kevin gulstene

http://www.jandcphoto.com

I don't have any personal experience with the j&c 400 but they shipped me some efke

pl25 that has been very promising.

Here is what I did to get used to using my spot meter.

First make a bunch of worksheets similar to the one on pg 65 of the Negative. Use

slowly and carefully. Start by picking the darkest point where you think you want to

retain deatil -- place that on zone 3. Then take a measurement of one of the

brighter points in the scene. How many stop brighter is that -- what will the print

look like if that point is on zone 7 (for example). Make lots of notes on the exposure

record. If you want I'll mail you the one I use.

Second, carry around a good SLR with a multi segment meter and use it to check that

exposure you figured out -- I used my N80.

The first step helps you learn to read the scene. You can look at the notes on the

exposure record after development to rethink the decisions you made. The second

step gives you a little sanity check in the field and help reduce the frustration.

Lastly, relax. Unless you are the ultimate perfectionist you can miss by a stop and a

half and still print the negative. Go out, shoot lots, make notes and have fun!.

I hope this isn't a troll asking if traditional wet prints will be as good as a scan!

Yes, if you know a good lab or a good printer then you will get great results from

traditional printing. Here are some caveats:

1. If you did not use good development and exposure techniques you may have

some issues. Scanners are much more forgiving of dense or thin negatives.

2. If you are not doing the printing yourself then you get the best that the lab or

printer can do -- so do some research and find one you like.

3. If you did a lot of manipulation to the scan to make it look like you wanted (

dodge, burn local contrast changes blah blah blah) then it may be difficult for a

printer to match the precision of those changes. Some things are easier in

photoshop.

4. The type of paper you print on will have a huge impact on the look of the print.

Make sure you know your options.

Lightjet prints, traditional prints and quadtone inkjet prints are all good ways to make

great prints. They are different from each other though. Each has it's own aesthetic

appeal, strengths and weaknesses.

If you could ask my grandmother, she would tell you that I am the most talented

person she knows and that _I_ make the _best_ art.

Is it possible the comment was about her feelings for her daughter more than a

critique of the two art forms?

I've recently made the move to a 4x5 field camera. I was able to find most of the

information I needed in a couple of places. This is one of them.

At the bottom of the current posts you will see older posts sorted by topic. This is a

great source of information. The other great place is http://

www.largeformatphotography.info/ There is a great 'round-up' of used cameras that

should get you started or at least narrow your options. There was also a good article

a few months ago in the magazine 'view camera' that did mini-reviews of a number of

cameras under $1000. If you are near a library that carries that magazine I would

recommend looking at it.

Yes you can do macro with a large format camera. If you want to have a 1:1

reproduction ratio ( 2 inch tall flower is 2 inches on the film then the bellows

extension will have to be 2 times the focal lenfth of the lens so think about getting a

shorter focal lenght like 135.

If you want to walk around with the camera you probably want to stay with 4x5. Any

bigger and the load starts to get punishing.

A good introductory book is "using the view camera" by Steve Simmons. It covers the

main topics without making your head explode trying to figure out how to focus the

camera.

This is where I ended up after some research:

1. Shen Hoa (the one with the back movements)

2. Polaroid 545 film holder

3. rodenstock sironar s 135mm

4 Caltar II-N 210mm

5 6 film holders

6 dark cloth

7 focusing loupe

8 big heavy tripod

9 sekonic 508 light meter (you may be able to use your 35mm as a meter to start)

10 domke f804 super satchel as a camer bag

I bought the camera and first lens new from badger graphics because I wanted to talk

to a real person to whom I could retrun the stuff if it was not as advertised. With you

tight time line and limited experience you may want to consider this as well.

Take a look at the Shen Hoa, the tachihara and the toyo 45cf.

You may also want to try and rent a camera for a couple of days and make sure this is

what you want to do.

good luck

There are heaps. Here are a few for starters:

1. Capilano suspension bridge. Goes over a gorge and has nice pools / bridges on

the other side.

2. Cleveland damn just up the road from the susp. bridge. Has a lake with a floating

maintenance house on it. Also has twin peaks behind it that will still be snow

coverred for another coupke of weeks

3. Grousse mountain (if it is clear) will provide great vistas of the city and harbour --

also great night shot

4. Lynn Valley has a natur preseve with the lynn valley creek (river) running through

it. Complete with a number of falls, gorges etc.

5. Almost anywhere along slopes of north vancouver you will find trails into the lush

rain forest -- really old trees and stumps, trees growing out of old trees etc -- real

elf/hobbit land. The rainy season is comming to a close here -- it is getting very

green and lush.

6. Take highway 99 north towards Whistle. Stop before squamish for an abondoned

mine and mining ewquipment. Couple of very nice water falls along the way some

just off the highway some you have to walk to.

7. Go out early in the morning and capture some of the spooky atmosphere created

with a lifting fog on the water framed by distant mountains.

8. Stanley Park is a large forested area in the city. Parts of it a very pretty and you get

the feeling you are not in the city.

9 Some good shots to be had along the fraser river but they are harder to get to/

find.

