My Parents

My Parents
Originally uploaded by M Skaffari

Portrait with natural light through window on camera right. White reflector on the camera right just outside the shot. Shot in our Pacific Heights apartment on 20th of June 2009.

Graflex Anniversary Speed Graphic
Goerz Dogmar 6.5in f4.5
FP4+
f8 / 1/25s

North Beach By Night

North Beach By Night
Originally uploaded by M Skaffari

Picture finally digitalized after almost an year. This was shot on Jan 20 2009 in North Beach in San Francisco.

Graflex Anniversary Speed Graphic
Goerz Dogmar 6.5in f4.5
FP4+
f11 / 1s

New website

I just published a new website for myself. Enjoy.

http://www.skaffari.fi

The content will be changing every once in a while. Currently I'm looking for more pictures of people to add.

Nice Touch

Nice Touch
Originally uploaded by M Skaffari

The film and papers arrived. The thank you note was a very nice touch.

New film and paper source

Last week I discovered Freestyle Photographic Supplies, a photo shop in Hollywood. They are kind of a photo shop I would like to have here locally. They seen to have very extensive selection of quirky materials, such as Croatian films and papers, infrared, reversal, Polaroid etc. Basically everything you don't _need_ but still want. They also seem to have extensive selection of cameras and accessories. Very cool!

I ordered a box of EFKE PL100M film and a box of Arista Private Reserve VC RC photo paper. Including delivery charges I paid 84$. I'm really waiting for the delivery which is happening today even though I ordered the material on Thanksgiving day. Very, very fast delivery.

Buying Ilford film & paper from Calumet would have cost me roughly 125$. Ilford may be somewhat better quality, but 30% cheaper is still better for me.

Disapontment

Now I did it! I took half a box of non-exposed film to be developed. I feel like a moron. Luckily Chris from Photoworks had pity on me and I only paid half for what I would have paid normally.

This experiment cost me ~10$ in film and ~25$ in processing. So 35$ learning on how to mark film boxes.

The solution: Have 1 box that is for exposed film. Write very clearly "EXPOSED, Ready to be developed" on the box. All other boxes of film should be marked "Instructions for lab: DO NOT DEVELOP, THE IDIOT BROUGHT NON-EXPOSED FILM HERE. Call him at: 555 1234". This way the lab at least checks with you before ruining your film and making you pay for it.

Darkroom

I managed to carve few hours to go into a darkroom to develop few pictures yesterday. It was a blast. This time there were other people in the darkroom also, 5 total including me. Occasionally there was a queue to the development trays.

I made 3 prints from my 4x5's and two from 35mm negatives. It really is so much nicer to work with large film. I highly recommend to everybody. The 35mm negatives were shot using Ilford XP2 Super film which is one of my favorite films to print from. It paled in comparison to Ilford FP4 Plus in 4x5 format.

I know the math when enlarging from 35mm compared to 4x5. There are 20 times more data in the 4x5 thus 20 times the details. I'm still amazed by the difference when looking at the prints side by side.

Now I need to get the images scanned so I can show off. Naturally the web presentation won't do any justice to the prints. But at least my parents can see a picture of themselves ;)

Polaroid

This picture by lost in pixels inspired me to start taking Polaroid pictures with my Speedy.

Since Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 and stopped manufacturing instant film, Fujifilm of Japan could start importing their own instant film into US. I couldn't find out if I could use the Fuji film packs with my Graflex pack film adapter that I bought through eBay some time back, I went to Calumet and bought one pack of the film to try out.

Here's info for anyone else who is looking for it: Fujifilm FP-100B45 (Black & White) and FP-100C45 (color) are NOT compatible with the Graflex pack film holder. Instead you have to use either Fuji PA-45, or Polaroid 550 Pack Film holder.

The Graflex pack film holder doesn't have the development rollers that are needed to develop Fuji instant film.

Shooting the bridge

Few days ago I managed to haul my gear to Yerba Buena island, a small island between San Francisco and Oakland. The Bay Bridge goes through the island. Well the east span connects the island to Oakland and the west span to San Francisco.

There is a spot on the island where you can get above the roadway as the road comes from the tunnel into the 5 lane two decker bridge. I shot couple of shots and hope they'll turn out good.

Here's a reference shot I took with my 40D.

DIY 4x5 film developing tank

I seem to have inherited a problem from my father. I think it's unnecessary to buy anything you can build yourself - even if becomes more expensive and not as good when building it yourself. This time I think I have dodged the bullet since I don't have a suitable place for developing film, but just wait until I move to a house with a garage and a pitch dark small room.

Anyway, here are instructions on building the film development tank from PVC tubes and accessories.

