Good old rules

The optimum aperture for sharpness and detail is about two stops away from wide opened.

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.

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.

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!

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

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 :)

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.

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.

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