Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters

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Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Eliot Porter were amongst the greatest landscape photographers of the twentieth century. Unlike many of today's photographers, they used film. The book "In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters: Digital Landscape Photography" tries to translate their techniques into the language of modern digital photography.

The first part of the book, called "Technical Foundations" deals with the basic techniques of digital photography with emphasis on how those techniques might be applied to landscape photography. Experienced users may find little new here, although the explanation of the zone system may introduce people who have mastered the histogram to another method of calculating exposure. At the same time, the explanations of the fundamentals may prove much too pithy for beginners. Perhaps the section will most help those already familiar with the basics to understand how to apply these techniques like the masters.

The second part of the book, entitled "Light, Composition and the Art of Seeing" evokes the masters, mostly by quoting their words. The images presented are primarily those of Frye, but those familiar with the masters will recognize that much of his work is clearly derived from their style, except for being captured digitally and usually in color. Although this aspect of photography is the most amorphous to describe in writing, Frye does a good job, and his lovely pictures, taken mostly in Yosemite and other favorite locations of Adams, are well worth studying.

The final part deals with "The Digital Darkroom: Editing, Processing and Printing" and it is here that Frye shows how I imagine the masters would use modern image processing software and hardware rather than the chemical darkroom. Although quite extensive, it is certainly not a Photoshop primer. Instead those who already know how to use such software will see examples of how Frye uses it to emulate the style of the masters. Since most Photoshop manuals do not show many examples of actual applications, this can be quite useful.

My only complaint with the book is that I would have liked a few more photographs by the masters included, with some deeper analysis of the images to reveal the techniques they used to fulfill their vision. There is still plenty of room for the photographer to view and analyze their works in other books.

No photographers should expect (or fear) that after reading this book they will take pictures like the masters. Instead, they should expect that some of the techniques, if adopted, will be incorporated into their own style and add to the quality of their images.

From the on line book description, I was expecting something a bit different. Yet I am not at all disappointed. The description states that the book "[c]ontains a number of breathtaking works by Ansel Adams and other landscape masters such as Edward Weston and Elliot Porter." In 160 pages, there are only three images from Adams, and one each from Weston and Porter. With my own personal feelings about Ansel Adams' work, I looked forward to seeing more. But as I went through the book further and further, I realized that the real value of the book was not merely appreciating Adams' finished works, but rather Frye's own work and how he uses it to show HOW Adams did what he did in a systematic manner. Adams' manual filtering, dodging, burning, etc., are all brought forward into the age of digital photography and digital manipulation of those photographs. For anyone at least somewhat familiar with Adams' ability to "see" a photo before he even took it, as well as his darkroom magic to leave details in both deep shadows and bright highlights, Frye's step-by-step instruction actually helped me appreciate Adams' work even more.

Someone just beginning in photography who does not know what Ansel Adams did beyond taking nice looking pictures in black and white, would likely get lost very quickly in this book. Someone who has never gone beyond automatic settings with a camera will have a very difficult time following the book. It simply isn't for beginners. But an amateur photographer with at least reasonable experience using manual settings to get desired effects with either light or depth of field, will be able to appreciate this book and learn from it. Experienced amateurs, and I would suspect many professionals, will find this book very helpful with both improvement in technique as well as greater appreciation for the work of the past film-era masters such as Adams, particularly.

While the author assumes at least some familiarity with software such as Photoshop, even a limited degree of experience with it will enable the reader to improve his or her results. This is not a tutorial on the zone system, nor use of software, but rather a good overall demonstration of how each is applied to create a finished product in the digital age. Along the way there is sufficient detailed instruction, however, to make it very practical and useful.

Probably the only reason I did not give it a 5-star rating is because I would like to have seen a bit more on the steps, rather than brief overviews of various photographs and their changes with two or three versions of a photo before the finished product. This isn't to say there isn't considerable written instruction to go along with the images, but there is only so much one can put into a 160 page book covering topics for which whole instructional courses could be designed. Twice the size with correspondingly more detail in the instruction would have been wonderful. And perhaps that's a very positive endorsement of what IS in the book - enough to be appreciated as well as quite useful, with the quality that prompts a desire for even more.

Again, though I didn't get exactly what I expected, and I would like to have had more of what I did get, I'll restate what I said in the beginning: I am not at all disappointed with my selection. If I had first encountered it in a book store and spent some time looking through it, I am quite confident I would have purchased it. In reality, I'd put it at 4½ stars (I reserve 5 stars for only the absolute best products - and this certainly came close). I give it a strong recommendation for anyone who wants to go beyond "good" photography and is willing to put in the effort. This is not a "read it once and you understand" book. Very nice job, Mr. Frye.

