A New Tool for Previsualization

[stevewillard]

I have just purchased the Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera with

all the extras. My hope is to use this tool to visualize and

investigate the image before expending time and effort to set up

the 4x5/5x7/4x10 camera. Because it is small and fast, I can get

quick feedback on whether I really have something, what lens to

use, contrast of the scene, and where to place my camera. It

also has macro capability, and I have just purchased its ring

flash.

 

My hope is this tool will save me time an effort and ultimately

increase my yields in the field. Any comments about this? Has

anyone ever done any thing like this?

[johnelstad]

What you've effectively created is a high-tech composition card. Coincidentally, this topic was covered a few days ago here:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0056IF

[eric_floyd]

on a Landscape shoot I use my 4x5, 8x10, and D30....This gives the best of 3 worlds....Digital, Enlarging, and Contact printing...Looking to upgrade the d30 but I am going to wait another generation...

[emrys]

I've been doing this for ages and I'm happy to say that it's caused me to shoot less film, yet, at the same time, produce a higher yield of keepers. I basically shoot loads of promising compositions with the digital then evaluate their potential back on the computer. Once I've gotten prints made of the ones I like, I go back to where they were shot and make some field notes:

 

- compass direction

 

- time of day / month / year when I feel the light will be best (*)

 

- which 4x5 lens to use (I use a Linhof viewfinder for this)

 

 

* - I use an azimuth calculator to help me with this.

 

I hope this was helpful,

 

Mike

[ralph_barker]

Yes, digital can be an effective tool with the proper testing and recognition of the differences. Digital, for example, will generally blow out highlights far sooner than you'd see on film, so you need to become familiar with difference in luminence ranges, where the boundaries are, etc. so the results can be interpreted correctly.

 

The problem, of course, is using the system in the field and/or when the location isn't convenient to return to. The LCD on the camera doesn't really provide a good representation of the image potential, but it's far better than nothing and cheaper than Polaroids (if you ignore the cost of the camera).

[leonard_evens]

I've been doing this for a while now with my Olympus 3040. One problem I have is that the widest angle zoom setting is equivalent to about a 35 mm lens in 35 mm format. Your camera is similar (38 mm). So it is hard to evaluate what will happen when I use a 90 mm lens in 4 x 5. A related problem is that with my camera, there doesn't appear to be any way to determing the focal length when zooming. It is contained in the exif data stored with the image, but that doesn't seem accessible directly from the camera. If anyone has ways around these problems, let me know.

[guytal]

The digital can do a lot more than just help you with composition. If yours has a histogram feature - it can be invaluable in determining exposure. See this article:

<br><br>

<a href="http://scenicwild.com/scenicwild/html/articles/film_and_digital.pdf">http://scenicwild.com/scenicwild/html/articles/film_and_digital.pdf</a>

<br><br>

Guy<br>

<a href="http://scenicwild.com">Scenic Wild</a>

[jim_shanesy]

If I'm doing analog photography, there's only one visualization tool I'll ever use - the groundglass of my view camera. That's where an image is conceived, nurtured and born. The only place.

 

I believe the whole concept of "previsualization" to be nonsense. Visualization occurs during the act of discovering a composition on the groundlass; i.e., during the act of photography.