Portraits with LF

DREW WILEY · Dec 29, 2015

Since portraits were routinely done with view cameras or similar stand cameras and box cameras for 75% of the history of photography, it would seem feasible! In fact, my preference is 8x10 for this application, though I did tend to keep a Nikon of P67 nearby just in case somebody got fidgety. Generally it worked the other way around. People take big cameras seriously and tend to cooperate. It's not like a cell
phone selfie. Not free either.

Drew Bedo · Jan 1, 2016

Seld portraits, now called "selfies:.

Kodak 2D, 90mm Nikkor, 8x10 Kodak Ektascan film

mdarnton · Jan 2, 2016

I stopped by Central Camera the other day, and they had a lot of different selfie-sticks, but I couldn't find one for my 8x10 :-(

Drew Bedo · Jan 2, 2016

"Selfies", yeah . . .this selfie stick was a heavy wooden tripod. The image on 8x10 is about life-size or 1:1, so the lens was pretty close. I just reached out and tripped it.

Now that I have a TravelWide, a "portrait" on 4x5 with a real seslie stick is a possibility. Don't think i'll spend a sheet of film proving that I was somewhere though.

Portraits in large formats have been done since 1839 with very slow materials (Daguerreotype, wet plate, paper negs etc) and with long exposures . Wet plate technology was a step forward in sensitivity, but the sitter had to be posed and waiting for some little while while the plate was prepared, and the shot had to be taken while the plate was still wet. So portraits can be done with the gear and films we have today. I think that instructing the sitter and proper posing may be key points in successful LF portraiture.

These are the challenges that made Polaroid 110 conversions desirable in LF fashion photography a few years ago. The ability to set focus with a parallax corrected coupled range/view finder on a compact hand-held platform made it possible to move around a model actively posing.

Sirius Glass · Jan 2, 2016

I would like to have the arm strength to hold and use a selfie stick and an 8"x10" camera.

removed account4 · Jan 2, 2016

the hobo 8-10 is lightweight and would not take much strength to use it on a selfie stick,
same with a 16-20 camera I built a few years ago ... when I say selfie stick I mean 1 leg unscewEd from a tiltall tripod.

Alan Gales · Jan 2, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
Landscapes do not care how long you take to set up and focus. Give that a whirl.

Yeah, but I can never get them to smile! :confused:

bvy · Jan 2, 2016

A landscape is not a portrait. Give that a whirl.

Sirius Glass · Jan 2, 2016

But a landscape can be taken in portrait and a portrait can be taken in landscape. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

bvy · Jan 2, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
But a landscape can be taken in portrait and a portrait can be taken in landscape. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I prefer to look it up in my Funk & Wagnalls.

gerryyaum · Jan 3, 2016

I like to make my subject wait, shooting large format portraiture is not a race to get over with quickly. Let them settle down, let them become part of the process. Focus, compose etc, they can stand-sit-lean and wait. Even after everything is ready to go, I still wait, try and wait that right moment that right expression. People who are in portrait situations with a large view camera tend to be more patient, making them wait is OK. One of the keys thou is to learn to say "DON'T MOVE" in whatever language your subject speaks. Jock Sturges told me once he knew how to say "Don't Move" in multiple languages (think it was 5).

Gerry
www.gerryyaum.blogspot.com

Paul Howell · Jan 3, 2016

One of the best 4X5 portrait cameras was the Gowerflex TLR, I saw one in use in the 60's at a large add agency in LA, a tour when in college. No black out at all. I remember that Peter Gower(sp?) also made a 5X7 and it is rumored a 8X10.

removed account4 · Jan 3, 2016

hi PDH

its peter gowland

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=peter+gowland&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

unfortunately, his website has been taken over by handbag-merchants
and luckily mr peabody and his way back machine can help us !
http://web.archive.org/web/20060219023020/http://www.petergowland.com/

i wanted one of his TLRs for a long while, but kept at it with a graflex slr instead.
it isn't as modern but works like a charm..

mdarnton · Jan 3, 2016

A Graflex works fine, but the problem with it is that you need to stand on a chair
to get to the subject's eye level. This one's hand-held, with strobes, me standing
on a chair:

Alex Hersh 2
by Michael Darnton, on Flickr

Drew Bedo · Jan 3, 2016

The stand-on-a-chair thing affected TLR imaging in any format. That's one reason for the eye-level prism finders on medium format SLRs and the parallel use of Range finder Medium Format cameras.

