth of field (by making the aperture smaller) you also make the resolution worse -- so you have to use large format to compensate: more resolution owing to larger negative size, along with tilt of the lens plane. 3) range of tone control. As he often observed, the tonal range of a scene can vary wildly, whereas the tonal range of the negative is fixed. So you have to control the exposure and development of the negative so that you get a meaningful rendering of the tonal range in the negative (and print) -- the Zone System. What ends up happening is that the proportion of Zone I, and of Zone IX -- in terms of the area of the whole print -- is low. And you don't have large areas of either black or white that lack detail. That's hard to do, and Adams was probably the best at it. Other features worth mentioning are 4) dark skies, 5) extreme horizon placement (either v. high or v. low) 6) lots of dark areas (Zones I, II, and III). 7) A general sense that the subject is sitting for a portrait (even if it's a rock or a tree and not a person).
To truly understand and appreciate Ansel Adams photography, you need to see one of his prints in person. It's literally like seeing the Grand canyon all your life in books or on TV and then you see it in real life.
You have got it wrong about dodging and burning. Dodging restricts light in a particular area making it brighter, while burning adds extra light making that area darker.
Aidin, Nice tribute to Ansel Adams. However in your explanation of his darkroom work you got one detail quite wrong. You showed how he used tools to dodge and burn the areas of the print to change exposure and contrast. But you got it backward. You said "using the burn tool to make an area of the photo brighter" and Dodging an area with something to block a small area to darken that area. That is actually the reverse of the actual effect. Remember in exposing Print paper from a negative you are working in reverse. Adding light by burning makes the area you are burning in Darker and Dodging by blocking an area for a short period of the exposure makes that area Lighter in the print. However someone your age may have never spent any time in an actual darkroom so I can overlook this common mistake. I had the thrill of working on a documentary for the BBC on Ansel Adams in 1982 and got to spend several days with him at his home in Carmel shooting photos and printing them in his darkroom. I learned a great deal and he was a most generous teacher and avid conservationist.
You always had me convinced that Ansel shot all those on Kodak portra 400. Until the coffee kicked in and I remember that is a color film which I clearly don’t shoot enough from. Nice channel. I will give it a sub.
This is problem when you got no idea of what you are talking about and do a small research for youtube videos and sound like an expert. George Weston? The dude is called Edward Henry Weston. You haven't done your homework.
Love this video and was about to show to my middle school class, but I can't cause you said "hell" just once. So close to being perfect. Just something to consider for future videos.
It’s easy to forget that with a view camera, Adams composed all his photos with the groundglass image upside-down and reversed left to right. Try that sometime!
5:17 I think you got dodge and burn mixed up. When you dodge, it leaves the area brighter as you are stopping the light from hitting the paper. When you burn, it darkens the image as you allow more light to hit the paper. It's the opposite of a negative where more light = brighter image.
"How to make a "documentary" by only reading some Wikipedia pages"
Google Minus lol right
Yes, correct, Dodge lightens, Burn darkens when printing from a negative.
photos on film I was scratching my heard that, was I doing it all wrong for 30 years! Weston was another photographer, thats like saying Picasso was another painter. We shot B&W because thats all we had and every sheet of film was precious. All in all a nice effort.
Google Minus but how many people of his generation would even know who to google? I think he did a nice job of introducing Adams to people who might never hear of him otherwise.
That was exceedingly well put. When you started by saying “I got interested in him several weeks ago…” I literally rolled my eyes, but luckily, age has taught me humility so I kept watching, and I’m glad I did.