Digital Landscape Photography
Excellent adaptation of light masters to digital media -minimum self advertising.

Truly an enjoyable and useful book that dissects the Ansel Adams et al style and then explains how to achieve a similar vision in today's digital media. I was immediately taken in by a discussion of one of Adam's classics, "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941". Briefly we are exposed to his vision, and learn how to see beyond the obvious. Technique for an enduring masterwork - compose in one's mind then incorporate emotions to be be moved in one's heart. Hard to put into words, but Michael Frye succeeds quite well.

Surprisingly the notion of a pure image is also dispelled. In other words what you may be tempted to do in Photoshop, Ansel did as well in the darkroom. Dodging and burning are translated into manipulating the curves, layers, saturation and other parameters available to us now. So rest assured, and feel free to evolve your image, Ansel would have done the same.

Much of the book is spent on discussion of the Zone System. Briefly, diving the light in the scene in up to 10 zones from the lightest to the darkest. This is equated to evaluating a digital images' histograms. Explanations are given regarding when pictures should be high tone (mostly bright) or low tone (mostly dark) and when its just fine to have a gray image. We are also taught about the multiple exposures and HDR images. Combining over and underexposed images in such a way to enhance the image by showing details that otherwise would be hidden in the shadows of erased in blown out highlights.

There are examples of each of these methods sprinkled liberally throughout the book. This is where my comment about self advertising comes in. Many photo self help books are actually a gallery of the authors best works, we are not involved in the process all that much and are simply told to admire.

This is not the case in this book. It succeeds very well in exploring the inner artist in those of us who may not be handy with a paintbrush, but are capable with a camera. The explanation of the thought process behind some of the excellent masters works here (ie Clearing Winter Storm by Adams) combined with the hardware and software techniques makes this an excellent reference source material.

For the beginner it illustrates some of the possibilities, for the advanced amateur it offers the glimpse of becoming a master.

On a technical note, the book is a soft cover one, but the cover and pages are heavy stock that feels plasticized and high quality. Unfortunately the dark pages show fingerprints quite distinctly.

Finally the quality of the images would make this book feel quite at home on a coffee table for the quests to browse through as well.

I've been a fan of Michael Frye's work for some time and was eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this book. When all was said and done I felt unfulfilled. He lightly touched on the masters and their techniques with only a few examples. I wish there head been more depth to the discussion. Same for the digital darkroom. Very high level suggestions. Finally, the book had a *lot* of typos, some grammatical errors and the zone/histogram diagram on page 43 was obviously wrong (which the author now mentions on his website). In short worth a read, but the book lacks depth and could have used a proof reader.

I spent a lot of my teenage years doing darkroom photography. I still have some of my black and white photos and it's still a passion for me, but there is NO WAY I have time to spend hours on one print in the darkroom. Digital photography is now getting resolutions that rival the best film, and new software like Nik Software Complete Collection - Professional Photographic Tools for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture lets you convert shots to black and white and even choose film grain and a gray scale altered by the Zone System.

Armed with such software and this book, you can adjust your digital photography along with scoping out subjects to attempt the type of work exemplified by Ansel Adams.

The Zone System was a way of exposing, developing then printing film to enhance the range of grays or alter the contrast of a photograph. Since digital photography doesn't involve development but relies on software to "process" your raw image, this book goes into histograms, exposure alterations, bracketing shots, shadows versus highlights, and filters. (Filters were used to change the light hitting film and taking advantage of differential sensitivity to colors of light in black and white film or enhancing the polarization of light. Only a polarizing filter really works on digital cameras. So to use "filters" you have to employ a digital algorithm to replicate the effect, say, of a yellow filter on a blue sky.)

There is also information on choosing subjects, composition and cropping as well as color enhancement. The book is lavishly illustrated with excellent photographs that are printed beautifully so you can appreciate the details.

Probably for me, the three most valuable chapters are processing order (how to use the software to fix the photo), expanding the contrast range (getting that "Zone" effect) and finally, printing, always the most challenging part since what you see on the screen isn't what comes out of the printer.

If you admire classic photography and want to replicate its beauty with digital tools, this book is essential. Big Thumbs Up.

Humbling. Both the book, as well as the reviews posted to date. This book indicates how the master landscape photographers, like Ansel Adams, might have taken their pictures if they had a digital camera. Frye has included everything you would expect from a quality "how-to" book. He has mastered his material, does not talk down to the reader, and makes his points lucidly. He knows a lot more than I do, and that is why you pay the money for his expertise. He has included numerous quality pictures, often taken in similar settings to the "masters." For me the real strength was looking at multiple pictures of the same scene, as taken under different parameters.

