I tend to shoot table-top still-lifes that I have arranged. I handle and feel the objects, then arrange them in a pleasing way. Usually I use window light with maybe a reflector card to soften the shadow areas. My equipment does not have click stops which is inconvenient. I have to use a strong loup with a jewlers head set (“Opti-Visor) to set the speed and aperature and to view the ground glass. To determine sharpness and depthj-of-field I use focus targets. A small grid of lines on a card is placed in the composition. I find it on the GG and focus till the lines snap in and out. Then I move the taret around to check the DOF.

The BlindSighted Project allows members of Blind Photographers to explore challenges related to our eyesight, challenges that affect our image-making process. This project is an opportunity to explore how we approach photography.

I send my negatives to a lab for processing. The negs are scanned at home on a Epson v750. I use photoshop to crop the images and adjust brightness and contrast a little. I can’t adjust color too well. Prints are made with an Epson R2400.

Sometimes I think that the hardest thing is to thread the tripod into the camera base-plate! Some day maybe I’ll get a quick release mount.

Responses

Oberazzi:

What is the GG? Can you see enough to tell if the focus lines snap in? What’s the taret?

Do you ever make images in other styles, such as portraits?

More later.

GG=Ground Glass: The focusing screen of a large format camera. For a 4×5 caamera its 20 square inches, for 8×10 its 80 square inches. I can center the mass of a composition as a grafic design, then with strong magnification, I can work with an area of about 2 “sq at a time.

The targets I use are usually the bar-code from a Jello box. I can make out the change but often cannot actually get the lines sharp…have to rock back and forth to narrow it down. I try to use the LF movements to help maximize DOF.

I do attempt landscapes from time to time…usually not too impressive. Dont do portrates.

lodrorigdzin :

Do you measure focal distances? I’ve done that for a while with my cameras. I do portraits that way, but that may be impractical with a view camera. In photography school we had to work with the view camera for three years (hated it) and we were taught to measure and calculate everything. It’s still how I work with my cameras.

Oberazzi:

I am chock full of dumb questions today. Fortunately, I don’t care as long as I learn something. What is an LF? Large format?To what extent do you plan your shot and visualize it ahead of time? Do you have a particular DOF you like to get?

I have never used a large format camera. How are they different from the DSLR I use now? Your mention of the GG implies that the viewfinder is as large as the image rather than the annoyingly tiny little thing on my camera.

How do choose what to put in your still lifes? Do you follow themes? Genres, colors, etc.?

@lodrorigdzin : I have measured the lens-to-subject gidtance to calculate depth-of-field at times, but mostly not. However, I do measure the film-to-lens distance to figure the exposure compensation for bellows extension pretty often.

@oberazzi : Sure..LF = Large Format…you’re not so dumb.

I plan a session by looking for plasing light. I like window light, but love the slanting light of late afternoon when outdoors. I plan what objects to shoot and think about what is in the backround…maybe I unpack a tablecloth or beadspread. Then I start fussing with the subject articles till a composition clicks At this point. I try to get a sense of what it looks like on the ground glass glass. That is how I “plan” an image.

You are again right about the film and ground glass being the same size. A view camera is very different from a D-SLR in that nothing is automatic. The equipment is cumbersome and the process is slow and deliberative by comparison.

For subject matter I look for interesting objects, shells and flowers, gourds and household things. I have several ideas about future sessions and there are places I want to return to and re-shoot.

If you are interested in learning about large format photography, I would suggest “The Camera” by Ansel Adems, or Steve Simon’s book (dont remenber the title). Another, quicker resource is

www.lfphoto.info

There are articles on View Camera Photography that can help you get a handle on it.
Originally posted 3 months ago.
Drew Bedo edited this topic 3 months ago.

Oberazzi:

The equipment is cumbersome and the process is slow and deliberative by comparison.I think that our processes all have a bit of this is common. Without immediate visual cues, we substitute with our brains and non-visual cues. But this substitution takes time. So we find ways to slow the process down. Using your LF equipment is one example of this. Planning and preparation are another.

Read more on the original Flickr discussion thread: BlindSighted: Drew Bedo’s Process

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This entry was posted on March 7, 2009 at 11:16 am and is filed under our photography, photographers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.