We all felt that. haha
3030: ”How Aidin Robbins changed the history of filmmaking”
Keep going Aidin, you’re an inspiration.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Loved it man.The trend photography and videography sometimes forget the rich concepts and masters of our arts, and going back to them always makes us "level up the game" (hate that expression, maybe "developing more our arts"?) and love it more. The majority of landscape photographers pratically have a base on the form of Adams and romantic painting like David Friedrich and his "Wanderer above the sea of fog", so they do, or try to do, take less photos, they observe and apreciate more before taking a photo, it's kind of a philosophy on how to apreciate, observe and truly see nature and express how our eyes, heart and mind had a emotional connection with the scene. A slow rythim and living a full experience and love for our home (Earth), our nature. In this liquid world, where everything is so fast, everything is always quickly changing, a slow pace maybe can be all we need to live well and be at peace, that's one of the lessons I get with Adams and other landscape photographers, but hey, I have always been a nature's lover and surfer since kid hahahah.
Best ever clear, concise description of Ansel Adams and several of his techniques. Excellent!
Great video! Those photos of the waterfalls actually feature an extremely low horizon with the tops of the mountains just below the top of the frame. Same basic concept though and you're correct he uses extreme horizons to enhance his style!
Thank you for this awesome highlights of Ansel Adam's!
This is awesome, I had to watch this for my Art 111 class in college. Great job man.
Thanks for making this video, Aidin. It is an entertaining and concise overview of Adams’ work and process. I discovered his images in 1979 on my first visit to Yosemite and have based my own professional photographic process on his teachings ever since. By chance, I was fortunate to visit his darkroom in Carmel - unfortunately, he wasn’t there at the time but it was an experience nevertheless.
It’s great that you have shared this video with your younger audience. His books, ‘The Camera’, ‘The Negative’ and ‘The Print’ are still relevant today. In fact, I believe that Ansel Adams would have been a brilliant digital photographer and shown us how to get the most from a pixel ‘negative’.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
I really enjoyed your video and found a great deal of admiration for the amount of effort you put into it. You grasped and presented the concept of his work at a higher than average level. You didn't just skimm the surface, you really went pretty deep!
I studied the Zone System a few years ago and was taught that Ansel Adams developed his system to a degree that was very scientific. He used spot meters to read a subject scene and took many notes that he would later use in the lab. He purchased large lots of film and paper because he knew that when doing so the materials had been made with the same batches of chemicals. He made sure his materials came from the same batches. When manufacturers produced film or paper they eventually had to use new chemicals because they were spent... but even though they used the same formulas with the same measured ingredients, the final product varied in sensitivity always giving different results in the lab. So when he set up his cameras and evaluated a scene, he took his readings and already knew what the print would look like in his mind!
He really had a true visualization of the scene.
Using his Zone System he would know at the time of making the exposure that he would either have to contract or expand the zones in the image (according to whether he got high contrast or low contrast readings). He used the information from the readings and used it to process the film, as well as when developing the paper. He used Spectrometers to learn about the density of the batches of film he had to ensure that he would accurately get the desired results... every single time!!!
When printing his images he often wouldn't just use the tools you mentioned... he would use his hands and fingers to dodge or burn parts of his prints. He would twist and gnarl his fingers to apply what he wanted to them.
I don't know if it would be worth it for you to do a little more investigation into the process of using the Zone System and maybe making a video about it?
Thanks for bringing back some good memories and sharing some very awesome knowledge
Bro you bouta be the next one in the history of filmmaking I’ll see you there 👀
Photography is a trade it's the Creator that puts the art into the trade that makes it unique
I’m not sure Ansel used portra 400 like the film borders suggest, but I’m excited to watch the rest
Description ;)
Aidin Robbins 😂
As a film photographer (i know, I sound like an elitist douchebag) it just annoys me so much. I get that its for the aesthetic, but wouldnt a basic white borders look just as good? Maybe more minimalistic I guess. Other than that I thought this video was super interesting and i learned alot, so it doesnt really matter
FXpro97 I feel like for this video especially it doesn’t make sense because part of his legacy is his black and white, large format work
Valerie Giacobbe haha they're definitely not accurate, just the template I already have set up from past vids. Gotta cut a few corners to get these out every week 😉
Great clip and very informative. Thanks for creating 🙏🏻
I love the production quality of this video! and the story as well. You nailed it Aidin!!
that slow blur effect on the old photo was incredible!