The design
In action

Disapontment

I was going to print some images today as my wife was working late. I got to the darkroom hungry and tired just after 5PM just to learn that they are closed on Mondays. Well - back to the couch. I still have bunch of negatives without contact prints and few nice shots I would like to print.

A good day

Today has been a good day. I worked a full day (from home though so nobody was in my way), had a light dinner in North Beach, went to take few shots with my Graflex and went to gym. All this done by 9PM.

Today I shot the fog rolling over the city. I climbed on top of Corona Heights park close to Castro and shot towards Castro and Oakland. I got there the fog was just starting to roll over Twin Peaks. I was up there for about 20 minutes and when I left I was surrounded by the fog. It's funny how the fog follows the same pattern every day this time of the year.

Time

I really have to start making time for this hobby also. I have been so busy with moving and other work and non-work related projects that I haven't even seen my camera for a month. Sigh.

About blur and Bokeh

Bokeh is a term referring to quality of out of focus light sources in a photograph.

I found a great article explaining some of the physics behind this and found out that even when the lens does play a big role in Bokeh, there are other factors also. Applies to bigger cameras as well as smaller ones. Naturally when working with black and white medium the color shifts are rendered as shades of gray and are harder to analyze.

User review of Shen-Hao HZX4x5-II

I stumbled upon a unser review of a chinese 4x5 field camera. Not bad for the price. I haven't seen the camera myself so I can't comment on the build quality.

Film loading

I'm getting more and more comfortable with loading film into the holders. I might have a problem though. We are moving to a new apartment and we won't have a room that we can get completely dark. I may have to start loading the film in the public darkroom facility.

Darkroom time

Yesterday I went to my local darkroom Rayko here in San Francisco. The plan was to make contact prints of my recent 4x5s and maybe few proper prints from my older negatives.

I really have to start going to the darkroom more often. I was so rusty and working there wasn't as enjoyable as it once was.

Still got 3 decent prints and all needed contacts done. All this should have been done in less than an hour, but due my rustiness it took almost 2.

I'm still looking for a good scanner so I can start scanning my prints and maybe going digital in processing black and white film into pictures also.

Portraits

I shot few portraits of my parents while they were visiting me here in San Francisco. One of my mother turned out OK, but the one of my Father has some camera shake in it. I'm still struggling to get close enough to the subject for portraits with my Dogmar lens. The 6.5 inch lens is too wide for portraits and my backdrop, even when it is big enough got portraits with my DSLR, is not big enough to work comfortably.

Sunday shoot

The weather was beautiful today and I have all the time in the world to burn, so what do I do. Go shooting some photos naturally. I drove up to Rodeo Beach in Marin Headlands and took few shots of the beach, surfers and an old wooden fence. After that I went to Sausalito for lunch and took one more shot of the famous houseboats in Sausalito.

Total: 5 hours spent, 1.5 hours of driving, half an hour eating. Seems I shoot 1 negative / 45 minutes.

New Project

I decided to start a new project, taking portraits of my friends. I have a small studio setup at home, and now that my wife is traveling for few weeks I can just leave it there and won't have to tear it down after every shoot.

WIndy windy

The negatives from my last shoot show a lot of camera movement. The exposures were 10 and 15 seconds and the big camera really took the wind from the Bay blurring the shots. I'll have to go do this all again on a calm night. Otherwise the negatives look good.

Evening shoot

The wife went out with the girls and I had some free time on my hands. So what to do...

I thought of going to darkroom to make contacts of the last negatives and maybe few prints also. The idea was good, but execution sucked. I was in front of the darkroom 7:45 and it closes at 8.

Lucky I had my camera in the trunk so I drove to Treasure Island between San Francisco and Oakland to take few shots of San Francisco in the sunset. I arrived a bit late and the evening was getting dark. I took two shots, both with long exposure (10 sec and 15 sec). Not sure how they will turn out since it was quite windy and the Graflex is quite big and catches a lot of wind. My tripod is sturdy for SLR, but a tad light for the Graflex and I fear the pictures are shaken. Well, I'll see once I get the films processed.

Birth of landscape photography

Seen in Beyond the Lens: New York times had a great article about Edward Weston and his career as landscape photographer. For me he's up there with Ansel Adams and both used large format cameras for their work.

Lost and found

Well, only lost. Lost my cable release. 8$ spent and used 2 times. Not sure it it was worth 4$ both times. I know the thing is somewhere, but just can't find it.

Results

Got the latest batch of negatives back from the shop today. The good news first. All four negatives seem to have been shot the right way around. Good for me.