And then there are the other reviews. Submitted by those who will probably always understand the zone system, tone, composition, and digital manipulation better than I. Still, there is much to aspire to, and as one reviewer said, "...for the advanced amateur it offers the glimpse of becoming a master."

So, I struggled to find something original to say, in order to "thank" the Vine program for its book. And there is was on page 6: "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico," a copy of the photography that Ansel Adams took in 1941. A lot of photographers have been moved by this picture, so, why not try, as a first approximation, to duplicate what Adams admitted was a "lucky shot," in digital? There is a book entitled "New Mexico, then and now," in which the author traveled around the state, taking pictures in the same spot as one was taken 50-100 years ago, in order to illustrate the development and changes. Even he didn't try! The problem is this: Google might easily find Hernandez, but you'll have a much more difficult time sorting out where it is in the doublewides that sprawl along US 84, north of Espanola. I persevered though, and suddenly it dawned on me that I was standing in the exact spot that Adams had. There was the church; there was a sliver of the graveyard. But the austerity was long gone, replaced with congestion, including doublewides and bright red pickup trucks. A picture is obviously possible, if your inclinations run towards Diane Arbus. True landscape photographers should carry crying towel in hand.

Well, when your own resources are limited, and inadequate for any further effort, as the former Vermont Senator, George Aiken once said about Vietnam: "It is time to declare victory, and get out." And so I will, but not before thanking Michael Frye for an excellent book that will be a standard reference for many years to come. Highly recommended.

"Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters" is the book to read if you are interested in landscape photography. It doens't matter if you are a beginner, intermediate or expert photographer, this book will have useful information for everyone (of course, more useful/new information for the beginners).

What I really like about this book is that this book covers the zone system and the importance of histogram in detail (and how to read the histogram), and this book also cover digital image editing to enhance your landscape image (post-processing). I also enjoy the sample photos that were included. They are beautiful, inspiring, and elaborate the point/explanation they are making.

Pros:
1. Cover all the beginner topics (shutter speed, aperture, exposure, sharpness, IQ, etc)
2. Cover zone system
3. Cover histogram
4. Cover light, composition, and art of seeing
5. Cover more intermediate topics (white balance, color, RAW, bracketing, etc)
6. Cover image editing and printing
7. Includes so many beautiful (and relevant) landscape photos (with a few Ansel Adam's sample work)

Cons: I can't think any really.

Happy Landscape Photographing!

Sidarta Tanu

Well worth the purchase for the chapter on editing, processing and printing alone!

This is a relatively slim volume - 160 pages - given the breadth of the subject matter covered. If each of the chapters were given a full treatment this book would easily be 3 or 4 times the size. That's not the point though. What the author appears to be attempting, and achieves in my opinion, is to enhance the readers visual literacy and show how you can use the tools of the digital darkroom to mimic the approach the masters used in the traditional darkroom. How did the masters approach subjects and develop emotion in their photographs? This is illustrated through a combination of photographs from the masters and also from the authors own work - much better this way than pages and pages of text. The section on editing, processing and printing I thought was particularly good - I liked the dodging and burning examples and would happily have seen this section doubled. I'm sure that this book will be well thumbed in the weeks to come.

I have been a customer of Amazon since 1997. This book inspired me to write my first review. I took up photography, February, 2010. I wanted to learn how to take better landscape photos, to create the eyecatching photos that Ansel Adams and the other greats are known for. I have read a very complicated book about the Zone System and, although I understood the concept, putting it into practice was another matter. This book, however, made it so simple and easy to understand, from a digital standpoint, that I now use it quite often.

Before this book, I see something I like, I shoot it. Now, I stop and analyze the light. Why? Because the writer spoke of the fact that we are really photographing light and the way it is being reflected. So, now, even though a scene is pretty, if there is nothing special about the light, I don't bother shooting it. I am aware of the meaning of the word "photograph." This book has really help me to "see" differently.

Last, but not least, I like the organization of the book. It follows the natural workflow from picture-taking to processing and printing.

There are times I pick out a book not because I understand it, but because I want to evaluate it as a student of the subject. Not being a photographer of any particular skill, and knowing just enough about Ansel Adams to know that his Zone System is a pretty important part of a photographer's education, I figured I'd grab this one.

