Skills vs Talent

[The_Traveler]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

 

[Ysarex]

Yes.

Joe

 

[bribrius]

Yes.

Joe

agreed> someone other than adams though perhaps not.

 

[tirediron]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

Substantiate your contention that Adams' work is "good".

 

[Ysarex]

Given any equipment you wanted could you take photos as good as Neil Leifer?

Joe

 

[Gary A.]

Given any equipment you wanted could you take photos as good as Neil Leifer?

Joe

Sure.

 

[crzyfotopeeple]

If you had the same musical gear and number of people could you produce the music of the Beatles?

 

[Tim Tucker]

If you had the same musical gear and number of people could you produce the music of the Beatles?

There are lots of cover bands that do exactly that. But then they only copy whats already there, none of them were the creative force that shaped the early days of pop music and none will ever be because that moment has come and gone.

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

Ever notice how many shots with over processed skies that are taken from Tunnel View on photographic forums? I'm sure that with enough time patience and effort you could copy that work, and do it extremely convincingly. But "Clearing Winter Storm" was shot in 1937, so the question would be more like: Would you have the creative vision and technical excellence to shoot that in 1937 with the equipment and materials available at the time if Ansel Adams had not been there to show you how it was done first?

These are original thinkers at formulative times in their chosen crafts. Would pop music be in the same place without the Beatles? Yes, probably, but with different band names associated with the journey. Would photography be in the same place without Ansel Adams? Again, probably yes.

What Ansel Adams did has to be taken within the context of the time in which he did it. Re-creating it now with 80 years of technical advancement is neither as original or as difficult. Really you only need to read his book.

 

[fmw]

Adams was a good photographer but probably not a great one. In the darkroom, however, he was true genius. So while it would be fairly simply to take a large format camera into the California wilderness and make good images, creating prints like Adams created is beyond the capabilities of most photographers including me.

 

[SquarePeg]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

I'm going to assume that your question is more about talent vs. skill/technique than it is about whether or not Ansel Adams is good, since that is subjective. I would have to say no. Intense effort and scrupulous technique and excellent equipment cannot fully substitute for having talent (inner vision? the eye? creativity? a unique viewpoint?). There is a certain something that the truly talented have that cannot be learned no matter how hard someone is willing to work or how much they are willing to spend, be it time or money.

 

[jcdeboever]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

What is good? If one would go to all that effort, I hope it would be used towards finding there own style.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[sashbar]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

You do not need talent to reproduce or copy something, all you need is skill.
Sometimes you need a considerable skill, sometimes very limited skill is enough. Sometimes you do not need any skill at all to copy a masterpiece .

You can copy Black Square by Kazimir Malevich tomorrow and hang it on your wall. It will be a perfect copy. All you need is canvas, black paint and the knowledge that the original is 106 mm х106 mm., but nobody will offer one million dollars for it, unlike THAT Black Square, and you know why.

 

[The_Traveler]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

Substantiate your contention that Adams' work is "good".

I didn't say he was good in any absolute sense, just asked if you could produce work as good as his?

 

[tirediron]

If you spend lots of time and intense effort with scrupulous technique and excellent equipment in the same terrain, could you produce work that looks as good as Ansel Adams'?

Substantiate your contention that Adams' work is "good".

I didn't say he was good in any absolute sense, just asked if you could produce work as good as his?

IMO? Absolutey! In yours, or anyone else's? Who knows (highly unlikely though). Note that your question doesn't mention anything about reproducing Adams' work, even creating anything similar. I could produce a series of urban landscapes taken with a Holga on X-ray film and they could be "as good" as Adams' work..

 

[runnah]

I could recreate the work but not the impact it had.

Most revolutionary work is not so because of the skill but because of the way it changed the world in which it exsisted.