Mantua Barn

Large Format, Pure & Simple

by Dan Smith

So, why don't more photographers use these big cameras?

The reasons are simple. The cameras are bigger, heavier and more cumbersome than what most of us have gotten used to. They are slower to operate and in many ways call for way too many conscious decisions at each step of the photographic process. In a world of instant gratification and ever more technical gadgets, LF cameras still do one thing very well: create photographs using very simple equipment and techniques.

I say simple gear & techniques mainly due to the lack of automation, computerization and motorized doohickeys that aren't necessary for most LF work and techniques that often require direct participation of the photographer to get the image. LF is worth the effort it takes to slow down and work in a more thoughtful mode to create fine images.

With all the features, lenses and films available for LF cameras the basics are the same. A lens, a light tight box and a place to load film. Just like 35mm. One can find old cameras of various sizes that do just that and no more. The real advantage for most in LF cameras & film lie in the ability of the camera to be adjusted for creative results past shutter speed, aperture, focus and film size.

Most modern 4x5 cameras allow some movement of both the lens and film standards. This gives you more control of the image. Pointing your lens at a building often means pointing the lens up to get in the whole building. With a 4x5, using a lens that projects an image much larger than the 4x5 space the film takes up, one can straighten the back to keep the building straight and move the front or rear standard to place the image on the ground glass so the whole building is in the frame. This correction is used to keep the architectural perspective correct. It is used with the proverbial cactus flowers and red sandstone cliffs to exaggerate the relationship by pointing the camera down a bit and then straightening the back so it is all in focus and the flowers loom larger in the view.

Image manipulation is only one aspect of LF cameras. Individual exposure and development control of sheets of film is a major reason many use 4x5 and larger cameras. While it sounds complicated it is actually simple, both in color and B&W. Out shooting and it starts getting too dark? Adjust the exposure and mark the film for push processing. If you have done some basic testing you will already know how much to apply. If not, take your chrome film and rate it double the indicated speed and tell the lab to push one stop. One sheet at a time rather than a whole roll of film sacrificed for one or two shots. Very simple.

Want to test some films head to head to compare them? Buy a 10 sheet box of each, load them in the film holders and shoot each scene with one or two sheets of the different films. Process them and you have quick comparisons without owning 4 or 5 camera bodies. Want instant feedback? A Polaroid back will do the trick. With P/N 55 you get an instant print as well as a negative to work with. Want 6x6, 6x7, 6x9 or 6x12 panoramic negatives or slides? Get the backs for these formats and you have all the options, even if the LF camera is slower than your Hasselblad or Pentax 6x7. Best of all, you have all the camera movements for correcting the image as you like.

Want even bigger negatives? You can try 8x10 or larger. Be warned that most who do try these formats seldom shoot far from their vehicle and often give up the monster formats quickly. 4x5 is the preferred format for most. 5x7 is a 'forgotten' format even though it has some real advantages. Larger than 4x5 in film size and very good for making contact prints, the cameras aren't much larger than the field 4x5 in use. Many 5x7 cameras also have a 4x5 reducing back, with both Wisner and Canham having new ones on the market as I write this.

I prefer 5x7 for some images and love having the option of 4x5 as well. The 5x7 is a good size and the aspect is close to the 35mm enlargements so many of us have grown up with. The disadvantage, for now, is the lack of film compared with 4x5.

In the field you will work slower with your view camera than the 35mm. Some will find this frustrating and others will revel in the concentration on the image it pushes on you. LF is not for fast action as done today. It is for control, contemplation and image quality. It is also very good at causing frustration as one discovers they did not turn the darkslide around after the great shot and just double exposed their film. The upside of this is the ease with which you can do multiple exposures on a sheet of film with precision.

What do you really need to get started with 4x5? Try starting with a used camera or a Calumet($250-900), being sure to get one with some movement. Speed Graphics abound but don't have much in the way of movements. A 150mm lens($150-1500), six sheet film holders, a cable release, light meter, tripod and dark cloth will get you going. You will need a camera case to carry the holders in and a LowePro will work fine. I really like my inexpensive Canon bag for my 5x7 sheet film holders. But anyone that is pretty dust & rain proof will do the job. For a dark cloth, a jacket can be made to work & doubles as an emergency extra clothing layer if needed. Some will want a dedicated dark cloth though, so make your own choice on this one.