In a previous career as a commercial printer one of the jobs I has was printing the posters and books of Ansel Adams through Little Brown and Company, the publisher. There was a special high tack dense black and a grey (Ansel Adams Grey) that we used as well as other specialized materials to get the cleanest dot on a printing press. We were also using the highest dpi in the industry at the time for detail. First time through the press was the duotone pass. Let it dry then run it through again for a high gloss varnish. Let that dry. Then turn the sheet upside down and run it through the press one more time to "polish" the sheet - essential removing all of the spray powder used to keep the sheets from sticking together. Best job ever, but that was back in the late 80's. I found a picture of Ansel and Dave Gardner (Gardner Lithograph) on a press check in a drawer in the pressroom. Still got that today.
love this comment. super interesting.
Fascinating. I recall reading about how deeply involved AA was in the printing of his work, (other than the darkroom work of course). I have a couple of the books and I have to say: you done good! 😂
Great edit! Informative and well-paced.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Dilly VFX no thanks but wish you the best of luck.
He co-developed the zone system with his friend and associate, Minor White. Thanks for the nice video.
one of your best videos, bro.
Loved this kind of video!!! Good Job ;)
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
OK, Aiden, how about a video on the incredible but largely unknown West Coast photographer Don Worth? I would love to see what you produce.
There is so much I love about this ❤️
Love the mood lighting of the talking head shot portions! You should do more videos like this! Great video.
I love this! I’ve loved photography for years but never knew it’s history, thank you for this
Thanks for sharing your learning and analysis through his work. Open up a bunch horizons for me! Thanks mate and keep up with the videos.
I Sense more Style Breakdowns coming up real soon.
Also I'm ashamed for not knowing he who really was, well Thanks for the kewl insight brother :”))
LOVED your video Aidin. Keep up the amazing work. 😀
Yooo Aidin, I really enjoyed this format! I Definitely learned some important photography history and the way you present it is just perfect, it keeps the attention so well!💪🏼💪🏼
“It’s the negative stupid.” Km pretty sure he did not spend too much time dodging and but Ing because that’s his quote. His focus was on the perfect negative, from which he could make the perfect print. This was why he developed the zone system and what pre visualization was all about. Picking your shadow in the scene, exposing for it, picking your highlight with details, and developing for it, after calculating the number of stops between the two values you would determine how to develop (push, pull, normal) to “place the highlight where you had pre. Visualized it. Sorry, I’m old. I spent my high school years learning the zone system…
Love Ansel Adams! This was a great video! Had no idea on some of the stuff!
his great granddaughters went to my elementary and middle school!!
Cool! His granddaughter was my mom’s college roommate!
Cool. his grandson was my brother
Cool he was me!
@@luciusalt229 😂😂😂
I'm assuming that, like most middle schoolers, you guys once had to at one point do a presentation on an important historical figure; did she do a presentation on Ansel Adams?
Love it man, great content! I especially needed to hear the part about visualization, spray and pray far too often. Heading out for a backpacking trip this weekend, so this video was perfect timing as well!
Dope video man! I had a calendar with his work several years ago which was part of my inspiration for getting into photography!
Adams began using lighter cameras, the older he got. He used a Hasselblad and tested the early Hassie models for Victor Hasselblad. In the last year of his life he used a Leica, though not exclusively. His biography is great reading, and the PBS American Masters program on Adams is excellent. It’s very instructive to go see his work in an art museum and look at it firsthand.
I'm using lighter cameras the older I get, too. I hiked the John Muir Trail with a view camera once. I'm not doing that again.
Please do more videos like this!
That's the plan!