Well, it's certainly a stunningly beautiful book. Frye is a top-notch landscape photographer, and the bulk of both his and the other artists in the book's pictures are taken in California, particularly in the Yosemite. The Zone System gets a brief rundown (the zones are essentially approximate light/darkness values, numbered 1 to 11), and is applied to the best of the author's ability to the new digital world. But there is also extensive attention paid to post-production (the "digital darkroom", as the book puts it), including information on retouching, tweaking colors, and data handling.

Here's where we get to a bit of a problem though. It's hard to really control your shooting with a point-and-shoot camera, but that's what your average beginner is probably going to start off with. In that situation, post-production becomes much more important, since it's only in the $80-$150 range that the digital point-and-shooter is going to start to get much of any control at all over the process, and lower than that (children's cameras, keychain cameras, and the like) you may as well be heading into Lomography territory, where the rules are completely different and the found object trumps all other artistic considerations. For a photographer who doesn't have a lightmeter or the fine-grained control of a digital SLR, this book won't be useless, but it will definitely be limited largely to post-processing the image in Photoshop, Aperture, and similar programs. As I mentioned years ago in my review of the first edition of Michael Rubin's Little Digital Video Book, this is a risky thing to do because it short-shrifts artists working on a shoestring, and I consider it a serious flaw. But there's still a lot to be learned from it.

As a serious photo-hobbyist I enjoy reading photography books. When this book was offered I was reading Matthew Bamberg's 101 Quick and Easy Ideas Taken from the Master Photographers of the Twentieth Century. Selecting Digital Landscape Photography by Michael Frye seemed like the perfect follow up book.

The book begins with the "Technical Foundations" chapter which describes how to obtain desired results using digital cameras. Next, "Light, Composition, and the Art of Seeing" discusses numerous aspects related to light and composition. Lastly, "The Digital Darkroom: Editing, Processing, and Printing" describes how film darkroom techniques apply to today's digital image processing. The methods of mostly Ansel Adams, but also Edward Weston and Eliot Porter are analyzed and translated for use with today's digital cameras.

A prime example of how this book is composed can be seen with the ten page discussion of the Adams' Zone System. Michael Frye describes the history and creation of the Zone System, and how effectively Ansel used it. He then explains the Zone System process and how to use it with digital cameras. Numerous images are added which support the accompanied text, providing visual representation of the system.

The book's glossy paper shows the images nicely. However, light reflects off the paper occasionally making reading difficult without readjusting the book's position. Worse yet was how the paper attracts fingerprints, especially noticeable in the darker colored areas of the page. Additionally I found some of the text to be dry, which made me read the book in small sections at a time.

In spite of the dry sections, Michael's analysis of the master's methods and how digital photographers can take advantage of them is valuable information. The book is full of Michael Frye's amazing images as well as three from Ansel Adams, and one each from Edward Weston and Eliot Porter. The images are not just a feast for the eyes, but also support and relate to every lesson.

When it comes to photography books, this one is well worth the read. I wouldn't recommend this book to novice; a person should at least have a basic understanding of using their camera in manual mode before reading it. Intermediate to advanced digital photographers should find plenty of reason to enjoy and learn from this book.

PROS:
Uses lessons from the masters applied to digital photography
Informative
Full of amazing images

CONS:
Paper attracts fingerprints and smudges
Michael Frye's writing style is a little dry

If I had to describe what kind of photographer I am, I would say a beginner, a novice, or an amateur. Well maybe not a beginner, beginner, but Ansel Adams I am not. However, I am married to someone who I would consider a serious photographer, who has both the talent and some pretty expensive camera equipment (both film format..Nikon F100, and digital...Nikon D80) to take some magnificent pictures. While I don't think that I have reached semi-professional status YET, I do think that I have an eye for what will make a beautiful picture, and consider myself to be quite the assistant. So when I saw this book offered thru Vine, I thought it would be helpful to learn how to use some of the same techniques utilized by Ansel Adams and several other renown photographers to create some of the most beautiful photographs ever taken.

What did I think of this book? While it wasn't what I thought it would be, but it wasn't a disappointment. First, I was expecting something a lot bigger, although when I really think about it, it makes sense that it isn't. It isn't a coffee table book, but a short manual on photography techniques. Therefore, it makes sense that it is small, thin, and has a bendable cover that allows you to slip it into a camera bag (especially the back pack type that I use). So when you see those potential shots, you can easily pull it out and refer to some of the techniques outlined. Secondly, Frye takes painstaking steps to explain why you should use various techniques, how to do them, and what you should expect in the final product. And while now digital photography is the craze, you can use the same techniques (what to look for and how to manipulate light etc) for film format. Thirdly, I like the way there are directions for everything from techniques used, to processing and printing the photos. Thus making this a complete manual for a photographer. The only thing that I am not sure of is if this is a "true" beginners book? It is my opinion that you have to have some knowledge of photography, or have at least taken a beginning photography class, and have a decent mid-range digital to utilize these techniques. Otherwise, you may be a little overwhelmed and find some of the techniques difficult. With that being said, I think with some time and practice, as well as some pointers from this book, I will capture some breathtaking photos soon.

