There and Back Again! Re-learning large format photography
Full article published at OnLandscape is here.
I've always loved theater. There is a minimalist approach to portray everything. The approach is like an ideograph as the theater, film and opera director, Julie Taymor, puts it. An ideograph is like a brush painting, a Japanese brush painting. Three strokes, you get the whole bamboo forest. In her most famous work, "The Lion King", she uses the essence of the story. The circle. The circle of life. Very effectively. Ever since I saw the 90ies Disney movie, "The Lion King", I have been hooked. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make images, still or moving, that evoke emotions?, the question I’ve asked myself often.
I knew, someday when I'm able to afford it, I will buy a camera and start making images. And so it all started when I got the Kodak KB 10 from my first salary of being a graduate engineer. It was fun. Of course buying a film and developing it for small prints was still a luxury. I had it for a couple of years and kept making images. Most of them could only evoke emotions or memories for myself. And that is okay. I think. I moved to Germany as an exchange student on a decent scholarship and that KB10 became a Canon 500N. I eventually got to know about the “larger film” cameras. Over the next 4-5 years I moved from 35mm to 120 (Mamiya 645/Pentax67) and then to 4x5 large format. It took a lot of courage and saving to invest into the large format system. But there it was, my precious Tashihara 4x5 with only lens for it, the 150mm Schneider. Unfortunately while making a photograph in Harz national park near Göttingen I slipped over a mossy boulder. In the panic I decided to hold onto the next standing thing. My tripod. Both of us took a slide I will never forget and ended up in the cascade. The lens and most of the wooden parts were broken and I could never muster the courage of buying another large format camera. In fact for over a year all I was using was a Yashica Mat 124G which I bought in a German Flohmarkt (Fleemarket) for some €30.
Well, this was 2005/6 and Cannon had released their shiny and able EOS 5D. It was way out of my budget so I was happy to stick to the film media which was incredibly cheap compared to today’s standard. I mean I used to pay €1 per 120 rollfilm development in Sauter, München. That soon changed though. And I eventually succumbed to the “dark side”. I bought a digital SLR and it became my main camera for all things photography, family, portraits and landscape included. My research institute was also selling all the “old” equipment including some really fine Hasselblads and I bought one for really small amount. I was having buyers remorse for couple of years but never sold it. It stayed in the pelican case it came with for years. Fast forward to another 10 years or so and while going through all the remaining moving boxes I found that case with many rolls of Ilford Pan F film. Around the same year I was also thinking about my ever bulging lightroom catalog. Agreed that the majority of it was personal family images however I did make quite a few landscape images with various digital SLRs I had kept buying in search of a silver bullet. The fact was I had lost the mojo and the enthusiasm. It had become an automated process. There were few decent ones I could have printed, which is my litmus test for a good image still, however the percentage was really low single digits. I was also hearing a lot about film resurgence. I was very skeptical though as most of these were “YouTubers” who I thought wouldn’t exist in a couple of years. Most of my heroes - Joe Cornish, Guy Tal, David Ward and many more had moved on to digital. However curiosity got better of me. After all, the Hassie was there and I had purchased it for 1/10th of what the asking price is today. The film still had Sauter stickers with “Angebot nur €1” and the whole Patterson kit a gentleman from UK had sent me to Germany for free in the “sell the film camera rush” days. All I needed was buy chemistry and go-click-develop. The experience was as if I was “thinking slow” and was more deliberate. It was also the serendipity of the process which made me do the impossible. Almost. Those couple of roll films gave me the confidence and I decided to venture into the bigger “dark slide” arena.
Re-entry
Re-learning all things 4x5 was fun and a challenge albeit an easier one compared to a decade or so ago. These days YouTube and search engines in general will throw a lot of options at you. Tim also has an excellent posts here OnLandscape which are a great starting points. Matt has also an excellent post here. I have been also watching Ben Horne’s videos since 2012 or so on YouTube. Honestly my initial thought was this guy has too much free time and money. And that is the reason I started watching it for the very first time. I mean, all my favorite large format photographers had moved to digital by then. However that changed as soon as I finished the first video sometime in 2012. If you do not know Ben’s work then RUSH and start watching his videos right from the beginning. I’ve watched and re-watched his journals many times and eagerly await for his Zion and Death valley pilgrimage as much as my favorite seasons on Netflix.