He loves high dynamic rage with a lot of contrast
Good job and nicely explained
I don't know a lot about photographer that's why I didn't know of him but seeing his work right now it looks so amazing he definitely was a legend and a master of photography
My dad was a well-known commercial photographer for over 70 years and used view cameras (the ones with the bellows) almost exclusively. His largest was a monster 16x20 Deardorf with a 5" lens, used mostly for taking really high resolution photos and transparencies of very small objects, like diamonds and jewelry. It stood about 9' tall. He used all the tricks and techniques also used by Adams (and all commercial photographers of that era) and I used to watch him work in the darkroom all the time. To a small boy it all looked like magic. I'm glad to see you taking an interest in the old masters, like Adams. My dad met him once in the 1950s, but never talked much about the encounter.
Seeing the enlarger made me miss my dark room class in college - also I think you mixed the dodging and burning effects in the video but great video anyways!
Correction to time stamp 5:16 - 5:28: DODGE and BURN in printing a negative causes the opposite effect from exposing. Dodging reduces light on specific areas of the paper (though all those paper shapes at the end of a wire) so the paper will be bright / whiter. Burning (with the holes in stiff paper or cardboard) increases light at specific areas and causes darkening of the printed paper. Did this all this in my younger days, pain in the ars to get just right, using up loads of paper to get the final print just right.
Also, IMHO, it is a lot easier to compose (visually) a photo with a larger camera under a drape than with a small one. It is so hard for me to see all the elements in a scene when one eye is glued to a view finder with light filling in the space on the sides or on the 3" back screen in the daylight. But at least I won't come hope with a backache after lugging tons of camera gear and tripod when using a smaller (FF or APS-C) camera.
Very good video. I appreciate what you have done .
Read his autobiography about a year ago
He was very talented and complex beyond his landscape photography. I have a couple reproductions of his prints in my home office
Watch THIS first. ua-cam.com/video/7zxancgfDVg/v-deo.html
Adams made photographs in his head PRIOR to exposure, based on the light, the characteristic curves of both film and printing paper, over-under exposure which required over-under development determined by his invention, the Zone System for placing exp values where he wanted them. Who's doing THAT in digital?
It was NOT what photoshop has led to - use an evaluative light meter recommendation to take an image and manipulate it in a computer.
I have yet to see evidence that of photographers testing their digital cameras prior to purchase to discover the characteristics of that camera's exposure curves, Image processor, etc. In fact, shooting RAW and using photoshop BYPASSES the image processor built into the camera and uses generic software built by NO ONE who makes cameras or imaging sensors.
If there were a large cadre of photographers like this, RAW wouldn't be the predominate method of exposure where folks "fix" things in software.
Great video‼️🏜
Wow fucking awesome! Thanks alot! I'm gonna start breaking the rule of thirds more and try to take pictures more like ansel adams did
Loved this
Amazing Video… Thanks!!
Nice video and editing. Great production values. I’m also in the process of studying the master after having just bought my first 4x5 camera. Ansel Adams wrote three definitive books on the process and it would have been beneficial to read those prior to making your video. There were several small errors in the video that have already been pointed out in the comments.
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
keep going bro u are amazing
I appreciate that!
This was a beautiful essay on a wonderful photographer - man amazing video Aidin :)
Well done! You made the essentials understandable and presented them in an entertaining, clear and friendly way.
And you've sparked interest in finding out more about Ansel Adams and discovering your own ways of taking better pictures.
Maybe some of the commentators are right and there are really a few mistakes in your video ... and if so ... who cares? (I did not)
Ansel Adams and his art of photography were the focus of the video and not the presenter (like almost everywhere else on UA-cam).
Such a short video presentation can only be a "teaser" to do your own research after watching it. And your video served this purpose very well.
This comment comes from someone who, decades ago, developed even more interest in analog (there was no "digital"!) slide photography (no post-processing possible!) because his jaws fell on his chest when looking at Ansel Adams' photos in a large-format illustrated book ... ("book", that is something big and flat for reading and looking at, made of printed paper; it works without batteries ...)
For me Ansel Adams' pictures didn't lead to "f64", but to "ISO64" ... I just say "Kodachrome" or "Fujichrome" ... those were magic words back then ...