The production of this book is great. Full color, beautiful photographs on glossy pages some so pretty they look like paintings. This book is inspirational for the more experienced photographer yet not daunting for a novice like me. It is also a thin volume that I can carry with me in my backpack for inspiration.

As a beginner, I learned from the techniques in this book. Controlling sharpness in landscape photography, depth of field, sunset white balance, the Zone System as used by Ansel Adams. It helped me understand how he created tones in his photography. This book really brings home the point that "less is more" and that great beauty lies in simplicity. Some of the digital techniques explained in this book strive towards creating simplicity rather than more complexity. It's a pretty powerful concept, whether you use film like Ansel Adams or a digital camera. Above all, I love the breathtaking photography in this book along with the inspirational words from the great photographers "The art of photography is knowing how much to exclude." - Ansel Adams. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend this book. I found it easy to read, as a novice photographer, and it inspired me to take my photography to the next level.

This book provides a comprehensive use of Ansel Adam's zone system for todays DSLR technology. It also explains basics of landscape photography and finding the right composition. The book is written for the more progressed reader and user of DSLR technology, it is not a beginner's guide. I especially like the layout of the book including great examples and selections of scenic photographies. The selection of photographies explaining the written content is superb. The text is well written, and I had no trouble reading the smaller font size.

I wish the book would provide sometimes a better step-by-step tutorial how to use specific Photoshop modifications in the "Digital Darkroom" chapter. Especially for blending photos and efficiently using layers, as well as for dodging and burning processing, the book lacks some basic information and obviously assumes that the reader is already aware of all those functions (especially how to apply layers) in Photoshop. This is something I really missed since otherwise the book reflects nicely the use of such features. The zone system and its digital application is well explained, but it only covers a relatively small part of the book. Here I originally hoped to see more detailed examples.

I would love to see a version of this book with more zone system focus and examples, and more detailed step-by-step Photoshop tutorials. Then the book would have all ingredients to make it a standard photography handbook for landscape photography with DSLR.

The anticipated audience for this book appears to be serious landscape photographers.

The title, as well as the back cover, of the book suggests that it may contain in-depth discussions of the works of Ansel Adams and other pioneers in the field of landscape photography. In fact, most of the book is dedicated to acknowledging the advances that have been made in photography through digital imaging. Because of those advances, it is much easier to produce a technically difficult digital color master file today than it was to produce a correspondingly difficult black and white negative in Ansel Adams early career. It could be argued that the greater challenge today is visualizing and composing a compelling photograph.

Michael Frye does a commendable job of relating the zone techniques developed and espoused by Adams, and others to High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques currently gaining popularity by today's digital photographers. Frye's explanation of HDR is understandable without going into great detail.

The book provides a complete overview of photography from capturing a compelling photo to rendering of the final print. In the first chapters, Frye presents the impact of white balance, aperture, focal length, shutter speed, and filters on the captured image. He explains the pros and cons of Raw versus JPEG file formats for capture within the camera. About two thirds of the book is devoted to other areas in which noted landscape photographers have excelled - the use of light, composition, visualization and "darkroom" (now largely Photoshop®) techniques to produce memorable images.

The book is well organized. The provided examples are clear and understandable. They give the reader insight into many of the challenges faced by a landscape photographer as well as guidance on how those challenges may be addressed.

My main objection to the book is its use of a small (7 pt?) font. The font makes it difficult to read the book for an extended period of time without experiencing eyestrain. Despite this drawback, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Frye's insights and viewing his examples.

Many digital photography books are filled with images of computer screen shots and the emphasis is on the software and not the photography itself. Michael Frye's book is different -- it is filled with photographic images and the emphasis is on photographic technique. Frye shows how the Zone System of photography, which was developed by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer, can be applied to digital photography. Amateur and professional digital photographers can both benefit from the examples in this book.

What I like is how the book is laid out. Rather than pages and pages of text with photos at the end of the chapter, a spread might include a page of text and a page of images. The text is information-dense and Frye doesn't waste the reader's time. He does a very good job of explaining the basics of the Zone System and how to use it with digital cameras.

