Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams

I have read two very similar photography books both published in 2010 by Focal Press.Strangely enough, both have the same title: Digital Landscape Photography.The one, reviewed here, by Michael Frye has a subtitle "In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters" to help differentiate them.(The other, by the way is authored by John and Barbara Gerlach). I have read the two books one after the other and I can not help comparing them.Both are meant to be read by beginners and provide info on aperture values, shutter speeds, ISO values etc..Frye's book is slightly shorter and smaller with less text.If you are accustomed to digital SLR cameras and call yourself an advanced amateur, you are unlikely to find much new information in any of them.If you have just bought your first DSLR with the kit lens, you may find these books worthy of some attention.They both offer beautiful landscape images and some sound advice accompanying them.Frye's book offer more software tips; if you are not familiar with the basic operations (levels, curves etc.) it may serve you better.If, on the other hand, you think you want to know more down to earth (literally) advice on finding & selecting a location and need more advice on the use of a DSLR camera, the other book offers more.There is nothing wrong if you buy both. However, their content overlaps significantly and they both use repetitions freely to stress the basics.If you think you can buy just one of them, Gerlachs' book probably offers more scope and info. It is also organized better.Frye's book offer many images of the Yosemite region and El Capitan including some by Ansel Adams.HDR and exposure blending techniques, which are probably essential in landscape photography, are handled by both.As you may expect, Frye's book devotes less space to these techniques.The famous "Zone System" is dealt with only in Frye's book.The image and paper quality is very good. The typeface is darker (good) in Frye's book; however, the font size is smaller.Overall, the layout of Gerlachs' book is better but its letters are printed gray for some aesthetic reason that escapes me.Certainly, this is a fine book on "digital landscape photography" for a beginner.However, there are better ones and there will always be!

This is THE book. After years of studying photography I have never felt like I could call myself a true photographer. I have studied Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston back in the day but could never reach the level I had hoped as a photographer. Michael Frye has changed all of that. By putting his book in context with the great photographers like Adams, Porter and Weston and by bridging from old school terms like dodging and burning and the Zone System to new terms like Curves and HDR he has finally put it all together for me. Even the simple task of deciding between using Photoshop or Lightroom just popped into place. After five books and two Workshops on Lightroom vs Photoshop and walking away with more questions than answers, Michael solved my dilemma in one Paragraph. Having known Ansel Adams and being blessed to have attended one of his Yosemite Workshops; I feel I am in a unique place to judge the author's ability to bring Ansel up to the digital world. To those who have asked the question what would Ansel do if he was using digital photography today? Michael Frye has the unique ability to answer that question too. Ansel was an old spirit with great insight and the wisdom to deliver his insight with very few words. So does Michael. In discussions of Moonrise over Hernandez, Clearing Storm and other Adams classics, Mr. Frye brings the spirit of "f64"* to the digital age. Because I am a constant photographer of Yosemite, I can also judge the work that Michael has done. He is a wonderful and talented photographer and he has the eye to see what most people will never see. All of this comes together in a well produced book expressed in simple terms and with appropriate screen shots, not to mention spectacular photographs, to open the world of digital photography to all so others who could not see before will now be able to see. I am looking forward to more from Michael Frye. He is a gifted photographer and teacher, and now, publisher.* f64 was a small group of photographers, led by Adams and Weston, who came together in the 1940's to share their thoughts and musings. f64 is the smallest aperture of their favorite camera of the time, the 8 x 10 View camera.

I brought a second hand version of this book from Amazon. In my opinion, this is the finest book that I have read on the subject of digital landscape photography.The illustrations are superb and relevant to the points the author is making in the text. The techniques described are clearly written and leave nothing to misunderstand. Although I have about 50 years plus experience of photography, I learnt a great deal from this book.The only negative issue that I have is the authors view that graduated filters on the camera lens are no longer really needed as they are available in Photoshop etc. I now tend to use these more than polarising filters, but recognise this is rather a personal thing.

As an amateur photographer of 40 years plus I was interested in knowing what was now possible with the many recent advances in digital photography.This book was ideal as it covers the whole process from initial visualisation through to post processing and tips on using Photoshop.As a result I am now the owner of a new camera so I can take full advantage of the RAW format and an up to date copy of Photoshop.It has certainly opened my eyes to the new technology and the many fine photographs in the book were an inspiration.I am sure anybody who is interested in landscape photography will find something in this book that will improve their pictures.

I am strictly an amateur when it comes to landscape photography and would love to able to take stunning photos. No matter how hard I have tried they always lack something extra. On reading this book I realised there is so much more to taking a photo than just point, shoot, and hope. Read this book if you want to get better at photography, it's as simple as that.

I found this book to be extremely helpful in my quest to improve the quality of my photographs.The photos in the book are fantastic and the author explains how, why and where they were taken.It is one of the best books I have read on landscape photography and highly recommend it to anybody with an interest in improving there photography skills.

Really exceeded my expectations. There are some really great descriptions especially around the use of histograms and how to get the best out of them. Would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their capability in the landscape area.