Why do you use large format?

[Nokton48]

It's so much easier to shoot a fuzzy picture with a large format camera.

It is so immensely satisfying when I don't.

"There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy concept" - W. Eugene Smith

I tend to do my best work with larger cameras.

 

[BW400CN]

A Voigtländer Avus 6x9cm brought me into groundglas focusing cams, then I tought about getting bigger for maybe some contat prints so I bought a 9x12cm Avus and Bergheil.
And it´s so much fun to use these old cams that I think about stopping shooting 35mm!
I shoot less - I think more about every pic and learn every moment I "play" with these cams something new and exciting.
When you get that negatives out of the fixer and see them you know way you spend so much time just for one pic where digital fotografers shoots a few hunderts ;-)


Voigtländer Bergheil 3. Serie von Michael Relguag auf Flickr


Wephota Ortho 25 Adonal von Michael Relguag auf Flickr

 

[thegman]

Just got my new Ebony 8x10 in..
Super pleased..this one is 7.5 lbs..ultralite for 8x10..
Cant wait to take it out..
Havent shot LF in a long time..
Now to buy some chemistry..

That's a camera alright. I did for a second consider getting an Ebony, but in the end I think the simplicity of a Fotoman 45SPS will get me using 4x5 more.

 

[antistatic]

Why do I love LF?

Because of the totally engaging process.

Because mistakes (e.g. double exposures) are a great teacher and sometimes turn out to be more interesting than what I intended.

Because of the smoooooth negatives.

Because I look like a serious weirdo when doing it.

Because I love the smell the leather of the bellows.

When out shooting LF earlier this year, I did have some guy with a Cannon DSLR tell me that photography is all digital now. Just in case I had been caught in a time warp and didn't know.

 

[KenR]

I agree Antistatic. Clearly all the large format work that is being done now, and all the large format work done in the past, doesn't exist now that digital is here. In fact 150 years of analog photography isn't real either. I better go check my negative files as they may have evaporated into the digital ether.

 

[jwc57]

I'm working on LF...well, was working on LF. I had some health problems this past year, including a herniated disc at C6/C7. I'm recovering from that surgery now.

I bought the darkroom equipment from a retired photographer about ten years ago. Included were cameras. The cameras included a Voigtlander Prominent, a Ricohflex TLR, a Voigtlander Superb, a Mamiya 23 Standard...and to my surprise a Crown Graphic and a Graphic View. I really didn't thank this guy enough, because the price we settled on was for darkroom gear...or so I thought. After just using the cameras for display, I finally got around to checking them out. I fell in love with the process of using the View. I admit, I set it up and spend an hour or two just "viewing" instead of shooting. I'm trying to get used to all the movements. I don't have a scanner that handles 4x5. I have recently found a work around though and once I recover, will jump in wholeheartedly.

This is my third shot with the Graphic View. My first negative was given to a student for a class demonstration, the second I cut up for an experiment.

The movements of this camera can be a challenge and it is a challenge I wish I had taken thirty years ago. It is embarrassing to admit to old timers that I never shot LF as a paid portrait photographer.

 

[JoeV]

While I would love to have a larger formar LF camera, for now I am content with an old press camera and modern Fujinon lens, with which I shoot Harman Direct Positive paper and process in a Jobo 4x5 test print bottle. It's a hands-on, tactile process that yields a one-of-a-kind fiber print with little of no margin for error.

~Joe

 

[taskoni]

My beloved 10x15 (4x6) Zeiss Ideal 250/9

I love to shoot paper and direct positives as postcards or paper negatives if I mess with the exposure. The whole experience is great and feels well, very photographic 🙂

Regards,

Boris

 

[gunsmithing]

1. Good grain/pixels
2. movements of the lens
3. can develop one neg/shot at time

Dave

 

[BW400CN]

My beloved 10x15 (4x6) Zeiss Ideal 250/9

I love to shoot paper and direct positives as postcards or paper negatives if I mess with the exposure. The whole experience is great and feels well, very photographic 🙂

Regards,

Boris

Dirct positives would be something that interests me - can you teach me a bit per PN? - btw I´ve got 2 10x15cm cut film inserts which I would like to swap against 2 9x12cm.

