Large Format photography group - From "zero to hero!"

Blummin' kids today with their fancy 5x4 large format cameras, all "look at my range of movements" and "I've taken one photo on this whole day trip". What's wrong with a good old fashioned digital camera, eh? Easy to use, easy to develop, no need to wear a t-shirt on yer head. Honestly, they don't know they're born.
 
Strappy said:
Blummin' kids today with their fancy 5x4 large format cameras, all "look at my range of movements" and "I've taken one photo on this whole day trip". What's wrong with a good old fashioned digital camera, eh? Easy to use, easy to develop, no need to wear a t-shirt on yer head. Honestly, they don't know they're born.
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5x4 ???............................I prefer 4x5 :exit::D:D
 
It is of vital importance to refer to it correctly as 5x4 so that steam can be seen emerging from the ears of American posters on LFinfo .........
 
Asha said:
5x4 ???............................I prefer 4x5 :exit::D:D
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Portrait format? Why would you try and balance the tripod and camera on its side for that? Simply take a 5x4 and crop it, there's plenty of negative to spare ;)

I remember my old Geography teacher telling us to remember that map coordinates were stated as easting followed by northing with, "you enter the house before you can climb the stairs" and it feels more natural to do it that way. Likewise 10x8 and, er, 6x9. o_O
 
Strappy said:
Portrait format? Why would you try and balance the tripod and camera on its side for that? Simply take a 5x4 and crop it, there's plenty of negative to spare ;)

I remember my old Geography teacher telling us to remember that map coordinates were stated as easting followed by northing with, "you enter the house before you can climb the stairs" and it feels more natural to do it that way. Likewise 10x8 and, er, 6x9. o_O
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4x5 rolls off the tonque easier for me tbh, particularly in french and locally its spoken as "quatre par cinq" ( four by five)


As for being portrait mode, i guess i'm fortuanate that my LF kit simply requires the ground glass to be turned to whichever orientation is required....the camera remains "upright"

4x5 or 5x4....doesnt really matter so long as we get the end result that we want on film☺
 
Asha said:
As for being portrait mode, i guess i'm fortuanate that my LF kit simply requires the ground glass to be turned to whichever orientation is required....the camera remains "upright"
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I thought all 5x4x5 cameras did that (well, except the press folders but then you should hold those at a diagonal anyway, while shouting at your subject and cussing in quaint olde worlde ways if B&W films are any guide). Guess my "wit", "humour" and "for Gawd's sake, shut up" doesn't translate well either :(
 
Anyone know of a good way of refurbishing the white note bit on the top of a dark slide? I got a couple used ones with marker pen on them and they're a bit useless.
 
I used a pencil eraser to get general dirt off. For a marker, I'd suggest a *moderately* gentle solvent such as isopropyl alcohol, but be sure to try it on a small area at one end first.
 
Woodsy said:
I used a pencil eraser to get general dirt off. For a marker, I'd suggest a *moderately* gentle solvent such as isopropyl alcohol, but be sure to try it on a small area at one end first.
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Good idea.
 
Another dry gear question, but is there any recommendation for a decent loupe for £10-£20 my current one was only a few quid but as one of my recent shots shows its not quite functional.
 
My dark slide discipline failed me this morning, definitely wanted one frame because I forgot to reverse the slide after I reinserted it so had to take the picture again with both sides so I should get one copy. Another I've not reversed the slide but I have written on it and I can't actually remember exposing it....
 
There is a school of thought that says that having spent all that time setting up your camera and composing your shot you should take a duplicate image anyway. That way you have a spare shot in hand in case of operator errors, dust problems etc. Also, when you process the first sheet if it is not perfect you can alter your developing process for the second sheet.

This is ok for b&w sheets but a bit expensive for colour film.
 
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wickerman said:
There is a school of thought that says that having spent all that time setting up your camera and composing your shot you should take a duplicate image anyway. That way you have a spare shot in hand I case of operator errors, dust problems etc. Also, when you process the first sheet if it is not perfect you can alter your developing process for the second sheet.

This is ok for b&w sheets but a bit expensive for colour film.
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Yeah I can sympathise with that for B&W, suppose you don't really need to worry about developing options with colour but still. I think I'd probably do that more if I was more confident what I taking was worth having a duplicate off, but even FP4 that's still about £2.50 per composition. I'd use more fomapan but the reciprocity does my head in!

