first car shot with the 4x5

[Daniel Buck]

Took my Cambo out for it's maiden flight (had been waiting on a lensboard and some free time!)

Went out to shoot some trees along Tuna Canyon, but decided to take a shot of my car as well, since this is the first time I've had it out since the new suspension, and had a camera with me. Looks much better sitting lower to the ground, for sure! haha!

I must say, I'm still getting used to composing with the double flipped view. I'm getting more confident with landscapes and trees, but the car, seems to be especially difficult! I'll have to spend some more time with it in front of a car! I'm posting it anyway though, I think a few of yall will recognize the location :)

Morgan, this is your old 135mm Schneider at work! Front element removed for the car shot :)


http://404photography.net/wip/4x5/4x5_tunacanyon_02.jpg

http://404photography.net/wip/4x5/4x5_tunacanyon_01.jpg

[John Jovic]

Daniel

I like the tree, but I don't think LF offers car photography anything special. On the other hand, if you start to play with the tilts/swings and really mess with the plane of focus then that's probably another story. If the car were in a location where you needed to keep verticals vertical then that would also be a good reason, but other than that...

Could have used a polariser on the car...

JJ

[Daniel Buck]

Yea, I didn't get the 4x5s to shoot cars, but since that's what I shoot alot, I imagine I'll be trying it every now and then. I mostly shoot landscapes, rocks, trees, and a bit of architecture with the 4x5 cameras. To be honest, I'm kind of getting tired of shooting cars. Maybe that's just because I've already shot the crap out of my car, and need to find a different one to shoot.

[Mike Ditz]

Daniel

I like the tree, but I don't think LF offers car photography anything special.JJ

If you have ever seen a perfect 8x10 trans you might not think that way. I grew up assisting at studios
shooting catalog work.

M

[Daniel Buck]

Funny you mention that Mike, I'm actually looking for an 8x10 back and bellows for my cambo, to try some of the new Velvia 50 transparencies (as soon as they are available!) I'm going to pick up some 4x5 for sure, but I would love to have some 8x10s! I can imagine they are very sweet to look at! The velvia 6x7cm transparencies that I have had developed look so rich and beautiful, just a bit small!

[John Jovic]

If you have ever seen a perfect 8x10 trans you might not think that way. I grew up assisting at studios
shooting catalog work.

M

I was wondering if someone would say that. I learnt car photography mostly assisting LF studio shoots and yes, LF film is very nice, eg tonal gradation, detail.

JJ

[John Swenson]

If you have ever seen a perfect 8x10 trans you might not think that way.

I think Harley-Davidson still buys a lot of LF chromes.

. I grew up assisting at studios shooting catalog work.

Me too.

[Vladimir Bace]

with large format there are 2 reasons to use it..

first is the size of the transparency, and the quality you get when you blow it up to large format.. I did quite lot of car (and other) work with 4x5 and larger, and it really does reproduce differently even compared to a perect 6x7 (although a perfect 6x7 sometimes might be unbelivably sharp and detailed, 4x5 wins on grain of course...)

secondly, the way you work it is different... I just look at the picture differently when I work with my 4x5 almost as I am looking at the finnished picture... you work more slowly, but take greater care to arrive at the final frame..
most importantly, you have a different approach to getting the perspective you want, because you can influence the image geometry so much with tilts and shifts, which makes lens choice a different matter too..

also, the freedom to place your focus plane anywhere is great stuff..

I learned my photograpy mostly on large format view cameras, which made my work process a bit difficult to implement on a normal SLR... I taught myself to imagine the final frame first, then go about making it..

LF camera basically gives you the freedom to choose your viewpoint first, then correct whatever geometry problems you might have at that viewpoint (maybe the car is deformed, meybe the background) and finally adjust your focus plane and field of sharpness as you like...

just two examples..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/rci207.jpg

this was shot on a 4x5 sinar, with 6x12 cm back (because the calendar we were shooting was narrow vertical) and this is the image with no crop... adjustments to the front and back camera standard gave a focal plane thqat basically goes right trough the centre of the image, so that basically only the front wheels of both cars are sharp.. you can see tha tthe pillars in the middle are out of focus... this image is free of PS work...


second one is a classical shot with some arhitecture in the background... where I just wanted to keep things as vertical as I could..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/dubrovnik.jpg

third... very large depth of field thanks to the front and back tilt + massive correction of the geometry so that the castle in the background doesn't look like it will topple over (relatively wide lens... 90 mm if I remember correctly, equivalent of 24 mm on 35mm)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/SCAN_43.jpg

[Vladimir Bace]

unfortunately, wirking with LF is quite expensive and slow, so most of the clients I get to work with will not pay for it.. :(

[Daniel Buck]

unfortunately, wirking with LF is quite expensive and slow, so most of the clients I get to work with will not pay for it.. :(
my LF system has been cheaper by far than my digital system! (I have several 4x5s now) It's more expensive to shoot, yes. But I only shoot a few shots each time, and I'm only shooting for fun, so I don't have to listen to what someone else wants or doesn't want :D

[Vladimir Bace]

I agree with you, I like having as many toys I can, so I went to 5x8 inch back for my sinar...

funny thing, I immedeately found pro work for it.. :) not much, but enough for now...

[Daniel Buck]

I'm dieing to find an 8x10 back for my Cambo, I'd love to see some beautiful transparencies from it :) Not sure that I can even handle 8x10's now though, don't have any holders, and my changing bag isn't large enough to load 8x10's (I'm guessing). We'll see, maybe later :D

[Vladimir Bace]

I had the pleasure working with polaroid instant film, in 4x5 AND 8x10 inch for a while.... now that was something special... :) beautifull... also, I was able to do image transfers directly to wet art paper...

[Mike Ditz]

Daniel-

Most labs have a film loading room you can use. You just need to find a lab that's still in bizness.

[Daniel Buck]

Daniel-

Most labs have a film loading room you can use. You just need to find a lab that's still in bizness.
going to a lab each time I want to load or unload film would be a hassle, being that I would probably only pickup one or two film holders (at first) if I decided to give 8x10 a go. I'll probably just have to pickup a larger changing tent. Or black out my bathroom.

[Mike Ditz]

I have blacked out many a motel bathroom while on location jobs. Have you been using ez loads for 4x5?
8x10 holders are cheap these days...but the film and processing and scanning is mucho dinero.
Going out to shoot with one holder...now that's discipline.

[Daniel Buck]

Yea, if I did 8x10 it would be only for a select few shots. I'm more into B&W, especially since I can easily process it myself. I'm just using regular reloadable sheet holders for 4x5. I do have a polaroid back to take easy/quick loads, but haven't ever tried it.

Going out with one holder? yea, that would be challenging :-D I usually take 2 with me (4 shots, each holder is double sided), but I'm going to locations that I could (and have) easily go back to if I wanted to. If I were to take a trip (I'm heading out to El Mirage this Friday) I'd take 4 or 6 holders all ready to go. On a real long trip, I'd probably take my changing bag with me, and an empty film box to put all my negatives in. But to be honest, if I ended up with like 30+ shots, I would probably just send them off to a lab to process, that would take me quite a while to process that many. I like doing only a few on the weekend, that's enough fun for me. More than that and it would probably be to much work.

I donno though, I haven't taken the 4x5 on long trips yet, who knows maybe I would enjoy processing all the film. I'd certainly have to take notes on the shots though.