The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2) by Ansel Adams
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Book Reviews of The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2)
Book Review: The best photography books on the market!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the 2nd book in Ansel Adams photography series. I really cant stress enough the importance of reading all 3 of these books and reading them in their proper order. Ansel talks about a lot of techniques and many of these techniques build upon previous knowledge. If your serious enough about photography to have an interest in these books then you should want to do it right and doing it right is buying all 3 books and reading them in order.
The negative is imo the most important book in the series and this is because this book really teaches you the ins and outs of the Zone System, which in case your unaware is the photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development. On top of that its a pre-visualization tool that really makes you understand how a scene is translated into a photographic image. There is no better system in photography period. If you take the time to learn the zone system from top to bottom, I guarantee you will become a photographer who is in complete control of the photographic techniques required to make an amazing final print. If you want to become a master or just a great photographer, there is no better place to start than learning the zone system.
As I have said in my reviews of the other books in this series, this is not a series for a beginner and this book in particular will be extremely difficult for a beginner to stomach. While this is probably the best written technical book in all of photography, some of it can still be incredibly difficult for beginners to grasp. If your a beginner I recommend reading a beginner photography book. One that will teach you the basics. Once you have a solid foundation of the basics, then start on this series.
I wont bother going into any more detail in regards to what this book teaches. That would take too much time and it would make this review way too long. As the name of the book clearly states, this book's focus is on the negative and as I am sure your aware the neg is the shot. If you screw up the neg, chances are nothing you can do will fix the image. This book will teach you how to get that perfect neg each and every time regardless of conditions.
The bottom line - This is hands down the best 3 book series on photography ever made. If you are serious about photography and want to learn how to master shooting and printing in black and white then look no further.
Book Review: One of the best book in teaching photography
Summary: 5 Stars
The core of this book is probably the zone system. Before reading the book, I had heard many comments on how complicated and inpractical this system is. However, I found this system to be a extremely reliable, easily understood and an applicable system to work with. It is IMO the best system to work with. There are obviously many contents about shooting in films. Ansel passed away in 1984. I dont think you can expect him to write about digital age even if he could predict the rise of digital camera. Still, the zone system and many insights are extremely helpful even for digital photography. I am also surprised on how well the book is written with many detail samples and how the zone system can be applied to these samples. This is a must have for anyone who wants to make better exposures.
With the zone system, you will know exactly how bright/contrast your photo should turn out. You will know which part of your picture will be underexposed, which part of your picture will be overexposed even before you take the picture because you can predict which zone each individual part of the picture will fall into with just a few metering and calculation. In turn, you can control exactly how your picture should turn out, and what exposure will get you the best photo. Some people may complain that it requires too much metering. Actually, you only need to meter the most important parts (usually the brightest and the darkest part, or your favorite part) of the photo in order to make sure they appear fine in your picture. Taking a few meter will save you a lot of time from going back to PS your pictures. Ansel is a genius to come up with this system!
Book Review: The Negative is all Positive
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book I turn to for the heavy duty technical data on the most important aspects of photography, but guess what? This is probably one of the most readable and easy to digest technical books on photography you are ever likely to read or need. Adams has a way of making mysterious worlds within Photography accessable. I will admit though that this book is not for the absolute beginner, though having said that those who want to stretch a little could find much that is of use without having too much knowledge off the mark.When I looked at the three books of this series, The Camera, The Negative and the Print, I waded into each wanting to choose only the best one from the series. I quickly realised that neither of the other two had what The Negative had and I have subsequently realised that this was by far the best choice for me. The negative deals with Visualization and image values, Light and Film, Exposure, The Zone System, Filters and Pre-Exposure, Natural Light, Artifical Light, Darkroom processes, Dark Room equiptment and procedures and value control in processing.
This book is an absolute must for intermediate photographers who have mastered the basics and want to take a step up into the world of greater control over their imaging with an eye to developing and processing their own film and prints. Everything you need to know about getting your images right before you even hit the shutter is in this book, all you need to do now is accentuate the positive by going and buying The NEGATIVE!
Book Review: An excellent technical reference
Summary: 5 Stars
Concisely written in Adams' own scholarly style, "The Negative" is a valuable resource for photographers learning the foundation of technically correct (as opposed to generally good) base exposure in a variety of scenes, both pedestrian and those that are more conflicting. One must, however, consider that more than 4 decades have passed since the techniques were founded and the technology described can be viewed, in many cases, with a quaint tug at nostalgia. Today's evaluative and matrix metering systems, programmed along the Zone System, do a remarkable job where once exposure was tedious and error prone, and this is where learning the Zone System to competently handle difficult scenes is a useful addition to a photographer's "book of tricks". But despite the clarity of explanation and steps, Adams' Zone System remains a complex, intertwining system to understand (theory) and apply (field application); it never was and never will be a five-minute task. For B&W fine art photographers, "The Negative" holds a timeless reference quality with many techniques remaining the solid benchmarks for fine art production. In summary, a tremendously good read and a most valuable addition to any learned photographer's library.
The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2)
Book Review: Zone System still relevant in digital age
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite the heavy emphasis on chemical negatives, this book's essentially a clinic on Adams' Zone System for contrast control. As such, it's still totally relevant for the digital age. If you're using chemical negatives, this book's an absolute must have. Adams' attention to detail in testing contrast and resolution in various lighting situations forms the core of the Zone System and of this book.
Issues such as filtration remain the same today as they did with negatives. Although pushing and pulling film is carried out differently in the digital age, it's not impossible if you have even a modicum of exposure control (for instance, overexposing and lowering brightness will still yield lower contrast). And if you are into digital, you'll gloat at your full control of exposure tweaks beyond the one-dimensional control you get with timing chemicals in solution.
One thing that may be disappointing is the emphasis on black and white. There's a brief description of color, but it really deserves a book of its own. This is especially true for filtration and contrast control.
The three books in this series can be read independently, but together provide a complete clinic from positioning the camera to displaying a final print.