Large format fun. (big images)

[V-Spec]

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.

 

[V-Spec]

Very nice indeed, look forward to seeing what you produce with that beast.

Cheers - Me too! lol.

I'm friends with a large format expert, he thinks it'll take me a few years to get fully familiar with it, in terms of knowing what movements to apply to get full sharpness, rather than experimenting for half an hour. - I'm very much wet behind the ears with this.

If you don't mind me asking, whats the rough cost of a setup like that? Possibly without the longer lens.

Well, I decided to go for a Linhof because the kit is just beautifully made, like a BMW, I could have got something much cheaper but I loved the quality.

Camera was around £2700, the 72mm SA-XL is around £1400 but thats one hell of a lens. (72mm on 5x4 equates to around 20-21mm on 35mm) you need a good light meter, (£100ish, tripod and head, £300-500)

I got all my stuff from Linhof and Studio In southend, because I bought a job lot, I got a lot knocked off and some other bits thrown in for free.


You can get cheaper chinese cameras like the wooden Shen hao cameras etc, but I find they're nothing like as solid as a Linhof. Ebony are also excellent and have a big following because Joe Cornish uses them. Before I bought mine, my friend showed me around 5-6 different cameras.
I opted to go for a monorail camera because I'd like to do some architecture and *different* stuff with it, because its on a monorail the front and back standards have all the movements (Shift, swing, tilt etc) with a folding field camera you only get front movements, so would struggle for creative angles etc - but would be fine for landscape only..

 

[V-Spec]

Can I ask how you have got the image into the digital domain? Have you scanned it yourself, or had it done professionally?

I have them scanned professionally, costs around £6 an image. For that I get a Tiff roughly 480MB in size. I did debate getting my own flatbed, (Epson v750) but I'd rather get the best quality and just pay a few quid for each scan that I like.