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Playing around with my 8x10...

Jack_Flesher

New member
I was up in Yosemite a few weekends ago playing around with my 8x10. Nothing really spectacular as the weather was clear and there was no atmospheric activity, but here are a few to share for fun. Both are shot on Fuji 160 Pro color negative film. These are straight scans from my Epson 4990 flatbed. I scanned them at 2400 LPI and 16-bits per channel color depth, so this generates a 2.38 Gig image file(!) Anyway, they would print at native size using 240 PPI to 80 x 100 inches, or roughly 6-1/2 x 8-1/2 feet in size. Obviously I downsized them significantly to post here ;)

First one is of the early morning frost in Tuolumne meadows, shot with a 300mm lens. Exposure was 1/4 sec at f32 -- I metered the frosty grass and placed it in zone VI-1/2. I used front rise to frame the image and front forward tilt to extend the plane of focus from grass at the bottom to trees on the far horizon. I then added some very slight swing to keep the angled log all sharp. The rear standard was left dead square to alleviate keystoning in the trees. (The front tilt of course means the close tree branches in the upper left will be totally out of focus.):

Tuolumne_Meadows_Frost_900.jpg


Next shot is of an old Catholic church in Chinese Camp. I took this with a pinhole lens, approximately 150mm at f256. Exposure was 6 seconds which was a total guess, using the sunny-16 rule and adding a bit for reciprocity, all in an attempt to place the bright white of the church in Zone VII -- and the negative has excellent density so I was close, but 2 or 3 seconds probably would have been better. FWIW, long exposures (over 2 seconds) on color negative emulsions usually tend to saturate some colors relative to others. I did not do anything to adjust for that effect and thus the kind of retro, art-deco sky. I did use front rise, another guess at framing since you cannot see anything through an f256 pinhole lens, but again got lucky. Lastly, since it is a pinhole lens, tilt movements are useless:

Pinhole_Church_sm.jpg


Cheers,
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jack,

This brief post must be taken as praise inversely proportional to its length. I appreciate your sharing the details of setup of the first picture. Your succinct disclosure of setup is so helpful. This is almost a whole course on large format photography. Learn this and one is just in need of 100 careful pictures and learning from each!

The color saturation can be boosted in processing and this will print wall size. I'dcrop 0.6cm approx below the wooden log, including just the upper 50% of the water ripple on the lower left. This, to me, provides the perfect geometry for that position. The log now anchors the picture.

The white log on top of the woodpile, is better for the less exposure, and no doubt there is fine detail there to come out. Considering this is just an Epson scan vthis image has vast capability in it!

The Pinhole lens image is so satisfying and a salute to a really underused creative part of photography.

More of that later!

Asher
 

Jack_Flesher

New member
Thanks Asher:

I should clarify I don't think either of the above warrant much more than the post here as they are not what I'd classify as print-worthy images. It was more about using "snap-shots" to share two separate concepts: 1) how I approach view camera set-up and and exposure in a "normal" shooting situation and 2) sharing an example showing that larger formats have a significant advantage over smaller formats when using a pinhole.

Cheers,
 

Klaus Esser

pro member
Jack - beautyful pictures! I love 8x10" - when going under the "black curtain", it´s like cinema :)

The pinhole-lens shot has an edge which i like very much.

best, Klaus
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jack,

I'm referring to the composite beauty of the camera, the film, the process, your hike, the sharing of info and the potential for many hours with the files and lots of paper!

Ashefr
 

Jack_Flesher

New member
I'm referring to the composite beauty of the camera, the film, the process, your hike, the sharing of info and the potential for many hours with the files and lots of paper!

Ah, ideed! Your point is now understood and well taken :)

PS: We need to get you out and "under the hood" soon !!!

<huge grin>,
 
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