The not so good news is that two of the negatives show signs of serious light leak. I'll have to mark the film holders and see if they consistently leak or if this is just due my carelessness.

The shot of the old truck looks really good!

Found the shift release "button"

After some more investigation I managed to locate the shift release. The front standard lock has to be open and then you just push down on the shift lock and adjust the front standard sideways. The movement though is quite underwhelming 1cm left or right.

Large format camera movements

I stumble upon a picture of similar camera than I have and it definitely looks like I should be able to shift the lens board. I just can't find instructions how and for the life of me I can't do it om my camera. Infuriating!

Picture of the camera with lens board shifted in the rightmost image.

Large format camera movements

I should be able to:

Raise the lens board - check
Drop the bed - check
Shift the lens board - GgggrrR!

Sunday shots

I was having a lazy Sunday, mostly driving around running small errands. I put my Graflex into the trunk so if I happen about something interesting I might take a picture or two. I ended up taking 3 shots. One of the Golden Gate bridge and two in Alamo Square here in San Francisco. Pretty touristy stuff, but have to see how they turn out.

I dropped the films off for development today and will get them back on Wednesday.

Inspecting the equipment

Haven't had any time to take pictures with the big camera. Instead I have been spending my free time making a movie and taking pictures of that with my DSLR. Some pictures can be seen in Flickr .

Today I spent some time troubleshooting my inside-out negatives. I still stand behind my instructions on loading the film. I went through the negatives and it seems that only last 4 are exposed on the correct side of the film. I also checked all the already loaded film holders and all of them seemed OK.

All the hassle must have been problems with the initial loadings. Have to start being more careful.

Good Old Rules

Sunny 16

1st print Negative #8, Barn

Barn
First print out of 4x5 negatives. I scanned it in the office and the results are not best possible, but this goes as preview. Now I need a proper scanner - bad.

Saturday shoot

Well, at least a mini-shoot. I was on my way to Sonoma for a production meeting and I remembered that on the way there are few old trucks on the roadside. I stopped by one and took a picture. Hopefully my film was not inside out...

Regards from darkroom

My first time in the darkroom didn't go quite as I had planned. My goal was to come back with a bunch of really beautiful pictures. I ended up coming back with one decent print.

After getting to know the darkroom and having the personnel help me set up the enlarger properly, different lens plus bellows adjustment needed for 4x5 after working on 35mm or roll film, I started with making contact prints. I got the hang of it on the second paper and managed to do all needed contacts. Looking closer at the contacts I noticed few issues. Some of the pictures were reversed to what they should have been and not all of them were focused properly.

Naturally I thought I just slapped them the wrong way around into the negative protector sleeves. Off to check the negatives and all of them were the same and the right way around. This struck me as strange and after some more fiddling I realized - The films had been the wrong way around in the negative holders when I shot the pictures! Now I have to slap myself since I even have instructions for the film loading. I'm ashamed.

I sorted out the pictures that were shot "from the back" and that also explained the "softness" in few of the shots. I have no idea yet, how did I manage to insert them the wrong way. This kind of things happen when you have to do something in total darkness and you can't really check if everything is OK.

The second realization was that my infinity focus is a bit off. All pictures that have been focused to infinity weren't sharp all the way. Well, I did cheat a bit on the focus, thinking that if I stop down the lens to 22 I can focus to a bit closer than infinity to maximize Depth of Field. I have to take a look at the camera and adjust or stop cheating ;)

This experience makes me want to focus even more, on 4x5 photography that is. Small mistakes cost pictures. Luckily I haven't been shooting any once-in-a-lifetime situations with the camera yet. Working in the darkroom was as interesting as it ever was. I did go to another darkroom here in San Francisco once before and the previous time to that must have been almost ten years ago! I was definitely rusty, but I'm sure I will get the hang of it.

Now I'm off to check the infinity focus on the camera and double check the loaded film holders to guarantee that the film is the right way around. I'll post the picture I managed to print once I get it scanned. That much I can do in the office next week :)

All ready for first prints

We went for a long walk to day with my wife. We ended up walking around 11km and somehow, to small surprise to Jessie, happened to hit Calumet on 18th street. As you can see from the map the shop wasn't just on the way (it in the southernmost spot of the route).

I bought a storage binder and some sleeves for my 4x5s. I also bought some Ilford photo paper. Now I'm running out of excuses to go print the pictures.

Steps so far:
1) Get camera
2) Fix camera
3) Get film
4) Shoot, shoot, shoot
5) Develop films
6) Find darkroom
7) Get paper

My future darkroom - Reyko Photo Center

I have been looking for an affordable place to rent darkroom to print my new films. There is a city run Photography Center, which is in temporary space until they building is renovated. The cost was 50$ for half a year membership + 5$ for each visit.

