At the risk of being scolded.....

gnolanphotography · Apr 29, 2011

OK, I am new to LF photography and started off with a Pacemaker Speed Graphic that I obtained a pretty reasonable price. After familiarizing myself with the controls on the camera I arrived at one simple question, do you remove the ground glass focusing screen prior to inserting the film holder and snapping a shot?

David A. Goldfarb · Apr 29, 2011

You're not the first to ask that. No, the filmholder slips under the groundglass. Pull back on the edge of the frame, and you'll notice it's held down under spring tension. The groundglass frame will hold the filmholder in place. When the filmholder is in the camera, the film should be exactly at the same plane as the groundglass was when you were focusing.

gnolanphotography · Apr 29, 2011

David, thanks for not making me feel like an idiot

JBrunner · Apr 30, 2011

gnolanphotography said:
David, thanks for not making me feel like an idiot

Dude, after years of doing this, last year I went out and shot a batch of empty film holders.

Ken Nadvornick · Apr 30, 2011

gnolanphotography said:
David, thanks for not making me feel like an idiot

So during the second exposure I ever made on an 8x10 sheet of film...

I pulled the wrong darkslide out of the holder...

Care to guess where the first exposure was located??

You're in pretty good - or at least pretty empathetic - company around here.

Ken

P.S. Welcome to the site...

ntenny · Apr 30, 2011

JBrunner said:
Dude, after years of doing this, last year I went out and shot a batch of empty film holders.

"French film", people used to call that, or so I read somewhere. I don't know why.

I've certainly never done it. When I shoot without film in the holder, it's just for practice. Yup.

-NT

hitcher · Apr 30, 2011

JBrunner said:
Dude, after years of doing this, last year I went out and shot a batch of empty film holders.

Been there as well , back when I had my 4x5 , and have shot on the backing paper on my 220 film when I forgot to wind the Hasselblad's film magazine. Ah all those imaginary images.

michaelbsc · Apr 30, 2011

Greg Davis said:
If you haven't made at least a dozen different mistakes while shooting large format, you aren't doing it right.

A dozen?

That's just the qualifications for your Tenderfoot badge.

And I'll freely admit that I asked *EXACTLY* the same question as the OP with my first LF camera.

papagene · Apr 30, 2011

My mission is to invent new dumb-a$$ mistakes in my LF pursuits!
I seem to be doing a good job at it too.

michaelbsc · Apr 30, 2011

papagene said:
My mission is to invent new dumb-a$$ mistakes in my LF pursuits!
I seem to be doing a good job at it too.

Drat! I hate competition.

papagene · Apr 30, 2011

We should form a "Dumb-a$$ LF Goof-up Society!"

mhcfires · Apr 30, 2011

papagene said:
We should form a "Dumb-a$$ LF Goof-up Society!"

I would have to be a charter member.

You can also add " Pulling out the holder before replacing dark slide. "

paul_c5x4 · Apr 30, 2011

Two shots on IR820 film - f22@2Sec.... Then realised the IR filter was still in my pocket.

Set up for another shot elsewhere, pulled the dark slide out and went to cock the shutter. Darned preview lever was engaged preventing the shutter being fired.

That folks, is just from today's catalogue of cockups.

wootsk · Apr 30, 2011

Helpful reminder if you miss it.
1. Remember to mark which film in which slot in the holder if you are loading multiple different type of film. I once loaded 3 different type of film in a set of holder and realized the mistake of not marking after reaching the ground.
2. Your holder has a white/ silver and black side on the handle where you pull it out. You can use it to mark if the film is already exposed.
3. Make sure you insert the film holder fully into the back and pull dark slide fully out.
4. Drill into yourself to close the shutter before pulling the dark slide.

@Greg Davis
Good idea, we can have a guide from how to load film to standard operation of LF camera when on the field. Warning on LF screwups can be added on along the way as a warning.

wootsk · Apr 30, 2011

gnolanphotography said:
David, thanks for not making me feel like an idiot

You are doing fine, I once forgot to slot back all the dark slide when loading the film in a changing bag. 1 pack of velvia 50 gone.

Sirius Glass · Apr 30, 2011

Check out graflex.org for instructions, directions, ...

Steve

Three Owls · May 3, 2011

There's always a new way to make a mistake.
Yesterday I managed to yank a film holder out by its half pulled dark slide because it bent up against the tripod and bound in the holder. I was shooting in the snow with the dark cloth tented over the whole camera, so I pulled the slide down and normally I don't do that on verticals.
When you find a good routine, repeat it if possible. If you do something slightly different, expect it might screw up in some unforeseeable fashion.

polyglot · May 3, 2011

who needs LF to goof? I started developing an empty tank+spiral this morning, started wondering "is this the EI1600 or EI400 roll" ... "oh, it's neither and now both my spirals are wet".

z3guy · May 3, 2011

Done all that

Yup, I have done almost all of the above while learning LF and still manage to mess up now!

Paul

mjs · May 3, 2011

There's a reason why so many large format shooters are humble, easy going people.

Mike

rpsawin · May 3, 2011

Greg Davis said:
We may actually want to have a sticky of just LF screwups. That will help keep threads from repeating themselves.

It could double as a LF Bucket List....

Bob

Dikaiosune01 · May 8, 2011

I've been shooting LF for the past 5 months now. In a short amount of 5 minutes time, I've done every single one of those mistakes.

1. exposed before putting the filter on
2. exposing with the preview engaged
3. removing the holder before replacing the darkslide
4. removing the wrong darkslide

some other ones
1. exposing on the timer mode, when i thought i was set at 1 second.
2. forgetting to set the aperture, leaving it at its widest setting
3. forgetting to decare my wooden field camera to australian customs. (This one could have gotten really messy)
4. forgetting to remove the back lens cap from the lens (This one took me a full minute to trouble shoot)
5. forgetting to BRING a cable release

jerry lebens · May 8, 2011

It's a well known fact that commercial photographers never, ever, make such stupid mistakes...

Diapositivo · May 8, 2011

Didn't happen with LF but it happened to somebody I am very acquainted with : being in the countryside, no photographic shop within too many km, Saturday evening, lost the only one cable release on a field, gone back to that field, desperately looked around in the grass for the shutter release, it must be here, I must have lost it somewhere here, long search, no results, gave up.

Cable release was in a pocket of the too-many-pocketed vest.

Never say you know something "like your pockets".

moki · May 9, 2011

As a wise man once said: "Cable releases and lens caps can turn invisible at will." So true.

And on the subject of mistakes: Even my photography teacher who had been using a LF camera for more than 20 years managed to forgot to close the shutter before pulling the darkslide just now. I think, making mistakes is a big part of LF photography
Luckily, it was only relatively cheap 4x5... if that happened with 20x24 or some other ULF, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near for a few days...

At the risk of being scolded.....

gnolanphotography

David A. Goldfarb

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gnolanphotography

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Diapositivo

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