LF for product photography?

Hi everyone! I want to get into product/advertising photography and in researching the

topic I have seen several references to LF cameras. I've been shooting digital (20D) as are

so many others so learning that LF cameras were still being used was a big surprise to me!

All this time, I thought LF was something only landscape or architecture photographers

used. So my questions are why is LF so great for product stuff? Where in the world do you

get film developed? If I don't use a LF camera am I shooting myself in the foot? Will a tilt

shift lens offer some of the same benefits?

Sorry for all the questions but I am really curious and would love to hear your opinions on

this topic. Thanks so much and Happy Holidays!!

Ellen,

There are primarily 2 reasons (I think) that product photography is still done with LF. Note that I personally do not do LF product photography, but know someone who does so on a regular basis.

The usual reason is movements. Without being able to adjust the focal plane, any subject will have converging/diverging lines unless shot straight-on. Obviously, subjects with straight lines like furniture that appear "un-square" are not likely to sell very well!

The other is that it's just hard to beat the quality you get with a 4x5 or larger piece of film for high-end work. For lower resolution and smaller finished output, digital and 35mm should work equally well. I was browsing similar subjects a while back, and IIRC, a surprisingly large amount of food photography is done with 8x10. Don't know if it's really true or not..

A tilt-shift lens will help some, but as you get closer to your subject, you need more and more movements. That's why they're all shooting Sinar Ps and P2s. Are you shooting youself in the foot not using LF? Why, yes of course (but this is the LF forum ;^)). Seriously, I don't know. If you can get the shot without distortion with a smaller format and the output doesn't need to be big and fine, probably not.

You can get LF film developed in many places that develop regular film, provided you're talking about traditional full service photo dealers and shops. Obviously you're not going to drop off your 8x10 chromes at Walgreens. But I live in Knoxville, Tennessee (not exactly a hub of LF photography) and my local dealer, Thompson's Photo Products, develops 4x5 and 8x10 chrome. Or you can send it off "mail order" as many do.

Steve

I think Steve Hamley is very right about the quality about large format ie difficult to bet in regards of quality.

But if you are looking at starting out in product photography you might want to take it a bit easy on the investments. There is plenty to do in photoshop to correct things with in regards of perspective and such. There is no question about that product photography is moving more and more to digital. The prime reason why I would recomend you getting a LF is for learning and understanding the idea of movements and perspective on a truly flexible camera and once you will have a look at a correctly exposed 5x4 or 10x8 chrome it is very difficult to go back. If money is no issue you might want to look at the digital backs to fit onto a LF camera and if you only would shoot products and stuff that never moves a scanning back is acctually lover in price today. The sinar back is very nice but oboy what a price tag on it.

The good thing is that if you get yourself a modular camera ie most LF cameras but the big names Sinar Cambo Linhof Toyo etc etc etc you could easily upgrade later to a digital version of the camera.

For example a Sinar Norma will acctually take a digital back and that camera was ceased production in the 70's. And you can pick them up reasonably cheap.

Good luck

<I>So my questions are why is LF so great for product stuff? Where in the world do you

get film developed? If I don't use a LF camera am I shooting myself in the foot? Will a tilt

shift lens offer some of the same benefits?</I><P>

1.) Shift, tilt, swing, rise and fall movements of both the lens and film plane; significantly

higher image quality (even then 16mp cameras likethe Eos 1Ds mk. II, & versatility. <P>

2.) You get it developed at professional labs.<P>3.)For some jobs you will be.<P>

4.) You get a very limited set of the same advantages. t6he problems are that a.) you have

no perspective rendering control --this only comes from swinging or tilting the film (or

sensor) plane. With all shift tilt lenses you can swing and tilt the lens at the same time

(sometimes necessary); you can't have lateral & independent shift; and unless you modify

the lens pretty heavily the shift movement is fixed at 90 degrees from the angle of tilt.

Additionally with all view camera lens you have a full set of movements and all lenses can

potentially be used at camera distances from macro to infinity. Anoher advantage is thta

with product photography changing the position ofthe lens relative to the subject 9as

when you focus changes the reproduction ratio and your perspective on the subjects. Wth

a view camera you can focus with the rear standard without moving the lens position.

Perusing a good book on the basics of LF camera usage will show you better than any of us can tell you, what makes fully adjustable cameras worh it. The many books out there are almost always illustrated with pictures that demonstrate what this or that movement of the camera does to the image.

Another bonus of the L in LF is that a big scan of a 4x5 or 8x10 or larger can contain far more real image information that even the most extreme digital capture. If you want extreme enlargeability, film stands pretty tall.

Best,

C

Hi Charlie and thanks for the suggestion. I will look into it further - not to buy (at least not

in the near future) but to answer my questions.