What if Ansel Adams used Photoshop and Lightroom?

Photographica · Mar 10, 2025

I've always been a fan of Adams' work. As I studied how he created such stunning results, I greatly appreciated his work process. Adams is quoted as saying,
"The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance."
Much of his artistry was created in the darkroom - after capturing the image.

It makes me wonder "What if Ansel Adams had used Photoshop/Lightroom or equivalent post processing digital tools?"

He was a master of dodging, burning, and tone control in all his prints. I can't help but wonder if the digital workspace would have taken his artistry further or would it have been pretty much the same.

What do you think?

Don_ih · Mar 10, 2025

Photographica said:
wonder if the digital workspace would have taken his artistry further or would it have been pretty much the same

It likely would have made his work different. As it was, he had to use the materials, methods, and means available to him. That, along with what he learned because of it, enabled and limited him, at the same time, to produce what he did. Everything involved is now very different.

AnselMortensen · Mar 10, 2025

I shudder to think of what his work would look like in HDR.
But digital editing would have made spotting in the "LP" on the hillside a lot easier.

Paul Howell · Mar 10, 2025

AA kept up with time time, he started the ZS with a Weston wide angle meter and by the late 70s had moved on the Pentax digital spot meter. I was told by one of his assistants that he was using a Nikon F to replace his 40s vintage Context. He updated his LF cameras and lens over the years. Moving to digital would have natural, MF, CCD, and PS. His work would have evolved, his workflow, previsualize, use the back screen as a polaroid for feedback, take notes and fix in PS. Maybe a Leica or Pentax monochrome sensor.

4season · Mar 10, 2025

AA witnessed firsthand early digital processes, and marveled at the possibilities in his autobiography.

koraks · Mar 10, 2025

Photographica said:
What do you think?

I think that if he had been born 5 minutes earlier, he might have become a concert pianist. If he had been born 5 minutes later, he might have become the head of the sanitary department of the municipality of San Francisco. Had he been born 10 minutes later, he could have ended up being a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. If he had had access to photoshop and lightroom, he might have become a writer of children's books, with a habit of designing his own book covers contributing marginally to his success as a writer.

What if, what if... What if questions like these don't really make sense?

nikos79 · Mar 10, 2025

He would probably make even more boring photos

albireo · Mar 10, 2025

nikos79 said:
He would probably make even more boring photos

I love you

nikos79 · Mar 10, 2025

albireo said:
I love you

Don_ih · Mar 10, 2025

koraks said:
What if, what if... What if questions like these don't really make sense?

The question makes perfect sense. It's hypothetical and a talking point. Something to be discussed. That's all. People can state differing opinions and even argue a bit. All good fun.

MattKing · Mar 10, 2025

He would probably be happy with the subscription model .

nikos79 · Mar 10, 2025

But seriously I believe that all these amazing printers of the past (Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Dave Heath, etc.) they would feel they are in paradise with Lightroom

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 10, 2025

If a bull had an utter, it would be a cow.

Don_ih · Mar 10, 2025

Alan Edward Klein said:
If a bull had an utter, it would

speak.

MattKing · Mar 10, 2025

Speaking somewhat philosophically, it may be the response to the constraints artists have to deal with that informs the value of the work they create.
And any boredom associated with Adams' work is mostly a consequence of familiarity. It is difficult to put ourselves in the shoes of those who were seeing much of it for the first time, when it was relatively new.

Don_ih · Mar 10, 2025

MattKing said:
And any boredom associated with Adams' work is mostly a consequence of familiarity. It is difficult to put ourselves in the shoes of those who were seeing much of it for the first time, when it was relatively new.

Wellllll, you don't need to be the shoes of those people to appreciate it. In fact, any appreciation of it now is not related to that, since that is an impossible experiential aspect - that's relegated to fantasy, now. And it is completely possible to be bored because of the subject matter. Many people are not interested in photos of those things, even if the photos are excellently executed and printed.

albireo · Mar 10, 2025

MattKing said:
And any boredom associated with Adams' work is mostly a consequence of familiarity.

Mostly, perhaps, but not always, Matt. For me, boredom with Mr Adams is a consequence of not being interested in his work in the slightest.

