Black and White Film: Rich Tones + Archival Permanence
For your "serious" work, consider film. Big sheets of film. The bigger, the better. Black and white film still gives the best dynamic range and archival permanence. Images are extremely smooth. You can read here about over-sampling - that's what happens when we use large sheets of film. Here are some sample large format images: see for yourself.
A single piece of sheet film can hold hundreds of megabytes of data, and doesn't have to live on a computer disk of any kind. Properly stored, it will last for centuries. You can scan it and print it whenever you like. Programs like Photoshop, allow us to perform a wide range of corrections and adjustments that are otherwise difficult and tedious in the darkroom. Combining analog capture and digital workflow, we get the best of both worlds.
Scanning Tips (with EPSON and VueScan Software)
The more digital "corrections" we make to our images, the more artificial they tend to look. Banding and gaps appear whenever we make a change. You can start out with a continuous-tone image but may you end up with something rather... different.
To make a digital image that looks as analog as possible - as smooth as possible - you should work in a 16-bit color-space, and if scanning, try to get things right, while scanning. Make as few subsequent corrections as possible.
Here is a brief tutorial on Scanning Tips with Epson flatbed scanners, but it applies to any scanner you use. The Green Channel is sharpest with consumer-grade CCD scanners. Read Scanning the Green Channel for Optimum Resolution to learn more.
Toned Images and 16 Bits Per Channel
For rich tonality, convert your black and white images to a "monochrome" appearance: the blacks are black, the whites are white, but the grays are varying shades of brown, gold, blue, violet. Monochrome images often have a greater sense of depth. This is especially true of portraits. Working in 16 bits per channel, you get superior richness and fidelity.
Many of the great classic photographers made monochrome images in the darkroom, and thus avoided the harsh and "gritty" quality of pure black and white. They printed on Platinum and Palladium, and soaked their Silver prints in baths of Selenium, Gold, etc. Today, using modern digital methods, you can render each photograph with any tone you like, choosing the best approach for each image.
Every image deserves its own unique toning, and a 16-bit high-fidelity palette of shades. Visit Photoshop Fill Layer for more information, and learn how to do this yourself.
Favorite Cameras: Large Format
Large Format film is large, and can contain hundreds of megapixels. In an age when digital cameras struggle to attain more and more detail, Large Format photographers use 19th Century technology, and down-size their images. That's right: we toss away data. The results are very good: smooth, sharp, clear, beautiful. If that sounds attractive to you, you're going to love Large Format photography.
I love my second-hand 1970's
Sinar P view camera. You can easily locate one on eBay, where there's an
abundant supply of used Sinar equipment. That's where I found mine. The Sinar is what all the other view cameras would be... if they could.
One of these cameras costs a fraction of what you pay for an entry-level Digital SLR.
Everything is geared. Every adjustment is smooth and silky. There are very few locking mechanisms, since the gears are so well made, they just stay where you leave them. Did I say Made in Switzerland ?
The Sinar has asymmetric or
yaw-free movements. It stays in focus when you tilt, swing, rise, and shift. With other view cameras, you have to tilt, refocus, then raise or lower the camera - over and over again. With the Sinar, you just focus, and dial-in the adjustments until everything is right. It's heavenly !
The Sinar is a modular system camera. If you want to add or replace things, you can. Turn your 4x5 camera into a 5x7 or 8x10 camera ? No problem. Just replace the bellows and the back. Do a quick search for conversion kit (or format kit) on eBay. (Sometimes called format set, conversion set, etc). The kits are smaller, lighter, and cheaper than cameras. Because Sinar is/was the workhorse of choice for so many professionals, there is usually plenty of used equipment to choose from, in excellent condition. Igor's Camera Exchange carries a lot of Sinar equipment and expertise.
I also have a lovely and ancient
5x7 Kodak 2D, a wooden field camera (left). I found it at an auction and had a new bellows put on. It works fine again. On the left you can see what someone's fully restored 2D looks like. I wish my 2D were as pretty, but it works fine just the same. It's the latest in 1920's technology !
The 5x7 Kodak's light weight and folding design makes it great way to carry around. Unlike most folding cameras, the Kodak hybrid design lets you leave a lens on the camera at all times, which makes things easy and fast when setting up.
When maximum portability is required, I use a 4x5 Tachihara Wooden Field Camera (right). It's very light and folds quite small. With its red bellows and brass fittings, it attracts curiosity and draws onlookers like a magnet. Using a 200mm Nikkor M lens, it's a treat to walk around and shoot a wide variety of subjects. You can save time and economize space by leaving the lens on the camera, reversed.
If you would like to see what some other Large Format cameras look like, have a look at this thread entitled Show Off Your Camera on the Large Format Photography Forum. You may be surprised to see how many people use them - and how many different kinds of Large Format cameras exist.
Ultra High Definition At An Affordable Price
| Film Size | Useable Size | Megapixels @ 1600spi |
|---|---|---|
| 4 x 5 | 3.75 x 4.75 | 46 MP |
| 5 x 7 | 4.75 x 6.75 | 82 MP |
| 8 x 10 | 7.75 x 9.75 | 194 MP |
In practical terms, we can get 1600 x 1600 pixels per square inch - which is 2.56 million or 2.56 MP/square inch. A better scanner can get much more, but that's another discussion.
| Film Size | 5X Enlargement |
|---|---|
| 4 x 5 | 20 x 25 inches |
| 5 x 7 | 25 x 35 inches |
| 8 x 10 | 40 x 50 inches |
High-end digital equipment has recently been introduced that competes with these levels of quality - but it is priced for professionals: fashion, wedding, commercial, portrait, architectural photographers who generate a lot of images every year. For the rest of us, even a humble wooden camera is capable of outstanding image quality, on a budget, and requires no periodic upgrade or replacement.
