For many, Ansel Adams is considered the greatest landscape photographer of all time. His accomplishments as a fine art photographer are astonishing. In addition to having an impeccable eye for composition and true mastery in printmaking, Ansel also helped develop the zone system of exposure and worked closely with Edward Land to create the Polaroid. He was equally responsible for developing the technology and techniques used to create fine art landscape photography, while at the same time pioneering the concept that photography was in fact fine art.

Unlike today, where photographers have a multitude of lens choices from ultra wide to ultra long, each of which is designed on supercomputers to have incredible resolution and lack of aberrations, the lenses of Ansel’s day were relatively simple optical formulations that were not too long, or not too wide.

It is possible that for each given film format that Ansel used, he probably had “a” lens for each camera. The lens that he seems to have gravitated to, would be equal to a 35mm focal length on a full frame 35mm camera. When you compare the long side of Ansel’s film, it typically equals the focal length of the lens. So for example, he used a 10 inch lens on his 8x10 camera, and a 5 inch lens on his 4x5 camera.

Fortunately for us, Ansel was thorough in his note taking. Recently, I decided to tabulate all of the data relating to images created by Ansel Adams where both the film size and the focal length are known. I studied the books The Camera, The Negative, The Print, The Making of 40 Photographs, and reviewed published data on Yosemite Special Editions. Data was also pulled from Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man.

The tabulated data shows that the preponderance of his lens usage falls into two very specific focal lengths. The first is the 35mm equivalent. The second is the 80mm equivalent. The 80mm equivalent represents Ansel Adams using the 150mm lens on his Hasselblad. That camera/lens combination was Ansel’s go-to setup for portraits, but rarely employed for landscape work. The remainder of his work, his landscape photography was shot almost exclusively with the 35mm focal length.

What does that mean for you?

The thing to remember about Ansel’s work is that he used the movements of his view cameras extensively. He employed extensive use of the rise/fall and tilt/shift functions. The result is a dramatic difference in composition, keystone correction, and scheimpflug compared to a modern day user of a digital camera with a 35mm lens that is fixed in position parallel to and centered on the sensor.

Ansel used the movements of his cameras extensively for perspective control.

It could be argued that if you want to replicate Ansel’s aesthetic using a digital camera with a fixed lens, you should use a lens that is one focal length wider than 35mm (say for example 28mm). This will allow you to make keystone corrections in your post processing that will inherently crop away parts of the image. Also, both 8x10 and 4x5 use the 4x5 aspect ratio, where the 35mm system uses a 2x3. Again, this will inherently crop the image.

Consider this … the “look” of modern photography is heavily influenced by the availability of ultra wide lenses. The main examples of ultra wide lenses are the 14-24mm and 12-24mm zooms. Super wide lenses are great for creating wide panoramic images replicating the Linhof 617 camera. They’re also great for architecture.

Ansel NEVER shot like this. This is very modern looking, created using a Nikon Z7 with the 14-24mm lens, cropped to the 617 aspect ratio.

Wide lenses are also great at creating “that” photo. Which photo is “that”? You know the one you’ve seen on Instagram a million times, the vertically composed landscape shot with the snowy mountain at the top of the image and the rocks or shoreline at the bottom. “That” image has been done a million times in the last decade, largely because of the availability of ultra wide lenses. If you want to attempt to replicate the vintage vibe of Ansel Adams, don’t do “that”.

Use a 28-35mm lens.

Ansel’s compositions were often times quite unusual. You’re not going to look like Ansel Adams by following the rule of thirds. There are two compositions that I see repeating in his work.

On Sand Bar, Rio Grande, Ansel throws the rule of thirds out the window.

The Low Horizon

Find something cool, and wait for a weather event to occur above it. It’s a pretty simple formula.

Lower the horizon, can capture the weather in all her glory

The “C” Shape Composition

Ansel often uses a “C” shaped composition, where the edges of the frame were filled on three sides and the center of the image was relatively empty. Often, this composition features a very high horizon.

Often, Ansel’s images had nothing in the middle of the composition.

A Single Prime or Zooms?

It could be argued that you might get better results having one moderately wide lens, such as a 28mm or 35mm, and use it consistently over a period of time (say a year, or the summer or winter) and let your mind’s eye adjust to the look of the lens. I certainly believe that Ansel was very “tuned in” to the 35mm equivalent focal length, and he saw the world in that focal length. Meaning that when he “saw” a photograph he wanted to make, the image on the rear of his camera would match what was in his minds eye. No zooming. No fishing.

I personally suffer from being the victim of “choice.” Give me a single focal length and I’ll adapt to it. Give me a three zooms, and I’ll spend all day changing lenses and walk away frustrated. I find the constraint “freeing”, if that makes sense.

Conclusion

If Ansel’s vibe is attractive to you, and you want to express yourself in your own photography in a manner that harkens back to the great master, try this …

28-35mm focal length
Ditch the rule of thirds
Use 4x5 aspect ratio
Raise/Lower the horizon or use the C-shape composition

Ansel's Focal Length