I've been busy messing around with my new toy. To cut a long story short, I felt that I was getting a bit bored of constant long lens stuff, and i've had quite a bit of success in other places with "wider angle stuff" this combined with me trying to buy a new house means I'm no longer doing the same sort of thing I was doing (sold 600mm F4 etc), and I've decided to take up large format and learn it properly, as its a very difficult and time consuming discipline to learn!
For me I feel that this method of photography is far more enjoyable than digital blasting, its obviously harder, more time consuming and expensive to get film/process/scanned, but I find it has the following advantages to offer.
1.> Method of use means you slow right down and think about what you're actually taking, rather than cartwheeling all over the place shooting at 10fps.
2.> Composing an image upside down on the back of a focussing screen under a cloth, means you become far more picky about the image and find faults with composition, before you press the shutter. You're not as instantly drawn to "good points" as you would be through the viewfinder of 35mm
3.> Movements are awesome, shooting a monorail camera that has fully adjustable lens and film planes, enables you to get everything absolutley sharp with the lens wide open, (with practise
)
4.> Optics are mind blowing, these lenses are designed to project an image circle to cover 5x4 inch film, and allow room for movements. Say goodbye to soft corners, distortion, chromatic aberrations etc. These things are terrifyingly sharp!
It does however have the following disadvantages:
1.> Takes roughly 5 minutes to set the camera up from the bag, can take up to 30 minutes for a learner to use the movements to get everything sharp in a complex scene (architecture, indoors, etc)
Can be very difficult turning up in the dark at sunrise with nothing to focus on, placing a torch in the foreground can help, but still a pain!
2.> Strict routine required for operation, compose, focus, sharpness checking with a loupe, loading and unloading film. If somebody talks to me or breaks my concentration whilst i'm using this thing - i'm buggered lol.
3.> Bellows can catch the wind easily, and the whole things needs a very very good tripod, Gitso 5541 is perfect.
But overall I love it to bits, I find all the messing around far more enjoyable than shooting digital, I've used it about 4 times so far and i'm still waiting for some scans to come back.
Two weeks ago I went to Lincoln catherdral and took 2 pictures
the one being shown here took me literally 45 minutes to setup.. AND I knackered one slide because somebody came over and asked what I was doing, I then lost my routine and pulled out a darkslide with the lens still open lol..
This thing is seriously sharp, 100% crop of the detail from the bottom left quarter of the image, - I rekon I could get it sharper with practise, but it just totally blows anything 35mm away, that i've ever seen. The images equate to roughly 100 Megapixels. (490MB Tiff)
My equipment and camera are as follows:
Camera - Linhof Technikardan 4x5 S.
Lenses - Schneider super angulon XL 72mm
Rodenstock APO Symmar 210mm
Bits -:
Standard bellows/bag bellows, focussing cloth, 4x rodenstock loupe, gitzo 3 way head, gitzo tripod, Lee filter system, 105mm Kasseman polariser.
In action:
I'll still be doing Wildlife as I love doing it to bits, just not so much sterile long lens stuff, i'll be doing more environmental style shots - people generally enjoy them more.
For me I feel that this method of photography is far more enjoyable than digital blasting, its obviously harder, more time consuming and expensive to get film/process/scanned, but I find it has the following advantages to offer.
1.> Method of use means you slow right down and think about what you're actually taking, rather than cartwheeling all over the place shooting at 10fps.
2.> Composing an image upside down on the back of a focussing screen under a cloth, means you become far more picky about the image and find faults with composition, before you press the shutter. You're not as instantly drawn to "good points" as you would be through the viewfinder of 35mm
3.> Movements are awesome, shooting a monorail camera that has fully adjustable lens and film planes, enables you to get everything absolutley sharp with the lens wide open, (with practise
)4.> Optics are mind blowing, these lenses are designed to project an image circle to cover 5x4 inch film, and allow room for movements. Say goodbye to soft corners, distortion, chromatic aberrations etc. These things are terrifyingly sharp!
It does however have the following disadvantages:
1.> Takes roughly 5 minutes to set the camera up from the bag, can take up to 30 minutes for a learner to use the movements to get everything sharp in a complex scene (architecture, indoors, etc)
Can be very difficult turning up in the dark at sunrise with nothing to focus on, placing a torch in the foreground can help, but still a pain!
2.> Strict routine required for operation, compose, focus, sharpness checking with a loupe, loading and unloading film. If somebody talks to me or breaks my concentration whilst i'm using this thing - i'm buggered lol.
3.> Bellows can catch the wind easily, and the whole things needs a very very good tripod, Gitso 5541 is perfect.
But overall I love it to bits, I find all the messing around far more enjoyable than shooting digital, I've used it about 4 times so far and i'm still waiting for some scans to come back.
Two weeks ago I went to Lincoln catherdral and took 2 pictures
the one being shown here took me literally 45 minutes to setup.. AND I knackered one slide because somebody came over and asked what I was doing, I then lost my routine and pulled out a darkslide with the lens still open lol..
This thing is seriously sharp, 100% crop of the detail from the bottom left quarter of the image, - I rekon I could get it sharper with practise, but it just totally blows anything 35mm away, that i've ever seen. The images equate to roughly 100 Megapixels. (490MB Tiff)
My equipment and camera are as follows:
Camera - Linhof Technikardan 4x5 S.
Lenses - Schneider super angulon XL 72mm
Rodenstock APO Symmar 210mm
Bits -:
Standard bellows/bag bellows, focussing cloth, 4x rodenstock loupe, gitzo 3 way head, gitzo tripod, Lee filter system, 105mm Kasseman polariser.
In action:
I'll still be doing Wildlife as I love doing it to bits, just not so much sterile long lens stuff, i'll be doing more environmental style shots - people generally enjoy them more.