A very slightly underexposed landscape shot in the bluish light of the Scandinavian sun, back then on Kodachrome 64 with my beloved Olympus OM2 ... the slide projected onto a white wall as big as it gets - that just knocks you out! Without having seen Ansel Adams' work, I would never have taken such photos!
Film used in camera is "negative" with means that source of light wil darken it. This dark area from film will allow less light to hit the paper so this area will be lighter In final photo. Using this little circle on a stick you showed will make photo even brighter becouse you block light that hits it (paper is white). Big cartboard with hole in it will darken the image in the spot you allow the light to hit the paper, so it is exacly oposite of what you said.
Yuppp realized in the edit I had that one reversed haha. wouldn't say I'm a darkroom expert 😉
@@AidinRobbins Nah it is tricky I know. And it is a tiny detail, but you are doing a great job and I'm looking forward to see more!
Such a wonderful video
How you gonna use portra 400 “borders” on some of the negatives you show when its B/W film 🤦♂️
See description
@@AidinRobbins Has to be the most retarded excuse I've read this year.
B have carefully considered the severity of the situation and concluded that, fortunately, you will most likely be okay 👍
@@AidinRobbins That's fine, I overreacted. Most of the things you stated in your video are wrong.
@@user-ti9zc1xv2b chill bro he explained lot of things to thousands of people ,what did you do with your 2 subscribers
Its Edward and his son Brett Weston not George. Sure its just a mistake but they are very important figures in photography from that time period.
Aidin please make a video that how can we achieve the video result like yours. I mean like the what camera or filters you use then what you do in post production to achieve that result. I am confused bro. Please make a video. Luv your work. Thanks
Isn't that what all of my videos are about? Don't think I could condense it into one ;)
@@AidinRobbins you are insporation bro although you are much younger than me lol. i think if you create a preset of your video look that would be amazing!
Very well done :)
Mmmm. Adams def did not invent or create anything 'new'. His large encompassing landscapes, for which he is best known, are inspired by the archetypal nineteenth-century idealized panorama, which was a typical genre in early painted and photographic depictions of the American West. Adams was influenced by these examples, but he was also an experimenter and a modernist. In many of his most famous photographs, Adams renders skies almost completely black through a combination of filtration and darkroom technique. ... Adams was adept at dodging and burning, but he still made extensive use of filters when shooting. Ie he used a combination of already widely used techniques. It may be successfully argued that what he did bring was an acceptance of photography as an art form within the 'fine art' world. Other than that a nice video.
This entire video screams pretentious and is filled with errors
He also photographed the Japanese internment camps in California during World War II along with my favorite photographer Dorothea Lange. Their work brings a poignant dignity to these forgotten Americans.
Really nice video! :)
Awesome stuff, make awesome video. like this video keep making. i think you deserve more views
0:12 I haven't.
0:14 I have.
are you aware that f/65 in 8x10 film format is equivalent to f/4 with fullframe?
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
No it's not.
it’s easy to know use a depth of fiel calculator
Wow this video is so info packed🔥💯
When people ask me why I shot landscape at f16 and not f2.8, I just answer Ansel 🙌🏻
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
this is excellent
good work kid
Did Ansel really use medium format? I’m only familiar with him using large format. The “medium format” he shows in this video is actually a large format camera just a smaller 4x5 version instead of 8x10 or larger.
But I appreciated the clips of Ansel and quotes here.
He used a Hasselblad sometimes.
Moon and Half Dome, 1960, was with a Hasselblad. He also had a Contax (35mm) that he did some work with in the earlier days.
I have a hard time recommending your channel because I always forget your first name, I remember Robbins alright. Would you consider change your name? I know it's a small request, but anyway. Love your content!
Sure thing, heading to court now 👍 Suggestions?
I have a BFA with Honors from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. It was at Art Center that Ansel Adams and Fred Archer codified the Zone System when they were instructors there. They merely took known techniques and applied a more systematic approach.