Paul Howell · Jan 3, 2016

mdarnton said:
A Graflex works fine, but the problem with it is that you need to stand on a chair
to get to the subject's eye level. This one's hand-held, with strobes, me standing
on a chair:

Alex Hersh 2
by Michael Darnton, on Flickr

In the session I observed the photographer had to use a small ladder, as the Growland is a TLR even taller than a Graflex.

k.hendrik · Jan 6, 2016

'Arrived' at my doorstep a Cambo 4x5 with Schneider 5.6-150 and 1:8/75 > bought today 320 TXP film and would love to take (as)close up portraits with available light. Tips/warnings/do's/don'ts. Thanks.

Wayne · Jan 6, 2016

k.hendrik said:
'Arrived' at my doorstep a Cambo 4x5 with Schneider 5.6-150 and 1:8/75 > bought today 320 TXP film and would love to take (as)close up portraits with available light. Tips/warnings/do's/don'ts. Thanks.

Don't take close-up portraits of anyone you'll see again. .

DREW WILEY · Jan 6, 2016

I don't know what all the fuss is about. No, you don't need flash powder. No, you don't head a head brace or to refrigerate you portrait sitter
like an entomological specimen. You don't need to get paranoid. You can do it indoors in a studio; you can do it outdoors per "enviro" portraiture or "landscape" style. You can do it window light, hot lights, flash, natural light. This is how people did things for a hundred years. Thousands and thousands of pro photographers did this day in, day out. No big deal. But what separates the men from the boys is how you
print them.

k.hendrik · Jan 6, 2016

Wayne said:
Don't take close-up portraits of anyone you'll see again. .

oh well..

removed account4 · Jan 6, 2016

k.hendrik said:
'Arrived' at my doorstep a Cambo 4x5 with Schneider 5.6-150 and 1:8/75 > bought today 320 TXP film and would love to take (as)close up portraits with available light. Tips/warnings/do's/don'ts. Thanks.

i don't have any warnings, or tips
just some do's ...

DO enjoy yourself !

find someone interested in learing about hanging out with a camera-operator
and explore with your new camera. mark tucker did a lot of large format portraits
with his camera twisted like a pretzel, and nicholas nixon from what i remember did
macro/close ups too.

good luck !
john

mdarnton · Jan 6, 2016

k.hendrik said:
'Arrived' at my doorstep a Cambo 4x5 with Schneider 5.6-150 and 1:8/75 > bought today 320 TXP film and would love to take (as)close up portraits with available light. Tips/warnings/do's/don'ts. Thanks.

Yes: if you're going to do some sort of traditional portraiture, get a longer lens. 150 is too short, unless you're shooting half a body or even more. Generally, you want to be standing at least four feet or so distant, more if possible, when the picture is framed as you like it. My favorite lens for 4x5 is 210mm, and I wouldn't mind a bit longer than that, even. The traditional portrait lens length is film length + width -- 9" for 4 x 5, then. The picture I put up was shot with a 190mm---and that's a bit short for the job. For portraits that are more environmental, 150mm is OK, but watch out for body parts that stick out towards the camera and distort.

Also, look at portraits a lot, try to figure out what you like, then try to do it. There's nothing wrong with copying, especially while you're trying to learn.

k.hendrik · Jan 7, 2016

thanks; i will start with looking .....

removed account4 · Jan 7, 2016

there is a goofy trick to determine similar focal lengths between 35mm and 4x5 ...
you can get a "close enough" translation by multiplying your 35mm focal length by 3 ...
it will give you an idea what it is in 4x5 ...
so if you like portraits you make with a 50mm or a 90 on a 35mm camera
similar portraits could be made with a 150 or a 270 ( 250? )mm lens .. it isn't exact, the "real number"
is less than 3 but bigger than 2.5 so it is close enough ... i wouldn't get too hung up on focal lengths
just get used to having fun with the LF camera, setting it up, and focusing and standing next to it, and having
a conversation with your subject to relax them, direct them &c .. its never easy, big cameras can intimidate people,
but it gets easier every time you do it ...
any lens can make great 4x5 portraits or large format portraits, its not so much the lens, but how the person with the camera
decides to use it ... ( i've got portraits on my website made with a variety of LF lenses some wide, some long, some "normal" )

good luck !
john

goldenimage · Jan 7, 2016

I have done a lot of portraits with my LF cameras up to 8x10, most people like to have there portrait taken with it because they think its cool.

Portraits with LF

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