Ansel Adams: The Camera

Ansel Adams is considered one of the great American Photographers. And he is, and he is also a master teacher. Toward the end of his life he wrote a trilogy on Photography: The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. I recently completed The Camera and hope to read the other two books in the series soon.

The Camera is the introductory volume and it is about the equipment of photography but Adams also begins to teach about composing and taking the picture. But as that topic will occupy much of the second volume he just briefly touches on it here.

This is an excellent book and well worth the time to read it. Now, you may ask yourself, what can a book over 25 years old teach me about cameras? Aren't we in a digital world now. Well, yes we are, but the fundamental design of cameras and lenes haven't changed. Now, instead of film you shoot on sensors, and instead of sending out your pictures to a lab you download them to your computer. And then the fun starts...but that's another story. Also, much of the world has gone to digital, but not all the world. As you read this book you might be encouraged to try other formats of cameras besides the digital 35mm or maybe dust off your old 35mm film camera and give it a try again.

A bit of background that I didn't know before I read this book is that the 35mm is considered a small format camera. There are also medium and large format cameras (and some specialty cameras like a panorama camera). The 35mm camera produces a negative that is 24x36mm in size. Medium format cameras can produce negatives in several different sizes; some popular ones are 4.5x6cm, 6x6cm, and 6x7cm. Many professional photographers use a medium format camera for their work. For example Annie Leibowitz uses a medium format Mamiya camera. Then there are large format camera. They produce negatives typically 4x5inches and 8x10inches. If you remember pictures of a camera with the photographer under a dark cloth or have been to a portrait studio then you most likely have seen a large format camera. They have little changed in 100 years but still produce spectacular pictures. There are many more adjustments you can make with a large format camera (also known as a view camera) than you can make with any other type of camera.

Ansel Adams has a chapters on each camera type, on what he calls visualization, which is looking at a scene and visualizing what the finished photograph will look like. He also has a long chapter on lenses, basic image management and using camera in different situations, such as handheld or on a tripod. He has a chapter on view-camera adjustments, and here you learn of the power and flexibility of the large format camera. This chapter engaged me so much that I would like to eventually get a large format camera and see what I can do with one. Throughout the text Adams explains the mechanics of taking good pictures as he talks about the different cameras, lenes and other equipment. Adams talks about how to compose pictures, camera position (near and far, how would the image look if the camera were shifted left or right, etc.), depth of field and hyper-focus. I found his discussion of depth of field very clear and I believe I understand this important photographic concept much better. Adams encourages you to think of the photographic possibilities where ever you are, even if you never take out your camera.

Another great thing about this book is that it is filled with Adams's pictures that illustrate the text. All in all this is a wonderful work.

Where to get the books: I initially borrowed the set from a friend of mine but I saw that it would be useful for me to have my own copies. New in hard back these are $40-$50 a piece. Now there are also paperback versions for about half that. I went to the used book market and got the hardback books from 3 different vendors for $29 total including shipping so I recommend that route.

I highly recommend this book, it will give you a solid grounding in photographic equipment and the basics of taking a good pictures...even in a digital world.

5 out of 5 stars