Landscape: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative scan

[Doug Nelson]

Ansel Adams was hired by the US government to document the Manzanar Relocation Center. Therefore, all his work for this project is public domain.

Though the relocation center is a blot on America's history, Ansel made some wonderful images which the Library of Congress has scanned and made available for download.

Along with the scans of his original prints, they also scanned his negatives, which offers us a wonderful opportunity to walk in the master's footsteps.

Click here to download the 130MB TIF. Ansel's official title for this image is View SW over Manzanar, dust storm, Manzanar Relocation Center.

You can access more information and smaller scans and even see scans of his original print (no cheating) here.

Show us your reinterpretation here in this thread when you're finished.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

I thought I'd break the ice. Show me up.

Needs more spotting, I know. I spent more time on spotting than the actual image. Got sick of it

TIP: Convert to RGB (or whatever) and your color depth of choice first thing.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

My first one could have just as easily been done in PS3. This one, however, would have been hard to do without CC. I mostly used ACR as a filter, but 2 different versions, then masked them together. Further fiddling, and a lot more spotting than I did the first time.

[philbach]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Well its in the morning and I felt lazy so I just used blending modes. I copied the background layer using multiply blending mode and copied that layer twice more using multiply blending mode. I copied that layer one more time using Color Burn blending mode and used the Blend If layer option only to show this layer on the brighter pixels.

I was just curious. Now for some wholesome cereal.

[philbach]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Doug, very nice

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

I find it interesting that you and I started with the same technique (at least in my first version) of multiplying dupes. But kudos on getting blendif to work for you, I can never seem to do anything productive with that.

Now I'm trying to figure out why ACR (and Lightroom, which is where my second experiment started) are so much better at clouds. It's certainly no "Auto" button, but it feels less skillful to me, even though I like the result better.

[joe_7]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Sorry for the low resolution, had to save time with the retouching part. Enjoyed seeing the work so far.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

I can't make up my mind if that horizontal line towards the bottom is a scratch or image detail. Similarly, is that white horizontal swath fog that was present in real life, or fog on the negative?

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Just for informational value, here's why I hate Silver Efex. One preset, two sliders, and hit OK.

I hate how decent the results are.

[philbach]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Yeah, Doug pretty darn awesome

[Flashtones]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

I went heavy handed, but you know... Ansel...

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

I've tried several times to make a color version, but failed.

[joe_7]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Ansel on Mars.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Are there clouds on Mars?

[joe_7]

Re: Reinterpret an original Ansel Adams negative s

Good point. Tried to replace the sky but it sucked, I think I need to start over.