topic Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters. in General Discussion

Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Ramsden — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:36:19 GMT

Good Morning from across the Pond

'tis a grey day, and rain forecast later. So what better day to switch to black and photography!

I was recently inspired by Joe: Ancora Imparo, and his recent photo of the beach and shore line. But I was also taken by his monongraph of two Ansel Adams quotations: 'A good photograph is knowing where to stand' and 'You don't take a photograph you make it'.

These sent me 'rushing' to my bookshelf where I have two of Ansel's books: The Camera and The Negative, which I think I inherited from my late father. The photographs in his books are quite inspirational.

When I checked Ansel on line, it triggered several links to light meters, so that set me thinking and remembering by Dad using his meter, which I still own (but it doesn't work)!

So here's my question (at last). I have an EOS90D and a few lenses. I've taken a few B&W photos with this camera (see attached), but feel I could do better than just switching the camera setting to monochrome. So how could I take some inspirational B&W photos by tweaking my settings today.

And, do any of you guys use light meters and are they worth buying.

All the best

Ramsden

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

SignifDigits — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:08:39 GMT

I do not own a light meter, nor would I bother to use one anymore. I'm in the middle of Ansel's autobiography after taking two tours from the Ansel Adams gallery in Yosemite in May. On one tour they showed us his lab and the house behind the studio. Very cool.

Do any of the books include Ansel's 11 point zone system? The idea of that system, as I understand it, was to become more aware of the levels of white to black and their placement in the composition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System

So, your photo has level 10 (white, no detail) for the sky, and level 0 (total black, no detail) near the lower right corner, and various others across the rock. For his early famous "Monolith" half dome photo he took one with a yellow filter that did NOT make the final, and the one with the red filter (making the blue in the sky darker) did. You'll find a lot more 0 (black) in his photos than 10 (white). So for your example photo you would want a lower exposure. The folks in Yosemite suggested shooting darker to capture that detail and then adjust in post. I tend to underexpose, so that suits me fine.

If you want to "make a picture" as Ansel did you'll probably want to shoot RAW and learn DPP4. Nearly everything that Ansel did can be done there. I personally have chosen to become as proficient in DPP4 as possible and do 98% of my work there as a personal challenge. I also like sharpening my tools by hand on stones or with files, rather than electric water wheels. If I were in the sharpening business or photography business I probably couldn't afford to be a Luddite.

Ansel co-founded the 1/64 club, so you know that your f-stop should be - as high as you can get. Stacking for depth of field via in-camera HDR or bracketing or DPP4 stacking can help get everything into focus. They called themselves "Purists" and "Realists" as opposed to what he dubbed the "Pastoralist".

And you'll might want to stack layers to get the dramatic range of contrast that Ansel got by manipulating plates and/or negatives in the dark room. Nothing was off the table as regards manipulation there as long as the image was true to a real scene. He would dodge and burn, double expose, etc. to any degree necessary to get to the huge contrasts and zone coverage that he wanted in the final print.

Also he was big on the photo having movement so that the eye would be directed.

I can say that taking a good color photo and converting to B&W is not just a click of the button to monochrome. In the days of B&W TV they used green makeup as it looked best on the camera. You'll might want to try some pretty zany things as the sky is the limit with "color" adjustments in B&W.

Thanks for posting this. I realized that a photo that I took that I couldn't quite get "right" in color is a great candidate for B&W. I will post it later.

So, my recommendations. Shoot in RAW and underexpose a bit, limit white or grays to places there is lots of dark to offset it or around it, focus on shots that have big changes in contrast/zones. Or, if you prefer, shoot in black and white and still apply the principles of the covering Ansel's zones and be aware of their placement. That might be a better self-training exercise, but it also might be frustrating. Depends upon whether you like using a machine to shapen tools or files and stones I suppose?

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Tintype_18 — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:39:27 GMT

To follow SignifDigits comment on the use of green: My mother, back in the mid 50s worked next to a local TV station. During the Christmas holidays, the Santa Claus show was a fixture. She was getting off work and saw Santa getting into his car. His suit was purple so as to give the effect of red on the B&W TV.

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Ramsden — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:29:50 GMT

Thanks guys

Great responses.

I was just reading the lens section in Book 1 - The Camera, so your story about Santa made perfect sense. I guess I'll have to dig out my uv filters again after reading this.

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Ramsden — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:41:58 GMT

I should have added, that I've got DPP on my ipad but don't spend much time post camera.

However, I'm slowly transitioning from what Ansel called a Snapshooter to an Amateur (one who participates for the love of the medium).

Ramsden

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Ramsden — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:58:08 GMT

Camera and tripod packed to go to my local old (19th century) Church, and over grown graveyard this evening. Should give me some inspiration!

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

SignifDigits — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 14:25:24 GMT

Have fun! Welcome to the Amateur club! The autobiography is great fun. His first commercial shot was of a class of 6-year-olds. He set off about 12x as much flash powder as needed, the explosion made the students cry, smoke poured out the windows and the fire department came. He moved the shoot outdoors and finished with natural light. Auspicious beginnings!!

DPP4 will let you apply red, yellow, orange and green filters in monochrome, btw. Not pushing you that direction, just FYI.

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

Ramsden — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:45:39 GMT

Thanks

Book is on order, sounds to be right up my street. His writing style is very engaging.

Would have loved to have met him over a pint!

Re: Ansel Adams, B&W photography and light meters.

SignifDigits — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:01:21 GMT

Yeah, would have been cool. I just ordered the two books of his that you have (and perhaps one or two more :O)