The text is broken down into small segments, which makes this book approachable even if the reader doesn't have much time. Because of its organization, it's possible to jump around in the book and glean information without having to read the entire text, but it would be a shame to skip any of it. Like most technique books, this one will work best for the reader who tries Frye's suggestions rather than just looking at the pictures.

The book is divided into three sections: Technical Foundations; Light, Composition, and the Art of Seeing; and The Digital Darkroom: Editing, Processing, and Printing. The first section covers image quality, sharpness, use of camera filters, white balance, and histograms. The second section discusses the artistic aspect of photography -- light, composition, mood, and color. The third section delves into digital workflow, the best way to process a photo, contrast range (including HDR, or high dynamic range), depth of field, and printing your work.

In the past year, I have poured through countless books on digital photography and post processing. Of all that I have read thus far, this is the one that I would most strongly recommend or consider gifting to friends who share the same passion. The photography itself is beautiful, and the blend of bringing in the Ansels of the past with today's modern possibilities was exceptionally well done. As relates to post, I found this to be one of the best tutorials available on the feared-yet-powerful adjustment of Curves. I finished the book inspired, yet dissapointed that it had come to an end. My hope is that there are other similar books by the same author!

The look of Digital Landscape Photography is pleasing: inspiring photography in a graphic format that breathes with space and highlights the utility of the book. It's useful to hobbyists or professionals for tips on photographic principles on composition, exposure, motion, field-depth, and artistry. But it also goes in depth and detail on in-camera techniques and digital after-effects to make the most of the new digital medium, such as filters, color curves, and histograms. If it sounds complex, the author makes it understandable -- something you can master as you familiarize yourself with your tools. It's straightforward to read, and there's a wealth of information you can use to enhance your photos as artisic works.

Near perfection for experienced photographers, but still pleasant enough for newbies and lookie-loos! //Digital Landscape Photography// uses the works of Ansel Adams along with the author's pieces to teach the specifics of landscape photography with a digital camera. The book deeply demonstrates techniques such as light, composition, and darkroom processes, often using a series of the same photo from start to finish. This is not a coffee table book-- the processes and techniques are specific and professional, although the photos are also breathtaking and a pleasure to the untrained eye. If you ask for a little bit more out of a photography book (such as "How did they do that?"), then this book is for you!


Reviewed by Allena Tapia

As an aspiring digital photographer, I wanted this book to see the work of masters in landscape photography. And that is what you get. A book full of beautiful photoghraphs that I seek to replicate in my dreams.

Since a lot of the photographs are from film photography, the technical information shared by the photographers is what I call "cross over" in that the information, though not digital focused, is incredibly valuable if not fundamental to good photography. The book covers composition, zones, contrast, lighting, etc....... The book does go into RAW workflow, but clearly not the focus of the book (nor should it be IMHO).

The book should help any digital photographer who likes landscape photography.

I'm an amateur photographer. I like to go by 'instinct'. I take lots of shots when I think something looks cool, then I select my favorite ones to keep and delete the others. As such, I'm usually wary of photography books that typically get mired in technical details.

This book has plenty of those 'technical details', but for some reason, I wasn't intimidated or discouraged when I read through it. The sections are laid out so intuitively that even an amateur like myself can follow the lessons within.

Michael Frye fills the book with dozens -- hundreds? -- of his beautiful photographs, and each one ties DIRECTLY back to the lesson at hand through helpful caption text. The plentiful photo-examples give readers and immediate reference as to a) the values associated with different techniques and b) the kinds of situations in which those techniques can and/or should be applied.

The specific emphasis on the advantages of modern digital camera technology really make this book friendly to all photographers, even casual ones like myself. Aside from being a great all-in-one handbook, it makes for a decent coffee table book; Frye's landscape photography really is breathtaking, and even the layperson can enjoy flipping through the many distinctive shots.

I have one other photography book -- Paul Davies' 'Nature Photography Close Up' -- and found Frye's book to be even more accessible and enjoyable than Davies' (which, at the time I bought it, I believed was pretty 'user friendly'). If I had one complaint, it'd be that I wished the book, and photo examples within, were a little larger... but I guess that'd mean more $.

In all other respects... a great reference as well as a great collection of awesome landscape pictures.

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 book is full of beautiful images that have been very nicely presented in this book.

Perhaps owing to my photographic experience and recent immersion in various books about digital photography and digital image editing, I found this book very light on any really substantive advice.

