Large Format Camera '5x4' Workshop

A true professional practising photographer I believe should be accustomed to using a varied amount of different camera's, and so do the lecturer's agree that old school photography should still be a skill to which every photographer should be familiar and comfortable with using.

Due to it now being 10 years since I last used a 5x4 camera whilst studying the ND Photography at Blackburn College I was very pleased that within some of our recent practical lesson's we have had an over view on using the 5x4 large format camera and below are the images that myself and two fellow students, Gemma and Ryan, captured through the window of the top floor of the university building.

Both of the images are obviously taken at the same viewpoint with no movement made to the camera therefore we were just experimenting with different exposures to capture the correct one.

Below are examples of different Camera Movements available when using a 5x4 camera

http://www.toyoview.com/LargeFrmtTech/lgformat.html

Image Control and Camera Movements:
Creative Challenges and Simple Solutions

Controlling Perspective and Parallel Lines Challenge: You want to photograph a building, or a stand of trees, yet keep all lines parallel even though you must angle the camera upwards to encompass the scene. Solution: Rise. First, align the camera back parallel to the subject. Then, by using the rise movement, the lens' point of view is moved above eye level, thereby keeping vertical lines parallel. Rise, fall and shift are all parallel movements that move the lens up, down and sideways relative to the center of the camera back.
Increased Control of Perspective and Parallel Lines Challenge: You need more control of perspective than you can achieve with front rise, fall and shift.

Solution: Drop Bed - Front and rear are tilted backward at the same degree and thereby kept parallel, giving the effect of increased Front Fall.

Incline Bed - Front and rear are tilted forward at the same degree and kept parallel, giving the effect of increased Front Rise.

Shift Bed - Front and rear are swung in the same direction to the same degree, giving the same effect as Shift, but with dramatically increased control.

Increasing Depth of Field
Challenge: You see a vast landscape with a field of flowers and distant mountains. You want to have both the flowers near the camera and the distant mountain in focus at the same time. Even if you used the smallest aperture on your lens, you might still need greater depth-of-field.

Solution: Front Tilt. Tilting the lens forward will extend the plane of focus far beyond the effect of using a small lens aperture and allow you to get near and far objects in focus at the same time. Front tilt is usually combined with using a small aperture such as f/16 or f/22. It does not replace using a small aperture, but rather enhances the effect over a greater subject plane.

Challenge: Imagine focusing on a white picket fence, running from near to far, diagonally through your composition. With ordinary cameras you can either focus on the beginning, middle, or end of the fence, use a small aperture, and hope to get most of it in focus.

Solution: Front Swing. With a field camera, you can swing your lens to position it roughly parallel to the fence. This will allow you to get the fence in sharp focus from beginning to end, even with a wide open aperture.

Selective Focus
Challenge: You want to focus on just one leaf or flower and leave everything else in the scene a soft blur. Or, you want to recreate an effect you may have seen in a fashion magazine where only the model's eyes are sharp, and all the clothes are softly blurred.

Solution: Front Tilt-Backward can be used to accomplish these selective focus effects with ease. Front swing can be used for a similar effect with objects to the left or right of your composition center. Swinging in either direction will bring objects in or out of focus.

Correct or Distort the Shape or Size of An Object Challenge: You want to emphasize a large rock, or other visual element in the foreground of a landscape.

Solution: Rear Tilt. By tilting the back away from the lens, you will notice that the size and shape of objects in the foreground become exaggerated. Similarly,

Rear Swing will pivot the back from side to side, manipulating the shape of objects to the right or left of the composition.

Swings and tilts

Left: distant object, small extension. Centre: nearer object, more extension. Right: objects at two distances -- use swing.

Swings and tilts are used to hold a receding plane in focus, or (more rarely) to isolate a narrow plane of focus and throw the rest of the image out of focus.We find it easiest to think of swings and tilts is in terms of focus. When you focus closer, you wind the lens further out. Now, imagine that you have two subjects at different distances, both of which you want to stay in focus. You need the lens focused at two distances at once: one nearer, one further. Swings and tilts allow you to do this.

The Scheimpflug Rule

The gloriously named Scheimpflug Rule says that if the subject plane, the plane of the lens panel and the image plane all meet at a common line, everything in the subject plane will be in focus in the image plane.

The problem, of course, is that few subjects are dead flat. Even so, swings and tilts allow you to hold a receding plane in focus, without having to stop down anything like as much as you would have to if you did not have the movements.

The most important thing to remember when applying the Scheimpflug Rule is that the image is reversed on the ground glass, so the direction of movement required is (at least at first) counter-intuitive. If, for example, the left side of your subject is further away, the left side of the lens panel should be nearer the subject (and further from the film/sensor).

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/camera%20movements.html

It is my intention to again become more familiar and confident with using the 5x4 camera, I am therefore planning to go out into the wilderness at some point in the near future to take some beautiful landscape photography and experiment with the different camera movements.