It's just me though. I put him in the same bin as all the Beatles albums before Revolver. I know they're seminal in a way, I know I should assess them within the right historical perspective, yet I can find at least 10.000 better ways to spend my time.

retina_restoration · Mar 10, 2025

koraks said:
What if, what if... What if questions like these don't really make sense?

To quote Gino D'Acampo: "If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike"

Harry Callahan · Mar 10, 2025

Photographica said:
...

It makes me wonder "What if Ansel Adams had used Photoshop/Lightroom or equivalent post processing digital tools?"

He was a master of dodging, burning, and tone control in all his prints. I can't help but wonder if the digital workspace would have taken his artistry further or would it have been pretty much the same.

What do you think?

When people try to develop film they sometimes read books of the old masters and also try these techniques. Then people here tell them that some techniques apply to old film emulsions from the past, don`t work at all with new film or not as good - and also say that AA for example hadn`t done this or that if he have had a modern film back then.

I don`t know what goal AA had, if he was striving for technical perfection or if he wanted to be able to interpret a subject the way he wanted it to look - but for sure he was using all the technical possibilities available to him.
If he had been born 30 years later, he would have used modern film and if he was born even later he also would have used digital.
As digital does provide more technical possibilities, his pictures either would have even more dynamic range etc. or would be even more interpreted the way he wanted his pictures to look like. As far as i know there are several versions of this "moonrise"(?) picture and with digital it would be easier to do several version of this, more "intense" versions of this - and crank them out at higher pace.

But as digital is faster/easier/more flexible, he probably wouldn`t be as famous today as he was back then - because today everyone else also has these possibilities, without having to learn and experiment for decades.

nikos79 · Mar 10, 2025

I am (not) interested in the work of Ansel Adams. I actually consider his portraits his best work. But landscape wise he failed to reach the craft and artistic representation of his so-called mentor Carleton Watkins. Boredom comes from seeing his repetitive failure. I liked the analogy to Beatles albums He is definitely a decent photographer who is considered (by many) seminal but doesn't belong among the greatest (again my opinion)

BrianShaw · Mar 10, 2025

Ansel Adams' Legacy and Your Digital Camera

Overview Ansel Adams is known for his artistry in what has become known as Landscape Photography. He also contributed to advancing the technical aspects of bringing this artistry to light. In this class, you will learn some of Ansel’s important innovations to photography and how they relate to...

shop.anseladams.com

RalphLambrecht · Mar 10, 2025

Photographica said:
I've always been a fan of Adams' work. As I studied how he created such stunning results, I greatly appreciated his work process. Adams is quoted as saying,
"The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance."
Much of his artistry was created in the darkroom - after capturing the image.

It makes me wonder "What if Ansel Adams had used Photoshop/Lightroom or equivalent post processing digital tools?"

He was a master of dodging, burning, and tone control in all his prints. I can't help but wonder if the digital workspace would have taken his artistry further or would it have been pretty much the same.

What do you think?

He wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole. Nothing smells better than fixer in the morning.

Vaughn · Mar 10, 2025

He would have expressed visually what he wanted to express. What that may be would be guessing. The tool also shapes its user.

mshchem · Mar 10, 2025

AA had creative control over printing of his calendars and books. The lithographers didn't snap a photo of a finished print. I'm sure that there was, quite a bit of manipulation before it became a calendar.

Not trying to take anything away from AA, his prints are amazing. All the new analog technology that's come about in the last 40 years would have him joyful.

Hassasin · Mar 10, 2025

AA did use Photoshop of his day. Final print typically had little to do with the negative used.

What if Ansel Adams used Photoshop and Lightroom?

Photographica

Don_ih

AnselMortensen

Paul Howell

4season

koraks

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nikos79

albireo

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Don_ih

MattKing

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Alan Edward Klein

Don_ih

MattKing

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Don_ih

albireo

retina_restoration

Harry Callahan

nikos79

BrianShaw

Ansel Adams' Legacy and Your Digital Camera

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Vaughn

mshchem

Hassasin

What if Ansel Adams used Photoshop and Lightroom?

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