It is spectacular country.

Wow - thanks to all for the great info. The lists are made, and the bags are packed.

One dry run tomorrow and I'm off.

A llama !?! -- I wish I was cool enough to get a llama!

First, this forum has been a great asset in getting me started in 4x5. I am now the

loving owner/user of a Shen Hoa, 135 sironar-s, 210 sironar-n, polaroid back, and a

500lb tripod. A minimalist set-up to be sure but more fun than I ever imagined

possible.

Thanks to all who have contributed to to this lurkers knowledge!!

I am preparing to go on my first extended (2 weeks on the Oregon coast) 4x5 field

trip. This will exceed my longest outing so far by, oh say, about 13 days and 20

hours. I am approaching my usual planning horizon of 48 hours and have heaps of

questions -- I hope some of you can help with some of them:

1- I know I will forget something that is very imprtant or need something new. Where

should I buy one of these in Portland ( or anywhere north of the California border)?

2- How wide angle can you shoot with a lee filter system screwed on to the front of a

lens?

3- Do people really "manage" their film and film holders on long trips or do they buy

ready-load / type 55 film?

4- Any suggestions regarding locations for photography of rugged shorelines, those

stack thingy's in the ocean, would be appreciated.

Thanx,

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. More specifically I suggest that you do not need to modify your development/exposure at all if you intend to scan the negatives. That suggestion applies to scenes where the brightness range may have led you to compensate by one (or perhaps two) stop. If the scene would traditionally warrant N-1, N, or N+1 development/expsoure you can use N development/expsoure without any of the problems you would run into if you were wet printing.

Expose for the shadows and it is irrelevant what density the highlights come in at.

If you are scanning your film with a good film scanner you have alot of flexibility. The zone system, in a nutshell, is used to manage the density of the highlights and shadows so that printing problems are minimised.

If you are scanning the film with a good scanner you do not need to modify your development times if the scene is between n-1 or n+1. Just make sure that you expose you film so that shadow detail is not lost in the toe of the film (not most modern films have short toes anyway) and let the highlights fall where they may. The scanner will certainly be able to see throught the highlights and render the detail.

If you are having problems with negative film highlight blocking up when scanned it is likely a fault with your scanning workflow (ie: where you set your white point).

So, with a good film scanner, change the zone system mantra to "Expose for the shadows and let the highlights fall where they may". Of couse you may have negatives that are unprintable in the darkroom by working this way.

My controverial (and correct) 2 cents

--

Kevin

I can't give you a direct comparison between all the inkset that you have mentioned here but i can offer some observations from my experience with Piezography.

Piezography works great right out of the box. If you are new to digital printing this it is very nice to elimate one variable. The system contains profiles for printing on about 40 papers. These profiles allow you to experiment with new papers without worrying about creating new profiles or other nonsense required to get the prints to look OK.

You can create beautiful prints with piezography. They are different than air dried fiber prints but can be just as nice. If you are trying to duplicate exactly what you produced in the darkroom you will not be able to do it. The digital prints are not inferior - just different. The tonal range and shadow detail is amazing with piezography but the blacks are not as deep as silver.

www.mwords.co.uk is a great resource in the UK and a good company (reportedly) to deal with.

I think the scanner will work well for you but you may find that it becomes a limiting factor as you get better at the digital side. The quality of the scan is very important in creating a high quality print. Having said that, you will certainly be able to produce good quality results at 12x12 from a 6x6 negative.

You may want to take a look at this Yahoo group for more information and access to heaps of excellent digital black and white printers.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalblackandwhitetheprint

I struggle(d) with this same issue for a long time. It nearly drove me nuts. Managing the look of film grain involves a number of issues. I have an ls2000, a sprintscan 120 and a umax powerlook 1100 for larger film formats. Here is what I found.

1. For traditional B&W films. I had much better success using vuescan than nikon's software.

2. Almost always a better image (smoother tones and less obvious grain) is obtained by scanning the negative as a positive and inverting in photshop. Set the black and white points in photoshop and not the scanning software.

3. The more radical the curves or levels adjustments the worse the grain will appear in areas of low local contrast and smooth tonal transitions (eg: skies). If you are trying to make the skies more dramatic you will accentuate the grain. Sometimes you will get better results adding density by selecting the area, making a new layer from that and setting the blend mode to multply for the new layer. Just cranking the levels or curves can produce nasty effects.

4. Sharpening the whole image will accentuate grain - especially in places like skies and faces (unless you are a crinkly old fart like me). I use one of two options. First, use a layer mask to reduce the sharpening in areas where it is not needed and maximize it in areas where it is needed. Second, duplicate the image, then use the find edges filter, then adjust the levels to create black where you want lots of sharpeing and white where you want minimum sharpening. Load that as a mask in the original image and then use USM.

5. If the negative is flat/underexposed you are going to have more trouble.

6. There _is_ such a thing a grain aliasing. It, however, is not the source of all evil.

So, in order of importance, IMHO, make sure you have a good negative to start with, use vuescan, scan as positve and invert in photoshop, be smart about sharpening, be as gentle as possible with your curves.