I learned the Zone System at Art Center, even down to formulating developers from their individual components. I used these techniques when I was a full time commercial/industrial photographer in the film days.
You got some things right, but you got a lot of things wrong. Some are glaring errors. I suggest you take this down and correct the errors. I also suggest you do a deeper dive into the history of Ansel Adams and photography in general instead of surfing the net and posting things of which you have little understanding. You seem to think fine art photography began with Adams. You evidently are not familiar with the half century of wonderful photography that preceded him.
I'm glad you're excited about photography and encourage you to learn more about its history and techniques. Be a little more thorough on your research before posting your essays.
On a side note. I have an autographed copy of one of his books.
Hi Aidin nice video! Do you think you could make a behind the scenes of what your tutorials look like? like maybe what lights you use, where you put them, stuff like that
I really enjoyed the concept of the video, the style of conveying information together with the slick animation and sound design was very satisfying.
Thanks a lot for this great video!
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
You never disappoint, NEVER! For me this is your best work todate, every category was an A. Including the showing restraint by not reshooting the guys name, just adding a correction title. If this was a paid deliverable, yes you would have needed to reshoot. It's not, so many other things were right with that take. I always appreciate your audio work, from spot on levels to so many click sounds. How many times did you use that audio clip?
If this is his best work...wow! I mean, i can´t imagine the rest of his work...this video is full of wrong and inaccurate information.
Ansel Adams teach me how to love the land and nature.
Thanks for sharing this much of knowledge with us🙌
ay i do professional film and i make really good youtube videos, if you have time could you check out my most recent video and give me some feedback? :)
Good video! A small point though. Adams is always credited with the creation of the zone system. A photographer called Fred Archer contributed a lot to it as well.
Ansel Adams went out of his way to give Archer equal credit for the Zone System, he said. "I take this opportunity to restate that the Zone System is not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939-40".
True, but the Zone System is glossed over here, and it's important to know how vital it was to Adams' getting the results on the negative that he desired. Also, Adams used filters to accentuate contrast.
@@JohnProthero I firmly believe in credit were credit is due, lots of people gloss over Fred's contribution. You say that Adams used filters. I'm 63, I started taking photographs when I was 16. Back then film was the only option, B&W was much cheaper than colour and was relatively easy to process at home. Back then all B&W photographers use filters to control contrast, it was one of the tools in your toolbox. Scanning the negatives then using Lightroom wasn't an option!
@@neilfulcher9298 Like you, Neil, I started in black and white, and used my late father's darkroom extensively. I used filters on my large format film camera to great effect.
Hi, glad you've discovered Ansel Adams and thanks for spreading the good news. In the spirit of keeping your video useful to those seeing it for years after, I hope you won't mind a few comments: What's the deal with the fake "KODAK PORTRA 400" film-rebate-border around many of the Adams Black & White images you've shown?? (Not only did he mostly photograph in black and white, but that film didn't even come out until 14 years after his death!) Also, dodging makes the area being dodged, LIGHTER, not darker. Bravo, however, on emphasizing that Adams' main gift to photograhERS (if not photograpHY) was the importance of the *visualization* of the final image before tripping the shutter... and, through the Zone System he co-invented, how to achieve that visualized image. PS: Yes, it's EDWARD Weston .. not "GEORGE" (maybe you're thinking of George Eastman, founder of Kodak) .. Oh! Second PS: Thanks for correctly (IMHO) debunking Cartier-Bresson's ridiculous BS statement about Adams and Weston, which was a self-aggrandizing way to say that only photojournalism [such as his] is valuable to humankind. Dear Henri ..Yes, man needs bread . . . but also roses. .. Don't get all this wrong; I think your vid is generally good and I appreciate and young photographer who, in turn, appreciates Adams and realizes the lessons he's still posthumously teaching!
I'm from indonesia...i dont really understand wht re you talking about ...but the other side...i just focus and exactly intrested on your quality...the real quality of content...Good luck...hope you reach more subscriber
I appreciate the Adams love bro but there's alot of misinformation in this vid.
