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Would Ansel Adams Have Gone Digital?

Posted by michael on from the no-question dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "After viewing photographs by Christopher Burkett, which are not digitally manipulated, Peter Lewis wondered what place have digital cameras and image manipulations in the art of photography. And a question hit his mind. If Ansel Adams, one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, was still alive, would have he gone digital? Lewis talked at great length with Richard LoPinto, vice president for SLR camera systems at Nikon Inc. to find an answer. And guess what? LoPinto thinks Ansel Adams would have loved digital cameras. The article also discusses digital camera resolution and the future for film camera sales. This overview contains more details and a small photograph by Christopher Burkett."

3 of 455 comments (clear)

  1. He would have, but... by cirby · · Score: 5, Informative

    He also would have kept his film cameras.

    A 10-megapixel image is nice and all, but Adams used everything up to 8x10 cameras, and there's nothing like that kind of resolution even in the planning stages for digital. He certainly would have used digitals for his "small" works.

    For big landscapes? no.

    For example, a 4x5 using Velvia color film is in the 200 megapixel range, and the 8x10 would be closer to the gigapixel category using 25 ASA black and white...

  2. Re:Hard to say..this guy though definitely would h by cosmo7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ansel Adams and the group of photographers - the f64 group - essentially worked to promote a style established by Edward Weston. It has much in common with Stieglitz' Photo-Secession - the concept of absolute honesty combined with absolute control of materials.

    Adams' main contribution to photographic technology was his 'Zone' exposure system, which combines exposure, development and printing into a single system. It was like a very early ColorSync (even if it was in black and white).

    Photography before f64 and the Photo-Secession was only considered 'art' if it was manipulated. Most Victorian photographic art was sacherinely allegorical. When photographers such as Weston and Adams came onto the scene, their images were considered shockingly raw.

    To suggest that Adams was somehow considered a fraud would be to misconstrue the history of photography.

  3. Re:Try again : Done !!! by Taurim · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe 1.09 billion pixels (40,784 x 26,800) is enough to beat it :

    http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm

    It is done with a Canon D60 6 MPixels DSLR and PTAssembler + PanoramaTools, two great freeware and easy to use tools.

    http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm

    Don't forget to check the others pictures in "Max Lyons Digital Image Gallery" :

    http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/