Architectural Photography with Graflex Crown Graphic

I am starting to experiment with Architectural Photography....I have previously ONLY used

my Crown Graphic (Schneider Xenar 127) for Portraits.

 

Until doing a bit of research, I had no idea that the Crown had as many movements as it

does...the Drop Bed was the biggest surprise. With Front Rise Front Side to Side and Drop

Bed available will I be missing much? This type of work isn't going to be my Full-time

thing but I woulkd like to be able to do it well.

 

Thanks,

jmp

It's a good setup to start with, (I did), but you'll soon run into limitations. You'll want a camera with back movements and a lens with more coverage. A 90mm is the standard lens for architecture- but see Norman McGrath's book, "Photographing Buildings Inside and Out".

The very first time you need swing, front or rear, you'll know why the Crown isn't the first choice for architectural work.

The non-rotating back and non-interchangable bellows are even more limiting.

Without back movements it will be difficult to use your camera for exterior architecture. You can use front rise to assist in getting the tops of buildings in the photograph while keeping the back parallel to the buildings But sooner or later you'll encounter a situaiton where you don't have enough front rise and you'll need to tilt the camera upwards. After doing that you'll look in the ground glass and observe that vertical lines in the building aren't parallel to each other on your ground glass so that the building resembles a pyramid. The way to bring the lines parallel on the ground glass (and in your photograph) is to tilt the back forward so that it's parallel to the building. But you won't be able to do that because your camera doesn't have back movements. At that point you'll see that your camera isn't well suited to exterior architecture though it's a very fine camera for many other things.

If you're printing digitally you don't really much in the way of movements on the camera. You make corrections with the computer. Just be sure to leave plenty of room around the subject to allow for those changes on the final prints. The Crown Graphic may be all you ever need.

Here's the straight photograph. Notice that I've kept the left edge of the building vertical, but the rest of it appears to lean inward. (43mm SMCP, XP2super)<div></div>

Here's the corrected image. I should have allowed more room on the right so the lamp post wouldn't be cut off. Correction made with Photoshop Elements.<div></div>

Of course, most of this isn't going to mean a thing to me until I go out and try it. But

thanks for all of the insight.

 

jmp

John, another problem you will encounter is having sufficient lens coverage when using movements like front rise. The 127mm lens typically supplied with Graphic cameras is a press type of lens that only just covers the format without movements. You will discover the edge of your lens' image circle when using movements.

hi john

 

architectural photography is loads easier with a view camera, that way you can assure

your self that the film plane is parallel to your subject - unless, you scan and fix in PS,

which is pretty easy too. :)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3803545924&category=15247

 

graphic view II's are pretty cheep, and often come with a case!

 

good luck!

-

john

The 127mm F4.7 <b>Ektar</b>'s of mine fit two different 4x5's and one 3x4 press cameras. The 127mm Ektar is really a lens for a 3x4 inch format; but is acceptable for a 4x5 press camera. I assume the Xenar; another 4 element "tessar" type design too; has the same great central core sharpness; but only moderate edge sharpness and coverage. One of my 127mm Ektars was tested; and had a maximum center sharpness of 80 line pairs /mm at the center; but only about 15 at the far edges of a 4x5 frame; actually the test was about 3.5x4.5" on the negative.<BR><BR>Using the 127mm on the speed 4x5; with a raised front; causes the illumination to fail at the films one edge. One gets a circular vignete. My speed 4x5 also came with a 12cm F6.8 Schneider Angulon; which has alot better coverage than my 127mm Ektars. The 12cm lens was built in 1936 ; it came along with the speed Graphic 4x5 camera kit I bought used. <BR><BR>Shooting with a tilted back/camera; and correcting in photoshop is remapping the pixels. This warping/stretching does cause a loss in resolution/sharpness; in critical applications. Sometimes this effect doesnt show up much; and doesnt get seen. <BR><BR>Sometimes a view camera is used to make a street lamp; car; pole not appear in a buildings photo. Mostly; folks focus first on the non tilting bullding look.