My choice though is Reyko Photo Center. They have a cool space and all kinds of cool photo gear to rent also ;). The cost is 8$ / hour no membership fees. Cool!

Films are back from development

Got films 7 through 10 back from development yesterday. Here are some findings.

The drawing circle on my Dogmar is so small that when I dropped the bed for shot #7 the upper corners were cut off. The bed was dropped in order to get better DOF for the shot. I have to test if compensating by rising the lens would yield better results.

I can load the film into the wooden holders a tad crooked or I can put the film holder into the camera a bit crooked. In any case the shot #9 was not streights in relation to the film.

Camera case arrived

Ready to go shooting
Originally uploaded by Tasmanic

I won an eBay auction for original Graflex camera case. Who would like to carry 40s camera in new millennium bag? After removing some unnecessary parts from my speedy it fits the case perfectly. Plenty of space for film holders and other crap. Maybe I need to clean it up and change the orange foam to something more appealing. Bright color is a good choice though; easier to find items in the case in the dark.

Not a great day

I had uneven number of films exposed so I thought I go to North Beach here in San Francisco to shoot one more picture so I can drop some holders for development tomorrow. Everything went fine - until I got to North Beach.

I started getting my gear out of the trunk of my car and grabbed one film holder from my bag. The safety guards hadn't been closed properly (I wonder who messed up) and the exposure guard slid open. With lightning fast reflexes I closed it back up. Remains to be seen if the film inside got some unwanted light. That would be shot #7 I have to look out for.

This brings me to the point of complaining about Fidelity Elite 4x5 film holders. The safety guards move very easy and might open up accidentally while in transport. The old wooden ones have the safety's so hard that it's very hard to open them up - even intentionally; I think I prefer that problem.

The second problem arose when I set up the tripod. My Slik let one of the butterfly screws go. The design is a bit weird to start off. There is a metal screw with 10mm head which has been covered with hard plastic butterfly screw head. I think I can glue it back on, but would still like to complain to the manufacturer.

After 15 second googling I realized I can buy just a new head for the darn thing. The legs are still 100% OK. Now come to think of it I have always wanted a ball head for the tripod.

Fort Bragg

We drove up to Fort Bragg over the weekend and my intention was to shoot some 4x5s on the way. Well the way was quite long and I ended up driving more than shooting. I came back with only 3 sheets exposed. I'll have to do the same trip one day alone so I can spend as much time behind the camera as I wish.

New old film holders

Got four more film holders from eBay. Now my single trip capacity has increased to 10 shots. Cool 400% increase.

Large Format Photography dot Info

A lot of useful info, hints and tips.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

I think someone should save the information. The site hasn't been updated in almost 2 years. Sites like that have the tendency to vanish once the administrators get tired of paying for the domain or hosting.

Loading 4x5 film into film holder

I have had it hard to find instructions on the net about handling 4x5 film. Here is my attempt to make this information available to everybody who is interested.

One of the problem is that when you load the film holder you naturally have to do it in total darkness. At least I have a lot ot trouble seeing in that kind of conditions so there has to be a way to make sure you insert the film the right way around into the holder.

In the 4x5 sheet film there is a few notches on top right corner. When you feel them with your right index finger you are looking at the emulsion.

The film holder open up by pulling the exposure guard, opening the flap on the bottom of the film holder. Now you can slide in the film, the notches up or down, your choice, just make sure the emulsion side is facing the exposure guard.





This is easy enough to do even in darkness, but without having any film to practice on in the light it was difficult enough for me on the first time.

The eyes, the eyes

I got the negatives (#5 & #6) back from the shop today. Both were otherwise ok, but the focus was a bit off. The DoF is so narrow in the Dogmar fully open that I really have to be careful with the focus. Now I have 2 negatives that are sharp on ears and soft in the eyes. Can't really fix that...

3rd shoot

I have had my mother and brother-in-law visiting for the past two weeks. This morning I took the opportunity to take a portrait of Charles. Even though the Dogmar (6.5 inch ~ 165mm) is somewhat longer than the Ektar (127mm) I was surprised how close I have to take the portraits.

After some calculations I have deduced:

127 mm Ektar is equal to 35mm lens on 35mm camera since the 5 inch longer edge of the film happens to be also 127mm.

This would make the 165mm Dogmar equivalent of 45mm lens on 35mm camera.

The shoot itself went good but I think I broke the cable release attachment in the shutter. This forced me to release the shutter manually from the camera and the long exposure time might have caused the camera to shake and blurr the image. Note to self: Get the cable release fixed or get steadier tripod