A good cable release is worth the cost as you will be using it for years. Cheap ones have a nasty habit of breaking. Fidelity or Lisco sheet film holders work well and the Fuji Quickload system works fine also and has the added advantage of your never having to load holders even though it limits the films you can shoot. (it takes Kodak readyloads as well) Meters are a personal choice & are necessary but nothing to get too worked up about as long as they work and you are comfortable with what you get. Tripods should be able to hold the camera steady.

Your choices of filters are yours, depending on what films & subjects you shoot. Just buy quality when you get them as you will probably have them the rest of your photographic career, barring loss or breakage. Used are as good as new as long as they are in good condition.

LF is simple. Many try to make it difficult by keying on overly technical aspects of the photography rather than in creating fine images. Others let doubt hold them back from photographing. No matter what you buy, just as any other type of photography, something newer, faster, sharper or different will come out. This has NO bearing on your images if you are using your gear to photograph rather than just to be noticed. Take pictures and update or upgrade only when you need the improvement.(sometimes the need is mental, but if it helps go ahead)

As I said, LF is simple. Set up, focus, compose, meter & shoot. You don't have to become a Zone System guru, but learning it can help your understanding. You don't have to write down everything but some work better that way. You can work quickly or slowly, having to put the camera on a tripod helps in that regard. You make your images at your speed & have negatives or chromes large enough to see easily. One lens or five, you have to carry them to use them. Keeping it simple helps a lot of us even when we would love to get the newest Schneider XL lenses(one of these days).

If you try this, the Calumet view camera for around $400 is a good buy. It can always be resold later if you move up. Or start with a used Linhof, Canham or Wisner, all good gear. A lot of other brands are good as well. The ever present question is "what movements do I need?", and the basic answer is found out by trying the camera and noting the times you can't get the shot due to lack of movements. Seldom happens to most photographers with even basic gear. If it does, you know what you need the next time around. For an investment for camera, lens & holders you can spend less than for a good 35mm body, so upgrading isn't bad with the less expensive gear to start.

LF still has the mystique and there are those who will tell you it is impossible without schooling and dedicating your life to it. Baloney. Buy one & try it. Get Steve Simmons fine book on using the View Camera, subscribe to his magazine View Camera, get a Calumet Catalog(and no, I don't work for them), look in shutterbug & go to a few swap meets. You might be surprised at how inexpensive it is to pursue a dream. At the least you will find out if it is for you, probably for a cost that is lower than six months worth of morning coffee. If it works, you will improve your photography & if it doesn't, sell the stuff & find your niche in another format.

It really is as simple as that.

There are two images for this months article. Two 5x7 contact prints taken on Jan 24 after a good night of new snowfall. A foot of new powder snow on the ground made it great for shooting the pastoral and mountain scenes. Mantua, Utah is a small town just up the hill from where I live so I went up and shot these with the 5x7. The scans are from the contact prints. Having the option I shot the scene both horizontally and vertically. Processing was about 10% more than normal to get the contrast up a bit due to the heavy overcast sky. Film is Kodak TMax 100.

For scenics of many types the large format camera is ideal. A bit bigger to carry than some other cameras, it provides a negative large enough to see easily. The advantage comes when one wants to enlarge. Starting with a much larger negative you have a smaller amount of enlargement to get to the same final print size compared to smaller formats. Another advantage not readily apparent in the final image is my use of front drop to get the scene framed as I wanted without having to tip the camera down. By keeping the camera back parallel to the posts, barn and trees vertical lines I was able to keep them all straight. I used the extra covering power of a larger image circle that allowed me to move the front standard of the camera, the lens standard, downward for fine tuning composition.

Having these options with the camera to keep the lines straight helps a lot in composing images I like. With 35mm I would have ended up shooting straight and cropping or shooting for the cropping I wanted and trying to straighten it in the darkroom with some easel tilt or buying a 35mm tilt/shift lens.(at a cost more than my 5x7 & lens cost me).

Shooting both horizontal and vertical was done by changing the back on the camera from one orientation to the other, not by moving the camera. I changed it and then fine tuned the composition with the front rise/fall control. If I had been unable to shoot the composition from where I wanted due to a post, parked car or whatever I might have had the option to frame it next to the offending piece and then using a lateral shift on the lens standard to move the composition where I wanted. The view cameras controls allow for a bit more creative freedom than cameras without the movements. On the other hand, I could have shot two or three rolls of 35mm in the same time I took to set up this shot if I had wanted to. It is only a matter of preference, not one of "better equipment".

