Speed Graphic photo

[mervynyan]

I was reading the current issue of NGM, photographer David Burnett took some amazing pictures. It mentioned the camera he used is a Speed Graphic, anyone knows how these pictures were exposed/developed? Or is that an attribute of the camera?

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0608/feature1/gallery4.html

Thanks,

Mervyn

 

[wlewisiii]

The shot on the page you link to has the info right there. It pretty much is due to the nature of LF photography.

The film, Fuji Pro160S is standard C41 film available in 4x5 sheet. Then f3.5 on a 7" Aero-Ektar has very tiny amount of DOF so you get the look he has there with huge amounts of OOF areas around the image. Even though it's 5:00 PM & he only does available light with this combo, he still has the focal plane shutter cranked up to 1/500th to be able to open the aperture up that much.

Beautiful shot. I hope to get that good with my Speed someday. I also hope to get an Aero-Ektar someday... 🙂

He's done a great bit of work with that camera/lens combination. Some of his work from the 2004 Presidential campaign was the best work published that year, IMO.

Hope this answers your questions.

William

 

[DougK]

I'm glad to see he's sticking with the Speed Graphic, he uses them well. Someday, I will own one....

 

[wlewisiii]

Just as a followup:
More info on the camera: http://www.graflex.org or http://lfphoto.info
More info on the lens: http://www.johndesq.com/graflex/aero.htm
More info on Mr. Burnett: http://www.davidburnett.com/index.html

Be careful... The Graphics are as addictive as they come... 😀

William

 

[rover]

I was admiring my new issue of NG yesterday too. This month's Lens Work (which also arrived yesterday) featured some LF work too. Very impressive stuff... like everyone else, some day.

 

[kaiyen]

LF is not for everyone, and not every situation works for LF (everyone should know that). But there is something about looking at an LF negative that is truly impressive. My 5x7 negs are about 2x the size of a 4x5 and it's weird to be able to judge a negative without a loupe or anything.

allan

 

[wlewisiii]

True enough. I only do 4x5 (my budget whines enough at that!) but the first time you pull a 4x5 neg out of the fixer is amazing. Or the first 4x5 chromes I got back - those were a real "Wow" moment.

I really need to get set up to do contacts. I know that 4x5 is considered a bit small, but I think they'd work just fine.

William