Large Format, 1st faltering steps..

[trevorbray]

Well, thanks to the kindness and generosity of @StephenM I've begun my journey.
Stephen contacted me and we met in Hove last Monday. Unbelievably he's let me use his Wista 45 Field Camera so that I can determine if LF is for me.

So far I've made 6 attempted exposures.
#1. A picture of a rose in my garden. I managed to get an image.
#2. Cottages at Shalford. Withdrew the darkslide before closing the lens. Failure.
#3. Cottages at Shalford. This time I couldn't get the darkslide back in. Mis-loaded the film. Failure.
#4


Cottages at Shalford by Captures...Moments....Forever, on Flickr

#5. Shalford Mill. Got an image. Totally missed the focus. Failure.
#6. Shalford Mill. No image, seems I forgot to remove the darkslide.

Great fun, not in the least disheartened. Onward..

Incidentally. I'm using Fomapan 100. Metered at 80 ISO. Developed in Ilfosol @1:9. 6 minutes at whatever the temperature of tap water is.

 

[wickerman]

Large format photography is certainly a steep leaning curve but the results are worth the effort. I found the checklist here to be a useful guide.

 

[trevorbray]

Large format photography is certainly a steep leaning curve but the results are worth the effort. I found the checklist here to be a useful guide.

Thanks David. I'll print and laminate that.

 

[VirtualAdept]

Great fun, not in the least disheartened. Onward..

Thats the most encouraging thing I've seen in ages... I'm glad the issues you had haven't depressed you, particularly with it being your first bash at it.

 

[Nguss]

Better than my first effort, I bought a box of Ektar and dropped them all on the floor after loading 2 sheets.

 

[trevorbray]

Thats the most encouraging thing I've seen in ages... I'm glad the issues you had haven't depressed you, particularly with it being your first bash at it.

Thanks Mads

Better than my first effort, I bought a box of Ektar and dropped them all on the floor after loading 2 sheets.

Whoops !!

 

[Jao]

Trevor, RESPECT!

LF looks like a quite a challenge and you have entered into it with the sort of approach that will yield great results sooner rather than later I bet! I have never quite worked up the courage to give it a try.

 

[Peter B]

You know Trevor, I'd say you are a natural for LF with a list like that. Regrettably I'm still prone to #2 and have shamelessly cheated with Fuji Quickload film which pretty much took care of #3, although I believe the clip that held the film in place could fall off. I see you're using a good value film and that's just the job when learning. I found Rodinal suited me best as it lasts forever and it's easy just to process a single sheet of film at reasonable cost.

 

[trevorbray]

Trevor, RESPECT!

LF looks like a quite a challenge and you have entered into it with the sort of approach that will yield great results sooner rather than later I bet! I have never quite worked up the courage to give it a try.

Thanks Adrian. It's just too much fun. Big respect to @StephenM for giving me the chance.

You know Trevor, I'd say you are a natural for LF with a list like that. Regrettably I'm still prone to #2 and have shamelessly cheated with Fuji Quickload film which pretty much took care of #3, although I believe the clip that held the film in place could fall off. I see you're using a good value film and that's just the job when learning. I found Rodinal suited me best as it lasts forever and it's easy just to process a single sheet of film at reasonable cost.

Peter, thanks. Went with a box of Foma because I expect a steep learning curve.
Might have to consider Rodinal..

 

[StephenM]

Well done on your first efforts. I have a drawer of ruined film from various causes - that was how I was able to pass on a couple of sheets for you to practice loading a tank!

I've got a couple of other reasons for failure that you haven't managed to pull off yet. I've a shot taken at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall where the movements I used to get everything in focus were beyond the covering power of the lens - result a dark corner from vignetting. I've also got a few multiple exposures.

One extra point to consider - the extra exposure you need for close up work. CLose up can be less near than you think with large format, because everything's scaled up!

 

[trevorbray]

Well done on your first efforts. I have a drawer of ruined film from various causes - that was how I was able to pass on a couple of sheets for you to practice loading a tank!

I've got a couple of other reasons for failure that you haven't managed to pull off yet. I've a shot taken at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall where the movements I used to get everything in focus were beyond the covering power of the lens - result a dark corner from vignetting. I've also got a few multiple exposures.

One extra point to consider - the extra exposure you need for close up work. CLose up can be less near than you think with large format, because everything's scaled up!

Thanks Stephen. I've a shot in mind with a prominent close up foreground. I've no idea whether I'll need to factor in extra exposure. Or how to work it out !!

 

[wickerman]

Thanks Stephen. I've a shot in mind with a prominent close up foreground. I've no idea whether I'll need to factor in extra exposure. Or how to work it out !!

If you have an iphone there is an App that can help with the calculations required, link here

 

[trevorbray]

If you have an iphone there is an App that can help with the calculations required, link here

Thanks David. Getting a bit confused about short exposure times for close ups in daylight. How do I determine the extra time required ?

 

[wickerman]

It's explained here better than I ever could. I have printed off copies of the excel spreadsheets that are mentioned at the bottom of the page.

 

[StephenM]

IFF my calculations are correct, given that we're only considering a 150mm lens, it's easier to be approximate. Very few people probably work out their exposure to 1/3 of a stop (and the ones that do probably know exactly what the marked apertures on their lenses and marked shutter speeds really are in practice).

My calculations give me

Subject at 6 feet - add .19 stop.
Subject at 3 feet - add .44 stop
Subject at 1 foot - add 2 stops.

I may have made a slip in the calculations, so I'm open to being corrected.

Put another way, it doesn't matter very much in normal practice. Given a longer lens, it's a different matter; but unless you're giving the minimum possible exposure, you should be OK. Personally, as a slapdash photographer, I'd add 1/2 to 1 stop depending on how I felt.

 

[trevorbray]

IFF my calculations are correct, given that we're only considering a 150mm lens, it's easier to be approximate. Very few people probably work out their exposure to 1/3 of a stop (and the ones that do probably know exactly what the marked apertures on their lenses and marked shutter speeds really are in practice).

My calculations give me

Subject at 6 feet - add .19 stop.
Subject at 3 feet - add .44 stop
Subject at 1 foot - add 2 stops.

I may have made a slip in the calculations, so I'm open to being corrected.

Put another way, it doesn't matter very much in normal practice. Given a longer lens, it's a different matter; but unless you're giving the minimum possible exposure, you shuld be OK. Personally, as a slapdash photographer, I'd add 1/2 to 1 stop depending on how I felt.

Smashing. Thanks Stephen. I'll just wing it. Subject is 10 feet from front to back. I expect to be 3 feet from it. I'll add a bit...

 

[StephenM]

I should have said "focused distance" rather than subject; if you're focusing part of the way in it makes a difference.

My calculations were based on the basic equation 1/u + 1/v = 1/f where u and v are the lens to plane of focus and lens to film distances, and f is the focal length of the lens. Substituting the 150mm/6" focal length and using the distances I gave I calculated the lens to film distances.

The exposure increase is then simply obtained by dividing the lens to film distance by the focal length and squaring the result.

I used to carry a small piece of paper that gave apertures to use at various distances when photographing fungi with flash; I expect a similar small sheet could be used for this if you wanted to. Or just add half a stop if it looks close

 

[raathistle]

Or just add half a stop if it looks close

That's my preferred method, anything else involves careful measuring and is a right pain, especially when you get non-square number answers