For those who worry about the cost, the camera I shot this with is a used Ikeda Anba wood field camera I bought used for less than the cost of a Canon A2 body. The lens is a Nikkor 300mm f/9, shot at about f/32 or 45, bought used as well for about $300 or so. The film holders were purchased at a swap meet. Tripod is the same one I have used(Gitzo) with a Velbon PH270 head, for the past 8-10 years. The only "new" item used for this shot is the rubber bulb cable release I bought a year ago.

Large format does not have to be expensive. Where one may bracket more in 35mm, especially with newer auto cameras with extensive bracketing programs, I shot two sheets of film of each orientation. I processed them separately to avoid glitches and allow fine tuning if my first negative wasn't quite on target. Both sets look fine. No dust, scrapes or lint on them. In this format, 5x7, I will only contact the images until I rebuild the 5x7 enlarger I got last year. Then, maybe I might enlarge some. They were shot with the intention of being contact prints, not later changing by cropping or enlarging and are composed to try to have the complete and final image on film at the time of shooting.

Nothing exotic or unusual was used in either taking or processing the images. Kodak TMax 100 film, Xtol developer at 1:3, Kodak Rapid Fix, and Forte Polygrade fibre paper for the contact prints. The contact printer is a sheet of safety glass from a local glass store, taped to a piece of mat board and exposed under the enlarger. Then developed in Dektol at about 1:3 or 4, standard Kodak indicator stop bath, rapid fixer using Ilford's archival fix procedures of mixing at film strength and fixing with continuous agitation for 60 seconds, then rinsing in water, treating with Heico Perma Wash followed by a water bath with 8 changes of water over the space of 1 1/2 hours. Then I selenium tone until it "looks right"(experience & I still screw up sometimes), then re-rinse using the water bath method again through 8 changes, then air dried and flattened in my dry mount press.

After all that I tested the image with the Kodak hype test kit and didn't show a stain that I could see.

My feeling with these and other images is that if one takes the time to shoot they should follow through with good procedures all the way so the image will last. A major part of that for me is doing the darkroom work myself. With large format photography one finds a big percentage of the photographers do their own work. Here in Utah we have some excellent photographers, from Rodger Newbold to Tillman Crane to Craig Law. Each shoots differently and each does his own darkroom work to express his own vision. One major reason many of us shoot large format is Control. If you are to be good you need to know how the controls work and the best way to learn is to do your own work. In the future, if you choose to have someone else develop and/or print your images, you will have the hands on experience to let them know what you really want. You will have the knowledge needed to talk the language to get the best prints possible.

Large format, more than most others, demands a higher level of knowledge in its use. You work slower than with smaller film sizes and generally shoot fewer images. There are more steps for mistakes to show up. One can work quickly, but not normally until experience sets your work habits so you don't forget a critical step, like removing the darkslide when you shoot the image. All of us have made that mistake at one time or another. Good images are taken in any format. LF is only one approach. If it works for you, good. Do what it takes to get excellent images. Learn to control the medium. I don't use the zone system as some do, but I do know its use and use the principles with each shot. Knowledge of it will improve your results. You will seldom hear LF practitioners bracketing every way from Sunday & praying something turns out on their film.

No matter what you do, take good images. Just because the negative is bigger doesn't mean the image is. Boring photos still boring with a 4x5 or a 16x20 camera, just bigger. Learn both the craft and the esthetics of creating fine images so when you do shoot an individual sheet of film, it is of a subject and composition worth shooting. Then print it with the technique that will do your vision justice. Show only the good work(unless a specific and valid reason exists to show others-such as how to get to a fine print/whatever) and you will improve your use of the LF camera quickly.

If you have any questions or comments, I do answer the e-mail sent to me. Send it to Dan Smith, shooter@brigham.net and I will attempt to help if I can. If you have a suggestion for a future column or have something you think I need to address, let me know. The opinions in the articles and commentary are mine, not those of the site or the University. I am opinionated and I know it. I live with it whether positive or negative. I try to keep the information accurate, so let me know if it is not, or doesn't make sense.

Dan Smith, Photograph