Too right. Ansel was a close personal friend - he invited me to the US in 1977. This guy is clueless.
Great video. You've overlooked the contributions of Peter Henry Emerson in terms of the conception of photography as an art. His landscapes had people thinking that way in late 1800s.
Hello Mr Craig. I have many happy memories of Embleton ton Bay over the last forty years or so. Its looking like its going to be awhile before i can tread the coastline again. Thank you for posting this
for us all to enjoy. Happy trails. Jan
This is a good, short summary, I think; a whirlwind tour in ten minutes. From my perspective the highlights of his technique were, 1) everything is in focus, 2) the resulting image looks sharp (high resolution). 1 and 2 go together, and were tenets of the f64 Group (not just Adams); the overall effect is similar to what the eye and brain accomplish when you're looking at something, like a landscape. 1 and 2 are also contradictory; that, is if you increase depth of field (by making the aperture smaller) you also make the resolution worse -- so you have to use large format to compensate: more resolution owing to larger negative size, along with tilt of the lens plane. 3) range of tone control. As he often observed, the tonal range of a scene can vary wildly, whereas the tonal range of the negative is fixed. So you have to control the exposure and development of the negative so that you get a meaningful rendering of the tonal range in the negative (and print) -- the Zone System. What ends up happening is that the proportion of Zone I, and of Zone IX -- in terms of the area of the whole print -- is low. And you don't have large areas of either black or white that lack detail. That's hard to do, and Adams was probably the best at it. Other features worth mentioning are 4) dark skies, 5) extreme horizon placement (either v. high or v. low) 6) lots of dark areas (Zones I, II, and III). 7) A general sense that the subject is sitting for a portrait (even if it's a rock or a tree and not a person).
Love your videos ever since I can remember! Are you gonna do an updated what's I'm my camera bag?
Yooo I’m first aye didn’t miss this time 😆
To truly understand and appreciate Ansel Adams photography, you need to see one of his prints in person. It's literally like seeing the Grand canyon all your life in books or on TV and then you see it in real life.
You have got it wrong about dodging and burning. Dodging restricts light in a particular area making it brighter, while burning adds extra light making that area darker.
Aidin, Nice tribute to Ansel Adams. However in your explanation of his darkroom work you got one detail quite wrong. You showed how he used tools to dodge and burn the areas of the print to change exposure and contrast. But you got it backward. You said "using the burn tool to make an area of the photo brighter" and Dodging an area with something to block a small area to darken that area. That is actually the reverse of the actual effect. Remember in exposing Print paper from a negative you are working in reverse. Adding light by burning makes the area you are burning in Darker and Dodging by blocking an area for a short period of the exposure makes that area Lighter in the print. However someone your age may have never spent any time in an actual darkroom so I can overlook this common mistake. I had the thrill of working on a documentary for the BBC on Ansel Adams in 1982 and got to spend several days with him at his home in Carmel shooting photos and printing them in his darkroom. I learned a great deal and he was a most generous teacher and avid conservationist.
Beautiful
Aidin is amazing
Great summary and nicely done. Thank you.
4:30 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️ they only had BnW back then if you didn't know
You always had me convinced that Ansel shot all those on Kodak portra 400. Until the coffee kicked in and I remember that is a color film which I clearly don’t shoot enough from. Nice channel. I will give it a sub.
This is problem when you got no idea of what you are talking about and do a small research for youtube videos and sound like an expert. George Weston?
The dude is called Edward Henry Weston.
You haven't done your homework.
6:34, nice use of old footage, big ups to that
Ansel an gucciano.both seem to be simultaneously working in the shade 😎 of artistic expression .naked light or artificial light
Love this video and was about to show to my middle school class, but I can't cause you said "hell" just once. So close to being perfect. Just something to consider for future videos.
It’s easy to forget that with a view camera, Adams composed all his photos with the groundglass image upside-down and reversed left to right. Try that sometime!