Poll: Photographer's Dark Cloth/Hood

[DREW WILEY]

You never change lenses, you don't have clipped corners on the GG, you don't insert and remove filmholders, esp plastic ones that easily develop a static charge? Lint is programmed to get onto and into bellows and then onto film, which is itself electrostatic.

 

[removed account4]

sure i change lenses, i have both clipped and non clipped ground glass, and i
use both plastic and wood and metal film holders ..

whats that have to do with a T shirt ?
i use a big sheet of felt,
put it over me and the camera back, focus, remove, or put up on the bellows
insert film, deal with lens,
remove film holder - use as sun shade,
trip shutter
back in film holder and repeat ..
nevet had trouble with lint
either in-studio or on location ( where most of my work is ) ..
i would imagine felt would have just as much lint, no?

thanks for the explanation
john

 

[Vaughn]

I use a Calumet darkcloth of old -- black one side, white on the other. No bells, no whistles. I like to camp-out under the darkcloth, so it is nice to have a good one. A couple of Aussie plastic clothes pins (clothes pegs) to hold the cloth onto the standards in a slight breeze. I like to have the camera well covered with the cloth once the darkslide is pulled and I am waiting to make the exposure, especially out in the bright sunlight. One should be able to trust all ones equipment to be light tight in the blazing sun -- but I don't. LF and ULF film is too expensive and much of my equipment (along with the operator) is old!

 

[bobwysiwyg]

Oh yeah. T-shirts. Nothing more fun that spending endless hours spotting negs and prints due to cotton lint.

Not all T-shirts are cotton.

 

[aag]

I had a black jacket dark cloth that was great albeit a little cumbersome to get in and out of at times. I since use a piece of blackout fabric cut to size, with two clamps to hold it to the front standard. does the job fine and if i need it extra dark I just tuck it in underneath the rear standard.

 

[Kilgallb]

I use a home made cloth but lost it in the forest. So l bought a light weight one off flea bay. Unfortunately a better name for it would be a slightly less bright cloth. Rip off.. So I am back to a home made black clothe with white curtain backing. A little heavy but it works.

 

[Trail Images]

.....home made black clothe with white curtain backing. A little heavy but it works.

I did the same thing after going through two on line purchases that I did not like. My design was a copy from a few I saw out at Death Valley NP years ago. The home made design was something I saw some UK folks using on their LF units. Their design used a draw string approach on the camera end and Velcro bottom closure. So, I was impressed by their ability to setup very quickly and their design worked nicely.....

 

[Dr Croubie]

Meanwhile, this is the one I bought, definitely worth the price.
It's some kind of Nylon, no dust or lint, red on one side, black on the other, works boths ways.
Camera-end is elastic to keep a 5x7 covered, just stretches enough to get around my 8x10.
About 20cm of velcro (along the edges perpendicular to the elastic edge) keeps it on.

I can't see why anyone would want anything else...

 

[DREW WILEY]

Red is a great color for a darkcloth, especially if you are out photographing a lovely meadow with a bull in it !

 

[Alex Muir]

Meanwhile, this is the one I bought, definitely worth the price.
It's some kind of Nylon, no dust or lint, red on one side, black on the other, works boths ways.
Camera-end is elastic to keep a 5x7 covered, just stretches enough to get around my 8x10.
About 20cm of velcro (along the edges perpendicular to the elastic edge) keeps it on.

I can't see why anyone would want anything else...

I also bought one of these. I haven't tried it yet. When it arrived, I thought it looked like Dracula's cape. I then looked at the sellers other items which explained the similarity. It does look and feel like it will be quite effective.
Alex.

 

[CropDusterMan]

I used to work with Martin Schoeller and when we shot 8x10, he had this cool trick of wearing a black heavy cotton
T-Shirt around his neck, with his head through the top of the neck first...he then stretched the waist area of the shirt
over the ground glass frame area...once focused, you simply pull away from the camera, the shirt falls around your neck
and you are ready to load film.

Jason

 

[Vaughn]

Perhaps a darkcloth, large, rectangular, white on one side, black on the other. For colder climates, a layer of thinsolite sewn inbetween. A slit cut halfway down so one could stick ones head thru it and wear it like a poncho between camera set-ups.