It covers the well-known tips about composition, relates some interesting information about Ansel Adams, Minor White, Weston, and others. It gives some very general and high-level advice about camera operation. And near the end of the book it goes into a few digital editing techniques.

The quality and quantity of images is generous. The information about digital photography is not. I read the book from cover to cover in one evening and lunch hour, and could pretty much recite all the info I gathered.

If you're new to photography, and new to digital photography, this will take a little longer to assimilate, and will provide a number of tips that will be very useful. But I was expecting a lot more meat than I found. Still, I liked the book for the images and the quality of the reproductions. And I did pick up a few little tid-bits that made it worthwhile.

The pros: The book covers many topics and gives you insight into many variables which make up your image. The text is written is such a way as to not talk over your head, while the author also assumes the reader is beyond beginner status. (I would rank it intermediate.) There are many beautiful images throughout.

The cons: While on the plus side this book does cover many topics, on the negative end- it covers many topics. Since many topics are covered no one topic is gone into great detail (certainly enough to still be useful, however). It would have been nice to have exif info by the photos. In my opinion he could have skipped the sections on raw vs jpg and other such topics (been there, done that).

In conclusion I see myself returning to this book as a reference in the future, which I believe is the definition of a good book. He gave a method for obtaining the greatest depth of field in a way I had not heard before and found to be the easiest to perform. I also found the photoshop metering techniques very useful. All in all filled with great instruction. If you shoot landscapes there are sure to be great gems to be gleaned from this book, whether you are a novice to pro.

Maybe I misunderstood the purpose of this book. When I selected it I was hoping to get some in-depth information about landscape digital darkroom techniques. I have always struggled with that part. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book. It's beautiful inside and out and shows some great examples. But unfortunately what I was hoping for was closer to a step-by-step application of techniques (even if abstracted somewhat), while what I got was more of a listing of concepts with example photos and sometimes a histogram in there.

The more I look at the description of the book, the more I'm realizing that it was more a case of mistaken identity on my part. I don't suppose I should have expected actual tutorials, so I can't dock it much for that.

This book is part instructional guide on how to photograph landscapes using the same system used by legendary photographer Ansel Adams and part showcase of Adams' and the author's own breathtaking work. As such, it will be on my shelves for years to come (except when I put in on my coffee table as a conversational piece).

This said: I would have preferred more of a structured tutorial approach that would perhaps have used the same image sets when illustrating the photographic principles it discusses instead of using dozens of different ones. I tend to learn better from a book with such an organization.

Another minor criticism is the type-face is very small, and people some people might find it a bit difficult to read. Those are minor knocks overall. Well recommended.

This is required reading for photographers who know the basics of their camera and photo editing software. The insights, techniques and tips presented in this book provide an understandable path to better images. I'm looking forward to the author's next book.

Next to the iconic images of the Civil War by Matthew Brady, Ansel Adams is by far one of the most well known photographers of all time. His stark, chilling black and white, large scale photos of Yellowstone and other National Parks have become the standard bearer for what all landscape photographers are to aim for. Adams used lengthy exposures and large format cameras - his resulting prints were all contact prints. If you see an 8x10 photo by Adams, the negative was 8x10. How does one translate this effect into the modern cameras of today? Adams passed in 1984, but were he alive for the digital age, this is perhaps the book he would have written.

Author Michael Frye takes you, the modern-day digital photographer, through the footsteps of Ansel Adams, through the filter of the digital age. Not only are there photos by Ansel Adams, but also far more by the author - before and after photos of RAW images, then processed RAW. He goes over Adams' famous Zone system, but goes well beyond the limitations of film with software enhancements that are available to today's hobbyist and professional.

Frye does not obsess over any software program in particular. Whether he used Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom, or one of hundreds of other software titles available for PC and Mac, is not the focus of this ultimate in landscape textbooks. While I don't know if the author intended this to be a textbook or not - if I were to teach a class in landscape photography, this would be the textbook. Frye explains how (boosting saturation, tweaking levels, etc.) he accomplished the "after" in the before/after examples via software in very simple, easy-to-follow terms that anyone with any software package could follow. This is not a step-by-step on how to use software - it's a step-by-step on how to achieve amazing landscape imagery through the viewfinder to final product.

Whether he is dealing with camera position, repeating patterns, long vs. short lenses, vantage points or even the weather, no stone is left unturned here in opening your eyes and your creative spirit on how to capture with the camera what you see in your mind's eye. You may see a phenomenal site that you know, like Ansel Adams stated, "is an inevitable photograph," but you can take the photo and examine it later only to sigh, "well, you just had to be there - it was more impressive in person." While Frye's photos are predominantly color, as opposed to Adams' famous black and white prints, the master touch is still evident. There is definitely a different emotion and energy coming from a black and white image than from a color one- but Frye's images are still stunning. An untrained eye would easily turn the same exact scene photographed by the author into a boring snapshot.