And just to add to my day of cock ups, I've just taken my hand out of the dark bag before I closed the box, luckily it was a cheap box of fomapan not some expensive slide! I'll need to develop a sheet later to check if the box has been fogged... Some days you're the pigeon...
 
Another dev session another cock up... Do not open the tank before the fixer goes in! Shadows look like they're completely gone, luckily I took the advice above and the second ones look okay...
 
Steve I feel your pain, I think most have us have cocked up a dev or two in our time. Do you use the Massive Dev Chart app? I find it really helps me to be very methodical as the timer tells you where you are in the dev process, it even tells you how long to agitate which is really helpful if you tend to get over-agitated like i do.
 
You can actually open the tank before putting in the fixer; but it depends to some extent on what the chemicals are - specifically, whether you use a stop bath and/or acid fixer, and whether your developer is acid or alkaline.

Taking off the top exposes the film, true; but developer doesn't act instantly, it takes a certain amount of time to noticeably develop anything. If you take off the lid and pour in an acid stop, it will stop any development action before any of the newly exposed film is developed. I assume that if you open after a plain water rinse and pour in acid fixer (and the developer is alkaline) the same would hold true. This isn't just a matter of theory - I've tried it with slow emptying tanks.

The caveat on the type of chemicals is just to ensure that the development is stopped preety quickly, as alkaline developers need the alkaline environment. There are acid based developers, just as there are alkaline fixers; but in practice you're far more likely to have used a plain wash and alkaline fixer than an acidic developer.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Steve I feel your pain, I think most have us have cocked up a dev or two in our time. Do you use the Massive Dev Chart app? I find it really helps me to be very methodical as the timer tells you where you are in the dev process, it even tells you how long to agitate which is really helpful if you tend to get over-agitated like i do.
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I assume from the word "app" it requires technology I don't have access to (phone ot ipad)? I have a Smiths mechanical lab timer and a table stuck to the fridge with magnets giving my diltuitions and times, and telling me at which times to invert the tank. I find that this saves me a lot of confusion.
 
StephenM said:
I assume from the word "app" it requires technology I don't have access to (phone ot ipad)? I have a Smiths mechanical lab timer and a table stuck to the fridge with magnets giving my diltuitions and times, and telling me at which times to invert the tank. I find that this saves me a lot of confusion.
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Indeed, it is an "app" it works a treat, I know not everyone has access to or a need for new fangled gadgets but I'd rather not be without mine, they do make my life easier.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Steve I feel your pain, I think most have us have cocked up a dev or two in our time. Do you use the Massive Dev Chart app? I find it really helps me to be very methodical as the timer tells you where you are in the dev process, it even tells you how long to agitate which is really helpful if you tend to get over-agitated like i do.
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It was just a good ole fashioned brain fart, the top of the rotary processor is just a small bung and my brain was in normal tank mode where the lid is much larger.

I looked at the app but its pretty expensive for what it is.

StephenM said:
You can actually open the tank before putting in the fixer; but it depends to some extent on what the chemicals are - specifically, whether you use a stop bath and/or acid fixer, and whether your developer is acid or alkaline.

Taking off the top exposes the film, true; but developer doesn't act instantly, it takes a certain amount of time to noticeably develop anything. If you take off the lid and pour in an acid stop, it will stop any development action before any of the newly exposed film is developed. I assume that if you open after a plain water rinse and pour in acid fixer (and the developer is alkaline) the same would hold true. This isn't just a matter of theory - I've tried it with slow emptying tanks.

The caveat on the type of chemicals is just to ensure that the development is stopped preety quickly, as alkaline developers need the alkaline environment. There are acid based developers, just as there are alkaline fixers; but in practice you're far more likely to have used a plain wash and alkaline fixer than an acidic developer.
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I'd not even drained the tank so some bits of the film were still covered in soup, it was that kind of brain fart! Though that is interesting, there are times when I was using the "taco" method for my sheets and I don't actually have that much fix made up an a given time. Taco needs about 800ml and I only have about 550ml of fix so I ended up sitting the tank upside down for a few minutes but if i stopped the developer could I just open the tank and fix in trays?
 
I had to use Google to discover what the taco method was. The important point is the timing - so long as there's active developer, development will continue; it's just that if you immediately stop the development, it doesn't have time to fog much. Hence using a stop bath. If you use plain water, you'll dilute the developer, but there will still be some in the emulsion that will continue working. An acid fixer should stop it, but there is the extra delay while the rinse water goes in and out.

