teaching large format

[sergio_ortega7]

Doug,

 

All good suggestions. One thing I don't believe anyone mentioned: Dust. The lack of cleanliness when loading film can ruin more exposures than just about anything else.

 

Some things to consider:

 

Strongly discourage anyone from using darkbags for loading sheet film. (These things are only useful for UNloading films). Darkbags, no matter the size or the design, are dust breeding grounds. Invariably you will have several spots, squiggly lint lines, and other imperfections burned into the smooth sky areas (which, if you recall, are at the bottoms of the film area given the reversed/inverted image formed on the groundglass and the effects of gravity). If you're lucky dust spots can be touched up on the negative, but re-touching is becoming a lost art.

 

Before loading film you should always thoroughly clean your film holders and dark slides. I use a good camel hair paint brush to dust off all the nooks and grooves, a vacuum only serves to move the dust around.

 

Make sure your work areas are clean. Wash and dry your hands. The absolutely best and most convenient place to load film holders is a darkened bathroom. Run the hot water to lightly steam up the room, let the steam subside, and the suspended dust is pretty much eliminated.

 

And don't forget to vacuum the inside of the camera bellows before going out for the day. Dust collects in the folds during daily field or studio use, and the expansion and contraction of the camera while focusing will suck air in and out making any dust in the bellows fly about and deposit itself on your sheet of film.

 

Nothing is more frustrating than making and developing the perfect negative, with lovely cloud formations and atmospheric effects, only to enlarge it and find a bunch of spots and lines in the final print.

[jack_fisher1]

It should go without saying that in large format photography, one should consider being slow and deliberate, especially at the start. The above suggestions are all good. But I have seen a friend of mine several times tripping the shutter without first pulling the dark slide. Then I say "Pull the slide, and try again."

Another problem with being in a hurry is in loading film. Some sheet films come with spacer paper between each sheet. It is easy when in a hurry to misyakenly load a sheet of that black paper in front of a fresh sheet of film. Result: no exposure. aaaarrrggghhh!

Slow -- Deliberate -- Think twice

 

J

[doug_mcgoldrick2]

wow thanks for all the great answers. I'm teach at columbia college chicago. All of these

students have already had 2 b/w darkroom classes a color darkroom class and a studio

lighting class. so they are pretty knowledgeable about cameras but don't know about the

big cameras thanks for all your help.