The buying spree
Being a hobbyist photographer I do suffer from GAS every once in a while. Hence this is a short story of what I purchased, sold and re-purchased over the last two years to finally have the set-up I enjoy and use today.
I bought a brand new Intrepid 4x5 Mark ii with a second hand Schneider 150mm lens & a couple of film holders. The adventure began. I made a few decent images and found that there were lot of issues with the camera. Firstly the focusing mechanism was relatively crude with some of the tooth meshing making a lot of noise and pinion motion not working properly. With the box of Velvia exposed and developed costing as much as the set up I knew this has to go. Maxim, the Intrepid company owner, has a very good customer service though. He sent me a replacement for free as soon as I mentioned the issues. However then the rotating back started to play a bit and eventually I managed to break the ground glass during a backpack trip. Now this was partly my fault as I should have carried a ground glass protector with me. However it was an excellent excuse to purchase Chamonix 45 N2 which I had been watching on eBay for a while. As luck would have it there was also the holy grail & now very expensive classic lenses, thanks to Mr. Thalmann. 75mm Grandagon, The Rodenstock 150mm Sironar S, Nikkor M 200mm and 300mm and Fujinon A 240mm. I was now confident that nothing will stop me from making those award winning landscape photos like many of my heroes. Unfortunately I was fumbling in the field, making rookie mistakes and still in the “digital” mode of shooting. After 20 or so sheets of Velvia it was time for a serious reflection. I knew that none of the photos I had made over the 6 months or so were worthy of scanning let alone winning awards. One of the better investment I had made was rite in the rain notebook and pencil. This was essentially my EXIF data from the field. A quick analysis told me that I wasn’t using wide angle lens at all. This was surprising as when using digital I often used my 21mm lens followed by 50mm. However during my previous attempts at medium format and large format I only had one lens as well, the standard focal length. So it kind of made sense. I sold my 75mm and 240mm. 240mm Fujinon is an excellent lens however I thought 200 and 300mm will give me the consistency and separation. I’ve been also a huge fan of “Checklist” by Dr. Atul Gawande. So the next step was to create a checklist. I’m now onto v1.3 which I will include here as well. My T-shirt had to go as the dark cloth and in came Wanderer Dark Cloth. Ryan is an excellent photographer himself and understands the needs in the field. I rarely have condensation issues which was very frustrating in the beginning. A 4x loupe and a makeshift backpack completed the kit I’ve been fairly happy with even today. I had a single user error since then thanks to a lighter and streamlined pack and the checklist.
This is what I use today
Chamonix 45 Nii
150mm Rodenstock Sironar S : Usage 30%
200mm Nikkor M : Usage 60%. This baffled me a little. However if you deduct the blank part of 4x5 film at the edge and the crop ratio is 4x. So a full frame 50mm equivalent is roughly 200mm. I expected 150mm to be most used lens. So if I really need a light weight setup then this is the only lens that comes with me.
300mm Nikkor M : Usage 10%
5 double dark slides film holders, 4x Loupe, Dark Cloth, Notebook, changing bag or Tent, cable release
Gitzo GT1545T with Ball head
Thermarest Z seat to sit down when camera is low. Trust me this is a life saver.
Camera and lenses go into a Tenba BYOB 13 which then goes into my climbing gear backpack from Lowe Alpine. It has the convenient side access and has never failed me since I purchased it in 2007. There are enough pockets to keep rest of the gear safe and hook the tripod on side using walking pole velcro.
A good starting point
If you are starting today I would recommend to start simple, experiment and make some tweaks. Here would be a cheaper starting point
Intrepid 4x5 V4. I hear good things about this and many able photographers are using this in the field. I have not used this version. However for 250 bucks you can not go wrong.
150mm. That is correct. Any 150mm would do as a starting point.
Film, changing bag, Notebook, Tripod, cable release
Go out more and make mistakes.
Large Format Checklist Manifesto
Slow down. Think more & shoot less.
Secure the camera on the tripod.
Remove the back lens cover and only then mount the lens
Lock the lens in place
Open the lens to its largest aperture (smallest f-stop number)
Focus and use movements if necessary. You don’t need a lot of movements. This is an excellent tutorial.
Close the preview lever
Cock the lens
Meter the scene to get the desired aperture and shutter speed for the film being used.
Test fire the shutter at desired aperture / shutter speed. (I must have done this 3-4 times the very first time but you will get an occasional blank frame)
Cock the lens
Tap the film holder (film has habit of moving while in the bag)
Insert the film holder in the camera making sure you hear the "click"
Remove the dark slide
Fire the shutter / make the image.
