FOCUSING LARGE FORMAT

I'M VERY INTERESTED IN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND LF IS THE BEST

WAY TO ACHIVE IT BUT THE MORE I READ ABOUT LARGE FORMAT THE MORE I

REALIZE HOW TECHNICAL IT CAN BE...TRANSITION TO LF SEEMS TO BE

CONCERNING SINCE I'M A SELF-TOUGHT LEARNER! HOW HARD IS IT ACTUALLY

TO FOCUS AND GET GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS WITHOUT GETTING TOO SPECIFIC? IS LF

SOMETHING I CAN DO IN A TRIAL AND ERROR BASIS WITHOUT KNOWING THE

PROCEDURE IN DEPTH?

WHAT'S FOCAL PLANE?

I don't know what you did before. Focusing LF is a bit harder. I once wanted to buy a 8x10 with f:8 lens and wondered about seeing nearly nothing on the ordinary groundglass under dark cloth as I tried to focus in a moderate enlighted room. I had similar problems with a Mamiya TLR in a dark pub. So there are problems with low light subjects. The next is you 'll have to move your loupe to several points of the groundglas, while you adjust the movements. I wouldn't call the work hard, but it takes time. If you have somebody standing beside you he'll be able to enjoy a cigar during your first shots. But I believe other stuff in photography takes time too, so it doesn't actual matter.

Focal plane is where you get a sharp image of the subject in front of the lens. It becomes thicker if you stop the lens down.

Fred,

 

Get your hands on a copy of one of the many books on the subject (Ansel Adams' "The Camera", Steve Simmons' view camera book, or Leslie Stoebl's "View Camera Technique") or take a look at the Large Format Home Page (www.largeformatphotography.info/) and find the sections on focussing. It is more complicated than point and shoot, but one one idiot can do, so can another... A good book on the subject and a little mental effort on your part will get you where you want to be a lot faster than asking about every little discovery and question you come up with teaching yourself. After all, one thing that separates us from the animals is that we humans can learn from the experiences of others, and, we can read...

 

And please, DON'T SCREAM ON THIS FORUM!!! Try and find the shift-lock key and de-activate it.

A 35MM CAMERA WITH A PC (PERSPECTIVE CONTROL) LENS AND A TRIPOD ARE AN EXCELLENT STARTING POINT IN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY.

 

USE IT FOR SOME TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE BASICS. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FOLLOW. SORRY, BUT THERE IS NO SHORT CUT...

Like everything else in LF photography, focusing takes longer and is more finicky than with lesser cameras. It's not magic, though. I manage (most of the time) so it can't be very hard...

Sure focusing a view camera is more difficult and time consuming than using an autofocus 35mm SLR. On the other hand I find it easier to focus my view than I did my manual SLR just by virtue of the vastly larger screen. I think most of your hesitation must comes from the discussions of movements, which can be daughnting at first, but become second-nature in time. Besides, which is more preferable- missing the shot because you can't get the top of the building AND the fountain in the forground in focus or taking the time and effort to set up a view camera and end up with a negative that is not only in sharp focus but has better tonal seperation to boot?

The Answers are:

 

Practice (it really isn't complicated as I recall, but there are more

possibilities with a view camera that has tilts and swings on the front and rear).

 

Use Polaroid Type 55 both as a practice & learning material and when proofing actal

shots. I use Type 55 to check focus aon all critical shots.

 

In addition the Sinar F, C, & P cameras make figuring out your tilts andswings much

easier than it is with other cameras.

 

Also don't get bogged down in theory: particularly Merklinger's calculations.

I'd suggest looking into a sinar camera. The F series is more affordable.

Sinar has a system for focusing that really simplifies focusing while making it

much more precise.

 

I had used a Cambo for years and thought Sinar's were overpriced. The sinar

rep showed me how their camera worked and loaned me one for a week. I

sold my cambo the following week!

Chip

Focussing a large format camera is the easy part. Simply put a loupe on the ground glass and focuss until sharp. More difficult, I think, is to level the camera to start and insure the front and rear standards are perfectly aligned. Look for a camera with detents and built in levels. Poor setup makes focussing tough.

Howard Bond offers an affordable one day hands-on class on using a view cammera. As far as I know, the class addresses the issues you are asking about. If you do not own a view camera, he will provide one for you during the class. This might help you decide if it is worth getting into it further without making such complete commitment. I think one of these classes is coming up in the next few weeks. Search the web for details. He is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

LF for perspective control in a simple architectural shot is dead simple:

 

1 Set standards vertical, with base or monorail horizontal

 

2 compose (vertical) using rise/fall, keeping standards vertical.

 

3 Focus.

 

For off-set shots, if you want rectangles rectangular, put the rear standard (film plane) parallel to the subject rectangle

 

To get the foreground in focus, make the film plane, plane of sharpest focus and lens plane intersect in a line: to keep the perspective right, do this with front tilt.

I have a very wacky alternative - I hot glued a $40 connectix quick cam to an 8x loupe and place it on the ground glass like a stethiscope - it mags 1 square inch into 640x320 pixels on my portable computer - it is awesome.

 

I'm working on a way to use this to calc exposure but am having problems getting source code to allow me low level control over the cam.

 

I said it was wacky.