I'm not saying that this won't work, only that I've not tried it. I have taken the lid off my tank, poured out the developer and immediately poured in the stop and continued as normal with the lid off with no noticeable ill effect.

Tray fixing should be OK if it's a rapid fixer, because the action will remove the undeveloped silver halide quickly. I've never tried it, but I can't see any immediate problem if it's done quickly enough. The theory I was brought up on was to not expose the film to light until you came to check if the film had cleared in the fixer, and doubtless this is the safest method (i.e. no real possibility of anything going wrong) but the mere fact that on this scenario you might find that the film had not cleared means that it's implicit that no real harm will come if the film is exposed at this point. The only issue is how much before this point is safe.
 
Well it's been a few excursions with out a mention able cock up. But Saturdays seems to be a return to form, 7 frames exposed, one nuked, one flashed took the film out with reinserting the dark slide, two where I forgot to shut the shutter preview and the one where I forgot to make a duplicate I screwed up processing and put it emulsion side to the tank.

I am getting better with it but I really need to find the time to put in more practice so all the steps become automatic.
 
This is all very interesting. LF is definitely on my radar.

I'm always looking for ways to f*** my brain up.

I've tried hard drugs, hard liquor and loose women.

This seems the obvious next step.

:)

I shall give it a go soon.
 
Hard drugs does seem to be a gateway to large format. I've seen it time and time again, starts with dabbling in heroin and ends up with a 10 x 8 Deardorff... a sad tale indeed. :D
 
There used to be a popular song which started " Cigareets and whisky and wild, wild women" and at least 2 of these were readily available at my local supermarket. ;) I think that LF is probably the photo equivalent of Sting's tantric sex escapades, since there is an awful lot of time spent enjoying the moment while only making very slight movements ............... :banana:
 
Peter B said:
There used to be a popular song which started " Cigareets and whisky and wild, wild women" and at least 2 of these were readily available at my local supermarket. ;) I think that LF is probably the photo equivalent of Sting's tantric sex escapades, since there is an awful lot of time spent enjoying the moment while only making very slight movements ............... :banana:
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Tantric Large format…got my name on it..
 
well bessy the crown graphic lives again after a re varnish and new ground glass looking forward to making a triptych of contact prints for xmas gifts this year
 
Oh drat. Managed to snap the lever for tilting the front standard, only discovered this fact whilst cowering from a gale force wind in the lee ward side of the hill. Made a couple of exposures which I expect at least will have serious camera shake, bloody fomapan. In better news, the Fuji 210 is fantastic barely needed a dark cloth.
 
i want to replace the old pitted brass bits on my wista, who would i look for in the yellow pages who might be able to cut out some new shiney brass stands for me? some sort of metal fabricator who would do small jobs?
 
AshleyC said:
i want to replace the old pitted brass bits on my wista, who would i look for in the yellow pages who might be able to cut out some new shiney brass stands for me? some sort of metal fabricator who would do small jobs?
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A model engineer perhaps? Might not be in the yellow pages but they would probably be able to get your parts made.
 
thats a good idea, there's someone at work who builds remote controlled planes. I'll have a word with him.
 
Hi everyone,
Bit of a bargain going on eBay at the moment for Fuji Pro 160NS 4x5 film. Allcam's selling 20 sheet boxes for £10.98 (presumably a pricing error since the 120 version is the same price.) Since I'm not a massive fan of 160NS's tonality from looking on Flickr I only ordered one box and it arrived today. 8 boxes still available so I'd definitely take a look if you like this film. Speaking of which, has anyone got much experience with it? I can't seem to find much online.
 
Howdy Stranger! Top tip, I've not shot any colour 5x4 yet but this makes it cheap enough to take a punt, just need to batch up a few before sending away for processing. Whats the date on it? I've ordered a box any wy but just curious.
 
Hmm, whilst I haven't got a camera yet it does seem like a bargain (seeing as it's like £77 on Amazon). I will get a box I think, worst case scenario is I've paid £11 to learn how not to screw up haha.
 
Carl Hall said:
Hmm, whilst I haven't got a camera yet it does seem like a bargain (seeing as it's like £77 on Amazon). I will get a box I think, worst case scenario is I've paid £11 to learn how not to screw up haha.
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With colour its not the sheet costs thats the problem, you're looking £3-£5 per sheet to process!
 
Just checked it's 2016-04. Yeah I'd get a box Carl, can't believe they haven't rectified the error yet! Sadly they didn't make the same mistake with the Provia :(
 
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