From the master of LF, I will take that with thanks
Flat board indeed - the movements are enough for me for now (very much a LF beginner!) I still have not worked out rear tilt at all, but front tilt was enough for this image, and I've not run out of shift yet... And showing how forgiving Foma100 is, I metered this for f22, and then forgot to stop down, so this was shot "wide open" at f8 1/8 sec! One of the few times I have been grateful for not springing for the 90/5.6!
This exposure at the Middle Falls was less precarious than the Upper Falls, but I was uphill of the camera, set on a low tripod so I was bent up like a contortionist to see the ground glass! One I should have made some photos for the "outings" thread, but I was out with SWMBO who was already looking impatient with my 3 x single exposures, so I decided not to press my luck...
20200825-McCloud_Falls_Intrepid_Mk4_Foma100_HC (2 of 4) by
Alex Morrison, on Flickr
Composure wise I quite like the idea you have in this shot ......Certainly a base for something interesting and even exposed three stops over it's held onto quite a lot of detail.
Generally landscapes can be obtained with a minimal amount of movements so as you have found out, even with a wide lens and scrunched up bellows, the exposures are doable.
Personally I prefer more freedom which seeing as architecture tends to be a regular contender in my choice of photograph, is pretty much a necessity tbh.
Rear tilt .....pretty much as easy as front tilt but a couple of things to consider.
Firstly and most importantly imo, tilting the rear standard changes the perspective of the image ( for example making the foreground "bloom" and appear to be considerably larger than how it is seen in real life.
Similarly verticals are affected, hence by keeping the back vertically parallel with the face of building will ensure the verical lines don't converge, saying that a couple of degrees of tilt necessary for landscapes wouldn't typically pose a problem tbh.
Sometimes rear tilt can have advantages over front tilt.
If the bellows extension requires go go gadget arms to operate the front standard controls then working from the rear is much much easier.
If lens image circle is minimal, the use of rear tilt requires less coverage than front tilt. (iirc
)
Drawback being that it can take more than two or three adjustments to get the front to back focus set correctly ( front tilt generally requiring two or three moves)
As you already know, focusing back to front using front tilt involves focus on near, tilt for far.
With the rear tilt, one works in reverse, ie, focus far ( usually infinity) and tilt ( the rear standard backwards) to bring near into focus.
Much easier to show someone than to put it into words but hopefully I will have helped you a little to understand the process better.
As for your very kind words, I'll consider myself honoured to be seen as such, but be assured that there are much better LF togs on here than I