Homemade dark cloth question from beginner

I just bought a GVII (my first LF camera) and would like to use a

darkcloth instead of the "viewer" thing on the back. I don't know

how anyone can use a loupe with that thing attached.

 

My mother is a seamstress and is going to make a darkcloth for me.

She is going to put elastic on the camera side with some velcro on

the bottom to seal it up a bit. She is going to make it black on the

inside and white or silver on the outside. How long should it be? I

would think that if I could get my face about a foot away from the GG

and still be under the dark cloth that might be plenty, but I'm not

sure.

 

Any tips on making my own dark cloth?

Based on Ansel Adams' and my own experience, White is a better external choice than Silver.

I'd venture that 36" X 36" would be generous enough for you not to feel cramped.

Matt, I'd go with Steve Simmon's recommendations in his excellent book "Using The View Camera" For 4x5 try 3'x4', for 8x10, 4'x5'or larger works for me. Resist the temptation of putting weights in the corners! May your light be good and the wind still! Welcome to LF!

There's a good reason Maurey and John suggest a larger cloth than you seem to suppose. If the cloth isn't large enough to drape a good distance behind your head, it tends to crawl up and loop down between your face and the ground glass as you move around under it.

I made my own darkcloth, 3'x4'. I used two layers of black fabric plus one layer of white, velcro at the camera end plus along the long edges to close up the bottom when I'm under the cloth. I didn't use elastic but am considering adding some.

Hello Matt,

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of LF photography and the LF forum. To answer your question I went and measured mine. My wife also has been a seamstress and made two for me. They are both 36 inches long. The first is black inside and silver on the outside. The reason for a light color is so that the heat is reflected away from you. Up here in the Canadian Rockies that is not often a problem. The other is green on the outside and a very dark brown on the inside. The green helps to keep the bugs away where as white can attract mosquitos and such. Surprisingly the dark brown seems just as effective as the black for the inside. I believe the weave of the cloth has more to do with blocking the light than the color.

 

Enjoy your shooting !

 

James Phillips

I agree with the 3'x4' size. I used a combination of elastic and velcro to attach it to the camera. When I did this, I noticed that there was quite a bit of excess material hanging down below the camera so I tapered from the bottom of the camera to the full width of the cloth at about 45 degrees and put a zipper in along the taper.

 

Jim Stewart

Welcome to the world of LF!

 

You'll soon discover that whenever two LF'ers discuss, they have at least three different opinions...

 

As to your question, my version is - a black T-shirt!

Neckline fits nicely around the (camera) back, while the sleeves give easy access with a loupe.

 

Of course, I don't live near any major deserts, or black might be too hot...

Matt,

 

I would also suggest paying attention to the 'feel' of the fabric you buy. Remember that you are going to be spending lots of time under it, so in addition to color, make sure that it is 'breathable' and feels nice on your skin. While polyester might keep the light out, it also keeps the moisture and heat in. Cotton works well, but is heavy.

 

I wonder if gore-tex is made in dark colors? Anybody tried to make a gore-tex darkcloth?

Hi Mat'

When you go to the dry goods store for the cloth be sure to hold it up to see how much light comes through from the store lights.You might also want to consider the outer layer to be rain proof. I have long strips of velcro on mine.

Happy shooting

Tim Anderson

A convenient size could be as small as a t-shirt but as large as the 36x36. Be

aware that weighing it with small weights will be detrimental... windy day,

getting hit with weights in the head, arms shoulders ect.

Ole, my black t-shirt is sewn inside a white t-shirt. The stretchy

neck fits perfectly on my Sinar 4x5. I didn't think about leaving the

sleeves open, figuring that would let light in, so I had my wife

sew them shut. There is still plenty of room for my left arm to

come in from the bottom to manipulate the loupe. The t-shirts

are from JCPenney and are the largest size. This is so much

easier to use than the 3x3 cloth with velcro that I used before.

Matt:

I use a largish darkclothh, 30x40, homemade also. Fabric: Try black ultrasuede and white nylon or cotton. The cloth will be opaque, and once you wrap it around the back of the camera, there won't be any light peeping through. A useful addition: sew a tape measue into one edge of the dark cloth. That will enable you to determine exposure compensdation with your lens when bellows is extended.

Bob

Matt, FWIW my dark cloth pulls quadruple duty: 1)It's a focusing cloth, 2) It's a back drop for portraits, both the black and the white sides(of course I have to use a coat for a dark cloth when employed thusly, 3) Folded, it serves as a cushion to protect my camera, and 4) It blocks out any light leaks in my bathroom/darkroom when push-pinned into place. Useful things, dark cloths!

I just got back from Mexico, and I noticed several of the large

shawl wraps that the native women wore in the markets. I would

suggest taking the standard black/white cloth, but then retrofitting

it with the local style of fabric, so that you blend in more with the

local people.

 

In Mexico, you'd have the peasant/saturated/Aztec pattern dark

cloth; in New York's East Village, only solid black would ever do.

In San Francisco, maybe try the Leopard print, or the Grateful

Dead tie-dye style. In LA, I guess most anything would be

acceptable; but may I recommend the sky blue wave pattern, with

the golden sunset, and the faint imprint of tiny Ectstasy tablets. In

Berlin, maybe the steel silver, emotionally-void metal look. While

shooting in Baghdad (literally), the camo look is in.