Insert the film dark-slide back - use your own system to know the film is exposed. Tim explains his method here which I used in the beginning.
Put the film holder in a ziplock bag.
At home or when unloading the film : Follow the (whatever you come up with) system. I keep development tank on the right hand side and holders on the left side. You can use cotton or nitrile gloves if necessary. I don’t.
Take out the development tank for further work. Black & White development is very easy. Color Negative & slide is also easier than you would think. Tim has a very good tutorial here.
Clean the film holders.
Load the film and make a note or have a system in place for what film goes where. My Fidelity holders always have a black and white film with a note at the top with what speed to expose it at. And Chamonix film holders (which are a thing of beauty and expensive) used to have Velvia / Ektar.
Use rubber bands to ensure that the dark slide stays in place. White for unexposed and black for exposed. In case I do manage to put the dark slide the wrong way around after the exposure this works as a safety net.
Lessons from the field AKA
The following are simple starting points for exposure setting. This is not a complete guide :
For Velvia : Find the brightest part in the scene where you want to retain the details and compare to the elements such as grass, sand or stones which I use for base exposure. Typically I use two stops grad filter if the sky is 3 stops brighter than the grass. However sand is typically +1 stop brighter and stones could be + or -1 stop. Add / reduce accordingly. If the total range is within 4 stops then take average of multiple spots.
For Kodak Ektar : find the part of the scene where you want to retain details in the shadows and put it in Zone 3 and make an exposure. I’m yet to find a scene with a dynamic range where I needed a grad filter for this film.
Black & White : find the part of the scene where you want to retain details in the shadows, put it in Zone 4 and make a note of luminosity range to decide on development time. As a starting point I shoot FP4+ at ASA 80 and HP5 at ASA 200 and reduce the development time by 20-25%. This depends on the total contrast range. I can either push or pull depending on the intended outcome. Please refer to Bruce Barnbaum or John Schaefer’s book for further insights.
Test hikes are good. It allows you to test various new equipment without the pressure of making any images. I now use Mark II Artist's Viewfinder for identifying possible compositions. I can then take the camera with me when the light is favorable.
Don’t fight the elements. Use them. The mist on the lens can make images even better sometimes. See “Thunderous” image, I was getting frustrated at setting up the shot and wiping the front element and almost gave up.
Always make a duplicate negative of the same scene. I’ve been following this rule religiously now. It is the often the same exposure setting but to have a back up in case negative gets damaged for some reason. There are 1937 ways your film will get scratched or damaged in the process.
Keep it simple. Strong compositions do not rely on color. One of the reasons I now only do black and white work on 4x5 format.
Keep making images with large format. When it works it is amazing. You are not doing it to be hip or prove a point. It is to have fun. And for me personally it is the way to disconnect to connect better.
Keep adding a layer of technical side of the work with every outing. It could be rear tilt or pushing/pulling film or printing technique. Make notes. Write down what works and why. This has been very helpful for me while making platinum palladium prints on Japanese and Indian papers.
Scanning slides is a pain. Make sure you expose correctly. Anything out of 4 stop range is a challenge to scan using a flatbed scanner. Vuescan is an excellent software to run Epson scanners if you are using one. I also used Silverfast. However slides are often a challenge when it comes to scanning. I now use digital camera and a light-table to digitize my film. It is worth saving up for the drum scanning and expertise for your best work.
It is difficult to visualize how your print will be in the field in black and white just by using phone and app like artists viewfinder. The control over the process offered is just pure fun. Keep learning.
So what?
Following are some of the images I’ve made over the past two years. I’m not sure if they evoke any emotions in the viewers however they certainly bring back the fond memories of being completely immersed. Memories of smell of fresh grass or pine tree, sound of the mighty waterfall or the silence of the woods. I find it fascinating that I made the re-entry into using this 100+ year old film photography during the Chritsmas 2017 break. It coincided with also an opportunity I had to watch Julie Taymor's masterpiece live on stage during that break. The circle of life.
After about 2 years of using the 4x5 large format system I now exclusively use it for doing black & white images with the intention of printing them using platinum palladium process. Again Tim has an excellent blog here about the process and technical side. That is another adventure to write about sometime soon. All the images are scanned using Sony A7ii and Canon FD macro lens fixed to a Kaiser RePro stand.
