Things I've learned in my first few days shooting 4x5

Removed Account · May 19, 2007

Well, it's almost 4 AM and I've kicked off my long weekend by spending the last few hours contact printing some of the negatives I made in my first few days of shooting 4x5. I am already having dreams of larger formats, but alas, I must be prudent and learn to use what I've got... Life is hard... My mind is somewhat jumbled at this hour, but before I retire for the night I thought I'd share some of what I've learned so far, both for the benefit of those who may follow, and in hopes of yet more learning from those who have gone before me.

I've learned:

That a loupe will help keep my eyeglass prescription from increasing.

That indoor lighting may look bright, but is much dimmer than outdoors on even the most overcast day. (This drives home the first point.)

4x5 negatives are not that dense when they look OK on white backgrounds, and are nice when they look too dark. Hold them up to light for a better look.

The purple colour when the negative comes out of the fixer will wash away.

It is REALLY easy to scratch a negative pulling it out of the film holder.
Ditto for handling it at all.

Press the cable release softly.

It's not as easy as it sounds processing 6 negatives in a tray at once, at least the first time.

Bulbs with writing on them make for weird print tones when used in an enlarger.

It's easy to lose things without light.

The "Is that a Hasselblad?" question really does get asked, even about a 65 year old monorail.

Do not be alarmed by the slimyness of film developer.

Wash everything thoroughly.

Large format photography can cause one to stay up absurdly late.

Longer paper exposure times make results more easily repeatable when counting Mississippis.

Girls dig looking at the groundglass.

Having spent another precious 20 minutes of night writing this I am now off to bed. Thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point! When I am seriously debating between a months worth of food or a spotmeter (and leaning dangerously close to the spotmeter) I will think of you... :rolleyes: If I find time to head up to the college tomorrow I will scan my first 4x5 contact prints and post them. Good night everyone, and don't let the groundglass give you vertigo!

- Justin

Nick Zentena · May 19, 2007

cafeharrar said:
That a loupe will help keep my eyeglass prescription from increasing.

Bigger formats help with this to

bdial · May 19, 2007

Congratulations, some of us required a lot more than a few days to learn all that.

Jim Noel · May 19, 2007

A good synopsis. I plan on keeping your remarks to give to my next large format students.

BrianShaw · May 19, 2007

cafeharrar said:
When I am seriously debating between a months worth of food or a spotmeter (and leaning dangerously close to the spotmeter) I will think of you... :rolleyes:

Oatmeal for brunch, canned beans for dinner. In a month you'll have a spotmeter. Some of us been there before.

David A. Goldfarb · May 19, 2007

Start with three sheets of film in a tray, and when you are comfortable and can produce scratch-freen negs consistently, add another sheet.

k_jupiter · May 19, 2007

David A. Goldfarb said:
Start with three sheets of film in a tray, and when you are comfortable and can produce scratch-freen negs consistently, add another sheet.

Good advice.

But I will learn you this... I have developed many trays of sheet film, and you will discover better ways to keep your fingers out of the developer. Tubes for example.

Best of luck.

tim in san jose

roteague · May 19, 2007

I can't say shooting 4x5 keeps me up late at night; I'm generally in bed by 9pm. It does mean that I keep a lot of early mornings, however.

ragc · May 19, 2007

Excellent summary! I would add: It gets really hot under the focusing cloth in the sun.

athanasius80 · May 19, 2007

Welcome to the darkside. I would add this: Yes you can break a press camera stuffing it in your backpack wrapped in a sweater on an international trip. Oh and, yes your film holder will only jam on the best shot of said international trip.

chrisofwlp · May 20, 2007

One more.

Even other photographer dont understand that LF means a very big negative.

Renato Tonelli · May 20, 2007

An addendum to Murphy's Law as applied to large format negatives:

Dust will invariably settle on the light areas (sky, etc) where it is the hardest to remove (if at all).

jedrek · May 20, 2007

Here's something I learned not too long ago: it is possible to missload film holders if you don't remove the darkslide all the way while loading.

Bill Mitchell · May 20, 2007

The old "standard" for evaluating sheet film negative density is/was "can you read a newspaper through it?"

f/stopblues · May 20, 2007

I learned recently that while under the dark cloth you lose all sense of what's going on around you outside the lens fov. Thinking you are alone only to discover a small crowd who snuck in behind you is a bit alarming, especially in a not-so-friendly urban area. I need an assistant to watch my stuff!

Shmoo · May 20, 2007

jedrek said:
Here's something I learned not too long ago: it is possible to missload film holders if you don't remove the darkslide all the way while loading.

Along that line, I learned very quickly which side is the emulsion side and which isn't (funny, why are my images backwards and fuzzy?)...

congratulations on taking the LF leap. Enjoy the ride!

S

DougGrosjean · May 20, 2007

Bill Mitchell said:
The old "standard" for evaluating sheet film negative density is/was "can you read a newspaper through it?"

A dumb question, but:
Should you be able to on a negative of proper density, or should you *not* be able to read the paper through the neg?

ragc · May 20, 2007

You should be able to read it. That was one of my father's maxims. As a young man he photographed with a Rollei TLR without using a meter. His negatives are consistent and as good as any!

DougGrosjean · May 20, 2007

ragc said:
You should be able to read it. That was one of my father's maxims. As a young man he photographed with a Rollei TLR without using a meter. His negatives are consistent and as good as any!

Thanks! I'm going to start trying out that method as a way of fine-tuning my exposures.

Ya learn something new every day...

Jadedoto · Jun 11, 2007

Today was my first day shooting and developing and printing 4x5! I learned most of those, especially the tray processing. I haven't had an unscratched negative yet.

Oh and the funniest thing- I develop my film by listening to music to time myself. I just listen to the song "Halcyon + On +On" which is 9:20, so it gives me sufficient time to get the negatives from presoak to stop bath, within perfect development times.

I should buy a dark green safelight...

Isn't LF soooo cool? I love it.

noexit · Jun 11, 2007

Yesterday was my first day developing 4x5. It's cool to have some many noobs. I'm not the only one!

I deved my negs in a drum, which worked pretty good. But I learned that you need to make sure they're in there... two of my negs overlapped a bit, but luckily, it didn't mess anything up too bad. For me, I am alarmed by the slimyness of developer. It means I'm touching it.

Things I've learned in my first few days shooting 4x5

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