Backward Tilt only on Front Standard - What is is Good For?

[Bob S]

Which method is better and what are the difference in results.?

It depends on your camera’s movements and your lens coverage. I prefer direct displacements as they are much quicker and require less fiddling then indirect ones. But most field type wooden cameras don’t have enough front and rear shifts and rise-fall to do direct movements.

 

[Vaughn]

Of course, after 40+ years playing movements this is like riding in bicycle !!! (and I'm not speaking about the south island!)

But to learn it may be useful to know where one wants the intersection placed to know how the standards have to be moved, approximately...

Then why did it take me the first three decades to figure out that tilting the camera up and straightening up both standards is the same thing as having the camera level and using front rise?

I agree that peoples' brains are different enough that one way of looking at something is not helpful to all. That is pretty obvious with many of my posts...I tend to look at things a little differently. Knowing about the intersection point and that guy's (not the guy with the live/dead cat in a box) formula has never helped me understand or operate a view camera. It obviously helps others -- and probably confuses others.

 

[138S]

It obviously helps others -- and probably confuses others.

Yes... of course.

Also some photographers make a simple usage of movements to just focus better, while others use it extensively for creative effects... IMO what some masters do is using that resource in a way that it is not much evident while it has a great aesthetic effect, remarkably in portraiture...

 

[Vaughn]

"Focus better" -- in the terminology used here that would be; placing the plane of focus in the optimal orientation and distance from the camera to allow for the planned increase in DoF when closing down to the desired aperture. Otherwise, I always focus better with the lens wide open.

Agreed, and some masters have not used that resource of technical information to produce their work, instead using their experience with the GG as their guide rather than abstract formulas and imaginary junctions of planes.

 

[cowanw]

Backward Tilt only on Front Standard - What is is Good For?
To answer the question, it is good for getting bats that hang from the roof of a cave in focus from the front of the cave to the back; not so much the floor.

 

[neilt3]

Backward Tilt only on Front Standard - What is is Good For?
To answer the question, it is good for getting bats that hang from the roof of a cave in focus from the front of the cave to the back; not so much the floor.

Unless you turn your camera upside down .

 

[Vaughn]

...To answer the question, it is good for getting bats that hang from the roof of a cave in focus from the front of the cave to the back; not so much the floor.

No bats, but I did use front backward tilt! The cave is about 80 tall here. We are looking up at the ceiling and partway down the wall of the other side, close enough to the entrance to pick up some light. The white is minerals leeching down from the surface.
Skull Cave, Lava Beds Nat. Monument, CA
8x10 negative, Carbon print,

 

[138S]

An example of a backward tilt, unconventional aesthetics:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/macieklesniak/30412267615/in/faves-125592977@N05/

 

[Stephen Power]

An example of a backward tilt, unconventional aesthetics:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/macieklesniak/30412267615/in/faves-125592977@N05/

That was very helpful, thank you. Some of the other recent replies were just...batty.