Hi All,
There are so many aspects to photography that you can get involved in, it seems that you could never get around to trying them all. One of the formats that I would like to become more familiar with, is - large format photography. More specifically the 4x5 inch format.
An Overview of LF PhotographyFilm SizesRegular Format - 35mm - film and digital
Medium Format - (120 / 220 film size) 6x7cm, 6x9cm, 6x12cm
Large Format - 4x5 inch film, 5x7 inch film, 8x10 inch film, (and up!).
Typical
equipment would be - a 4x5 (field) camera, release cable, double dark slides (sheet film holders), film loading/changing bag, focusing darkcloth, groundglass loupe, lightmeter (preferably a spotmeter), (very sturdy) tripod, and a mule to carry all the gear to the location!
Processing the sheet film can be done by a lab, or by yourself. There are a few ways to develop both B&W and Colour sheet film.
One method is by using a Jobo Drum Processor
http://www.jobo.com/joboint/products/cpp-2_cpa-2.html Or by using 4x5 film Combi tanks in a darkroom.
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/alternative-developing/ Another is by using a Patterson Orbital tank
http://pig.sty.nu/wiqi/paterson_orbital.html
Once the film is developed, there are 3 ways to go for
printing the image. One is to have a lab print it, another is to print it yourself using a 4x5 enlarger (expensive, with all the larger darkroom equipment needed), and still another is to scan the negative (e.g. Epson V700 Scanner
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20V700/page_1.htm )
and use your A3 ink jet printer for the final print.
Why go to such lengths to photograph something that we could all do with just one click with our digital cameras - image quality!
Not only will the image be far better in detail than you can get with a digital camera, but unlike our digital cameras, the lens and film (CCD) aren't fixed parallel to each other. Both the lens and the film can be independently tilted forward and back, left and right, and can also be shifted independently up and down as well as left and right. This opens up a huge range of creative opportunities resulting in more control over the subject plane, focal plane and the film plane (Scheimpflug Rule) and far greater perspective control.
I have all the photo equipment as well as the sheet film processing equipment listed above (no mule as yet, still looking on eBay!), perhaps in the near future the club will obtain some space to set up a small darkroom in which we can try all the different developing methods. If anyone is interested in getting together and having a go at taking some large format pictures, please post a response in this forum.
Additional Information.
How to get started in Large Format Photography - (Resource Links)
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/Best - Willie