By reading this book, studying the techniques and meditating on them so you can be ready the next time you have an amazing vista in front of you, you too can produce memorable landscapes. The vast majority of landscape photos taken by amateurs are boring, flat images with no soul... even though the camera does an effective job of documenting how light reflects off the objects the photographer is shooting. Becoming a student of these techniques can transform the average, ho-hum landscape into a compelling image that draws the viewer in.

This is truly one of the best books on the subject I have encountered. The subjects are similar to Adams' subjects - stunning vistas. I'd enjoy seeing a sequel to this book with urban landscapes, focusing on the light challenges of urban canyons, varying, unnatural textures, etc.

Every book I have purchased from Amazon has had some form of damage!! Torn pages, bent corners, and loose binding seems to be a common theme. I think Amazon gets the "rejects" from the printing house and the good copies go too the real book stores.

This book is great and is very detailed. I just wish my copy didnt have a giant tear on the cover. I would love to know how my copy made it into the shipping box to begin with??

This book appears to be targeted at advanced amateur photographers. [Whether I qualify as such I don't know, but I have been a photographer for years and currently use a Sony 350 SLR and a Olympus 5050 Zoom compact.] I think that the average professional is already familiar with the majority of the information in this book, and that a complete novice would be over whelmed. This book is not exactly a course in photography, but is a beautifully illustrated book on the effects of various photo techniques.

I gave this book 5 stars since I really liked it, but there were some things that irritated me. The info on the back cover says, "This book will show you what can be learned from [Ansel] Adams' working processes and how these lessons can be applied today." There is, I think, an implication that most of the photos illustrating these lesions will be by "Ansel Adams and the Great Masters" (as the title suggests). I certainly assumed so, but, in fact, only three images are by Adams, one by Edward Weston and one by Eliot Porter. The rest are by the author, Michael Frye. I loved his photos, it was just that I was expecting Ansel Adams. Perhaps this is nitpicking?

The book is beautifully illustrated and the quality of reproduction is generally suitable. One exception is "banding in the sky" which the illustration (page 113) does not reproduce. The author has selected the illustrations to show the effects of various techniques, often with before and after images. One interesting technique he emphasizes, but which unfortunately gets only 4 pages of discussion, is the zone system used by Ansel Adams. I found the zone discussion especially interesting because I did not understand it previously. On the other hand, sometimes the discussion is trivial, such as the effects of aperture size on depth of field (which everyone except a novice should fully understand). There is also a great deal of information on techniques that can be achieved in the digital darkroom using software such as Photoshop. The author demonstrates how these techniques (such as combining photos to increase contrast) can be used to produce outstanding results. I am a bit of a purist and the digital darkroom sometimes seems like cheating (e.g. on page 12 the author turns a cloudy day sunny). So whether I will use any of these I don't know, but it was interesting.

Overall, a very good book and I plan to refer back to it in the future.

As an aspiring landscape photographer, I have to say this book was an inspiration. I deeply admire the work of Ansel Adams and others of his caliber, but I always thought that aspiring to those heights was unobtainable for me. What this book helped me to appreciate, was not only their genius, but the mechanics behind the genius. This has enhanced my photography experience and given me some interim goals to shoot for. Thanks for such a well done book.

I read an excerpt of this book in "Outdoor Photographer." The article caught my interest because I am interested in the Zone System and digital photography. The author explains the Zone System better than any other article or book I have found. The Zone System finally gelled in my mind thanks to the author. This is a very good book and has renewed my interest in the old master's form of photography.

Digital Landscape Photography by Michael Frye infuses Ansel Adam's methods for landscape photography into the digital age. The text contains beautiful pictures and is organized effectively. The first section is dedicated to "technical foundations." Here readers will learn about raw v. JPEG, contrast, controlling sharpness, working with camera shaking, filters, white balance, and metering. After the technical section is about fifty pages instructing on actually taking pictures. Here photographers receive instruction on light, mood, composition, patterns, and simplifying. The final section gives instructions for editing, processing, and printing photos using software, including Photoshop.

This book is definitely not for beginners; photographers should have a clear understanding of their camera and some experience working with their editing software before taking on some of the instructions in this text.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The sections on theory are really good but the images themselves are so well done, making you wish all your pictures were like this! It is what makes the difference between holiday pictures and art.