 

[Ed Bray]

Slows me down, capable of very high quality, my main use is for plane of focus control, I went to large format from a Fuji GX680III and the camera and associated lenses are lighter (film holders weigh more than rolls though).

 

[Snowbuzz]

Large format photography has a rich heritage: a history. I like to think that using a large format camera helps to preserve some of that history that, in this day and age, can be all too easily lost.

I tend to remember a lot more of a place when I use a view camera to record it, rather than a digital camera, for instance. I see more, things become more important. I connect better with the scene in front of the camera and around me. I am at peace, in contra-distinction to the digital photographer running around helter-skelter. I hate it when I go outside to take pictures and I can barely remember what I saw afterwards simply because I was rushing around taking pictures instead of just looking and seeing.

 

[shadowfox]

I started with 35mm film in the early 70's, had a good 15+ year break, got back in to photography in the early 2000's with digital, rediscovered film and use digital mostly for railroad photos.

Why I am getting in to LF: in 2008 I suffered a rear cerebral stroke from a job site injury. I lost all ability to walk, read, focus my eyes quickly etc. I could not even turm my head without extreme pain and nausea. I was told I would never drive or work physically again. Well 3 months later I was driving (best guess by a neurologist was my body being stationary eliminated the balance issues) and 5 months after that I was working again. If you ever get that kind of prognosis from doctors get new doctors!

Part of my self planned therapy was walking my neighborhood with a film camera to train my body to walk again and actuall do at least two things at once. A film camera forced me to think about and set focus, speed and aperture while walking and moving my head to look for shots. It was ugly at first but that exersise was a big part of healing.

Since my recovery I have realized that the slower I go when photographing the more I enjoy it. I stumbled on to the Largeformatphoto forum over a year ago. The more I read the more I thought that it would be the ultimate in slow, thought out photographing. And I am enjoying every minute of it, including the frustrations and screw ups. And the other things about perspective , focus cntrol etc. too, but those reasons aren't why I got in to it, they're just added benefits.

I just read this and wow!
You are an inspiration and a motivation.
Hats off to you!

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Total relaxation!

Total relaxation!

I don't use my Speed Graphic to get better image quality. I don't use it because it affords lens-to-film plane movement. And I don't use it to attract female admirers. 😛

I like going out with the 4x5 from time to time just because it slows everything down to a pace where serious relaxation occurs. Spending LOTS of time looking for subject matter, then setting the thing up and re-introducing myself to upside down and backwards framing, considering depth-of-field. And most of all, having a luxurious amount of time to just look. Love it. 🙂

 

[goamules]

The look I get with 1800s lenses and contact prints cannot be duplicated with small format. Taken last weekend, 1860s Dallmeyer on 5x7 film.

 

[Snowbuzz]

^ very nice!

 

[Koolzakukumba]

In a nutshell…

 

[VertovSvilova]

I use the 4x5 Wista VX metal field tech camera. For me it's about: 1) the negative size 2) the movements.

But the big thing for me is using it for urban subject matter. I use it on busy metro streets. And while I get a lot of stares at first (setting up), most of the time people ignore me (I think it's that 'city dwellers jaded attitude' sort of thing.) I usually wear a worker's vest with day-glo stripes and so they assume I'm just a city engineering dept worker.

But what I find most useful with a view camera in this context is that once I've set it up (and focused, etc.), I can then stand away from the camera with a cable release and make the exposure just at the 'right' time; and also be able to interact with people, etc., while I'm exposing the film. I like working that way.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I use the 4x5 Wista VX metal field tech camera. For me it's about: 1) the negative size 2) the movements.

But the big thing for me is using it for urban subject matter. I use it on busy metro streets. And while I get a lot of stares at first (setting up), most of the time people ignore me (I think it's that 'city dwellers jaded attitude' sort of thing.) I usually wear a worker's vest with day-glo stripes and so they assume I'm just a city engineering dept worker.

But what I find most useful with a view camera in this context is that once I've set it up (and focused, etc.), I can then stand away from the camera with a cable release and make the exposure just at the 'right' time; and also be able to interact with people, etc., while I'm exposing the film. I like working that way.

YES!

Cheers,

R.

 

[Kenj8246]

Even if I don't take it out enough, I can always just open it up and look at it.


Crown Graphic 4X5 by kenj8246, on Flickr

(Note to self: you really need to think about an Epson V700 scanner.)

Kenny