 

Stay tuned to PDN for this fall's darkcloth fashion lineup. Anything

to get a celebrity mentioned in PDN, and they'll just on it quick.

You heard it here first.

hmmm - I just dug out my old desert shemagh - now, if Dubya decides to re-lives the wild west out in Sadaam Land, it would make quite an appropriate darkcloth and also be in solidarity with my old buddies in the 7th Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division - Desert Rats

 

I like the idea of dark cloth fashion

The 'boy's club' has missed the obvious solution... a woman's black skirt with about a 26 inch waist fits perfectly on a Sinar 4x5 the back zipper positioned at the botton of the standard allows for a custom fit. If the skirt has pockets even better, you can place your hands in these to access the loop. A bit of fullness or bias cut makes it nice and roomy with no stray light. Plus the bonus of having a 'wardrobe' change on hand! I used this in my first shoot the other day and it worked great! Cheers guys.

alright if you're a girl...! But I already get enough weird comments with a normal darkcloth thanks... I hate to think what would come my way if I tried this. (mind you, customs classified my BTZS darkcloth as a "womans skirt")

For that matter, I could see a pair of black Levis as an obvious

solution as well. Put both arms up the leg holes to focus and run

the loupe, and then take your knife and cut a hole in the butt of

the jeans to slide your head into. This would fulfill many of my

friends' vision of me for years now -- that I have my head up my

butt...

Thanks for all of the great help. I'm going to go with a 3'x4' size for now and see how it works out. Until she gets it done, I'll be using a black T-shirt.

 

Based on Mark's advice, and living it Iowa, I think I'll adorn the outside of the cloth with an old burlap seed corn bag.

Seriously -- if you made that burlap dark cloth, and one day you

became famous, imagine what that thing would bring on ebay, or

what a nice hand-me-down relic it would be to your

grandchildren. When your grandkids are flying around in

jetpacks, with hood-mounted video cameras with instant upload

to the web, they'll appreciate your mom's burlap sack darkcloth

that was used on an old antique wooden view camera that used

old-timey silver film.

I think some of the people who have responded here have missed the way it looks like you plan to design your dark cloth. If the velcro on the bottom that you mention runs along the entire length of two opposing sides of the dark cloth, then what you've just described is the BTZS dark cloth. With that design you will have created a tunnel, one end of which is the elastic surrounding the back of the camera, the other end of which is the opening through which you put your head, and the thing is "sealed" by the strips of velcro so that a tunnel effect is created. The end through which you put your head can be made wider or narrower by use of the velcro. That kind of a cloth doesn't need to be anywhere near as big as a traditional "horse blanket" dark cloth because the darkness is created by the closed tunnel, not by the cloth being draped way over the camera and over your head, shoulders, and back. I think that a 3'x4' cloth with this design is way more than you need. The elastic end that fits around the camera needs to be only wide enough to fit around the camera back, i.e. much less than three or four feet. The end into which you put your head needs to be only about the same size and in any event the size can be varied by use of the velcro. You don't need to stand back from the camera anything like three or four feet. So what I think you'll end up with is a huge amount of unnecessary material if you start out with a 3' x 4' rectangle of cloth and use the design you plan to use (which, BTW, is an excellent design).

Ann is Absolutely correct. You should by every means steal a heavy navy sweatshirt from your wife, (perhaps while she's stitching the "real" one) and in a slight variation to what's been discussed, poke your head in the head hole backwards and put the waist portion around the camera. That way it works up to 8X10. It also looks so stupid that my poor wife is embarrassed to be seen near me when I'm shooting. Another obvious benefit. jg

My wife too is an excellent seamstress (as well as photographic and darkroom partner and much else). She used as a guide Gordon Hutchings's good article "How to Make a Darkcloth" in VC Sept/Oct 2000, pp. 64-66. Double thickness of black cotton knit 5x7 feet for shooting 8x10. We would have made it wider but the bolts are only 60 inches wide. Definitely Mark's East Village model--I wouldn't have it any other way. Big enough to enshroud the bellows against light leaks and to provide cover when film holders would otherwise be exposed to sunlight and when pulling and re-inserting slide--in addition to other uses already mentioned. Heck, I like getting lost in the damn thing!

 

I've been on the lookout for images of the masters working a view camera with darkcloth; there aren't that many, probably because it wouldn't make for much of a portrait, would it? My favorite by far is Willard van Dyke's "Sonya Noskowiak, Taos, 1933." Sonya's perched on a mountain side with back to camera shooting a spectacular sky with thunderhead. Her dark and apparently small cloth appears to be wrapped tightly around her head but doesn't cover the entire bellows. I did a brief websearch in the hope of finding the image, without success, but it is on the cover of "Seeing Straight. The f.64 Revolution in Photography" brought out by the Oakland Museum in 1992.

P.S. Ann, I forgot to mention that in that picture of Willard van Dyke's Sonya's skirt is where it was supposed to be in 1933, not, as you propose, over her head! My, how times have changed! Cheers, Nicholas.