- Joined
- Sep 20, 2002
- Messages
- 3,699
I'm with Frugal. All the combined expertise of grizzled veterans on APUG can only give you a starting point, and each one individually is likely to give you a different one. Be ready to waste some film and developer on the road to finding what you like. It will be worth more than what anyone else can tell you. We can all make pictures that suit us, and we will probably wind up with very different interpretations of the same subject matter.
There used to be terms used by those who made a living criticizing photographs. Seminal and terminal come to mind. Was Ansel Adams, for example, sowing seed or did he breed a bunch who wanted to stand where he did and make photos that were just like his? The answer is "Both." His alter ego as a gifted musician made him see a scene as a melody to be fitted into a musical scale. If we take that insight as a starting point without ever looking at one of his photos, we can make great pictures of whatever we choose without being imitative.
Enough with the philosophy. You can do no harm by studying the Zone system and using it as a means of judging how well your photographic technique shows what you saw in the original scene, whether realistically or impressionistically.
There used to be terms used by those who made a living criticizing photographs. Seminal and terminal come to mind. Was Ansel Adams, for example, sowing seed or did he breed a bunch who wanted to stand where he did and make photos that were just like his? The answer is "Both." His alter ego as a gifted musician made him see a scene as a melody to be fitted into a musical scale. If we take that insight as a starting point without ever looking at one of his photos, we can make great pictures of whatever we choose without being imitative.
Enough with the philosophy. You can do no harm by studying the Zone system and using it as a means of judging how well your photographic technique shows what you saw in the original scene, whether realistically or impressionistically.
