Shooting Infrared with large format...

eclarke said:

P.S. I don't think professional photographers are Chamonix's market..

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I'm not your average professional photographer...;-)

eclarke said:

Exactly why does one need to be a professional to enjoy photography? Professional photography is close to prostitiution...I have around 30 modern view cameras and all of them are IR safe except my Chamonix. Engineering may keep you away from infrared photography but beautiful prints attract me to it..

P.S. I don't think professional photographers are Chamonix's market..

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Who said you had to be a pro? I'm not. And being an engineer doesn't keep me away from IR... I just don't like it. I also don't like red filter photography nor Polaroid desecration photography. But if you do, fine. They all seem like the pursuit of the "artiste" of which I am not. I have no modern view cameras unless you count the early 70's Deardorff V8. I use a combination of 30 YO fuji lens with some Nikon process lens and old this and that. Most lens are set up in Packard shutters.

I have only bought two new cameras in my life, both 35mms. One was stolen, the other I still have 30 years later.

When I want beautiful prints I know how to get them, 100-125 speed film in a Pyro developer. Just because I am an engineer by profession don't mean I don't understand photographic process as has been alleged in this thread. Being an engineer gives me some advantages too. Like 70% of my processing equipment is home made.

But being a robotics engineer is kinda like prostitution also.

Whatever.

tim in san jose

You threw the word "professional" into the mix, applying it as a standard of judgement...quote

"2.) The number of professionals who use IR film is pretty small. So any solution would be just that, a solution. In photography school we didn't have a class for "Professional Solutions to weird problems".
3.) If this is an issue you can't live with, either return the camera or get one of the fine bellows makers to make you a suitable solution bellows.
4.) If you were truly professional, you would have done your homework."

Guys......

Can we relax a bit? The questions were not do you like infrared in large format or do Pro's shoot infrared...right?

I'm doing a big book project that along with Techpan in 120, IR film is making a bit more interesting.
I have done two shows that have seen good print sales. But when I started getting mural sized print requests that could pay for something like a new car, I decided adding 4x5 into the mix would not be a bad idea and might help overcome some of the issues of DOF with 6x6, I took the plunge.

We all learn from these threads, let's focus on that, ok?

My wife bought a beautiful wood Wisner camera , part of the 120 made for Fred Picker. mint condition .. I happen to like printing large murals as well so this combination could be outright beautiful. I am interested in seeing some of the images.
She has a huge collection of the Kodak infared images and this could be of great appeal to her.

PKM-25 where do you get this film and what developer are you using and also filters??

How are you getting along with the Efke stuff?

I shot a few rolls of it in 120 about 4 years ago before they updated it and horrible coating defects. The reason I like the Rollei stuff is that the grain is tight, it is sharp and does not halo, great if you want the tonality of IR but not the HIE grain and look. The only thing I am not enjoying with the Rollei in 4x5 is how darn thin the base is, what a pain to load!

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PMK-25, I have no problems with Efke IR. I'm not using the halo stuff. I did like the fineness of Rollei, but didn't care for the ultra-thin film base. I don't know how many times I loaded two sheets into one side of a holder! And, I had a box once that as you worked your way into it, the notch codes gradually disappeared! One more thing, Rollei 4x5 at that time was $90 a box in Vancouver (Beau Photo). Efke's was waaaaay cheaper.

andrew

Bob Carnie said:

PKM-25 where do you get this film and what developer are you using and also filters??

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Bob,

I get my Rollei IR 400 from Freestyle in Los Angeles. I have been using the 120 version for some time with a Hoya R72 filter, it knocks it down from ISO 400 to around 6-12. I have just been using Rodinal 1:50 as per the Massive chart, you can see a couple of nice examples of it in my gallery.

Some people also use the Efke stuff which looks more like Kodak HIE but can be problematic in terms of quality control. The Rollei stock is more fine grained, imparts the stark tonality I am looking for and has still evident IR characteristics that I am looking for in this project.

The one downside is the super thin base in 4x5, I have only done a few test sheets thus far but in using my Mod54 inset in my Paterson tank, I have had sheets move around during pre-soak that got stuck together for the whole process. I am going to try to only do 4 sheets in the tank today instead of my usual 6, hopefully that will work. If I feel like I can use a more gentle agitation and get away with 6 and have them not stick, then that will work too.

The Rollei stuff is a nice film for going big but beware that the 4x5 version is super thin...

So I made a 4 layer Mylar IR bellows coat, did a two sheet test in which I set the camera out in blazing sunlight, sun to the left. I did one exposure after about 5 seconds from pulling the dark slide, one with exposure two full minutes after dark slide out, both came out perfect, no base fog.

Since this gizmo is essentially a bag bellows, no pleats, I have to make two of them, one at 6" ( 65mm-135mm ) and one at 10" ( 150mm-300mm ), the longest extension I could see using with IR. I made the small one first, will do the other tomorrow.

It looks funky, but it (there was a url link here which no longer exists)...

Could we see a picture? What color mylar? Thanks, Evan Clarke