Sample Large Format Images
Here is a photo I made recently with a 1930's Kodak 2D: the detail available from a 5x7 negative is impressive. An 11x14 print is barely a 2x enlargement !
Of course, 5x7 still falls short of 8x10: here's an 8x10 sample image with detail section - made with an 8x10 wooden field camera. It puts the smaller formats to shame. In the photo at the top of this page, Ansel Adams is seen adjusting an 8x10 camera, perched atop his truck.
Here's what some real Large Format prints look like: click here. Remember, they have been down-sized considerably for the web.
Monitor Calibration: Is What You See, What You Get ?
Monitors do not render color and grayscale values correctly. They need to be calibrated, if you are going to make prints with them. Even the best monitors are subject to "drift": their color balance changes over time. Although though they are high-tech electronic devices, they need adjustment, and they need to be re-calibrated on a regular basis.
Most good calibration software can remind you to re-calibrate on some regular basis. Some professional design studios will do it every day. They can't afford to waste the time and materials otherwise.
To calibrate your monitor, use ColorEyes Display Pro software. Not only does it do a superb job at calibration, it lets you adjust the brightness (luminance) of your monitor, to more closely match the properties of your printing paper. Most software won't do that, so you end up wasting time and money. The people at Integrated Color are extremely friendly and helpful !
One reason that Mac is so good, is that they all ship with 2-headed graphics cards, so support for a second monitor is built-in. Not only can you use a second monitor by merely plugging it in, but OS X gives you full native support for calibrating each monitor independently. I use an iMac, and an older Samsung monitor that is actually better in terms of viewing angle and evenness. For general viewing, I use the iMac, but when it's time to make prints, I do my final Photoshop work on the Samsung. Needless to say,
ColorEyes Display Pro supports that all, effortlessly.
OBAs and Metamerism: Bright Papers and Color Shift
In order to make Inkjet photo papers look whiter, manufacturers not only bleach them, they add OBAs: Optical Brightening Agents. When exposed to daylight (which contains UV light), the OBAs luminesce. They emit blue-white light. The brighter the whites, the deeper the blacks look by comparison. Sounds great, no ?
The problem is that under indoor lighting, they don't luminesce, so your images look dull. With less blue, the same image suddenly looks pink. This effect is known as metamerism, or color shift: your print looks different, depending on where you view it. While harmless for family snapshots, it's unacceptable for Fine Art prints. Traditional Silver-based photographs don't suffer from Metamerism - and neither should a good inkjet print.
To make matters worse, OBAs fade over time. Even if the image looked right under daylight, it starts to look wrong eventually. The print you spent so much effort to make, is slowly replaced, so to speak, with something else.
Not all papers have OBAs. Some are made with 100% Cotton Rag, have no OBAs, and exhibit no color shift. I really like
Canson Infinity Museum Quality 100% Rag papers. (Be sure to look for papers which have no OBA's. Canson writes "No Optical Brighteners" right on the front of the box.)
To see how different papers and inks fade and change over time, see Aardenburg Imaging. Mark McCormick-Goodhart is a first-rate scientist and a world class expert in the field of image permanence.
Try This Test Image
Here is an image which will really tell you if your monitor and printer are correctly calibrated and profiled. Click on it to see it
full-sized. The gray portions should look perfectly gray, and you should be able to see all the shades of all the colors. Can you see the purple rocks in the fish bowl ? Is there plenty of detail in the shadows of the sand dunes ? Can you clearly see every shade of gray, even the darkest and lightest steps ?
Now print it on your printer, and see if the final result looks like what you see on your monitor. Ideally, they should match, very closely. If they don't match, then perhaps your monitor is off, or your printer needs to be profiled... Probably both !
Believe it or not, you actually need your own custom profile for every combination of printer/paper/ink that you use. The same ink has a unique response to every different kind of paper - and every printer is unique. They are mechanical devices, subject to variation. Just like musical instruments, they need to be tuned up, all the time.
Printer manufacturers like Epson now make profiles for their own printers/inks/papers freely available for download, and tools like Photoshop allow you to print your images with the profile of your choice. These are not as good as getting your own profile, but they're a great place to start, and you can't beat the price ! It's hard to get things right, even with all the right tools. Without a calibrated workflow, it's almost impossible !
For best results, get someone like CHROMiX to make profiles for you. If you only print with one paper, you only have to get one profile made when you get a new printer.
If you don't want to have a custom profile made, then at least get one of the profiles from the public domain. Thanks to
InkJetArt.com for the test image, which comes from
Bill Atkinson.
Even if your monitor has been recently calibrated, and you are printing with a custom profile for your printer/paper/ink, you may
still end up struggling to match your prints to what you see on your monitor. Why? Because LCD monitors are much brighter than paper, and manufacturers are making monitors brighter with each new generation: 150 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter) or more. For editing photos, we need somewhere around 80 cd/m2.
If you have a light meter, you can see for yourself that standard office illumination is such that a white piece of paper, or a white wall, gives an Exposure Value or EV, between 9 and 10. Actually, EV 9.3 is around 80 cd/m2, so that's good level for digital printing. However, many LCD monitors don't do well at that level: they are designed to be brighter than standard office walls. That's why print imaging specialists don't use consumer-grade equipment. Instead they use monitors like Eizo, which are designed to perform at paper brightness.
Most monitor calibration software will automatically force the brightness all the way up, even if you have it turned all the way down. You can turn it down after you calibrate it, but then what's the point ? Your monitor is no longer calibrated. One solution is to use Color Eyes Display Pro, which lets you set the brightness down as part of the calibration process. It keeps it down, and calibrates the monitor at that brightness.
Here's a nice article on the Shutterbug web site, entitled Are Your Prints Too Dark ? Here's another one, by Pat Herold of CHROMiX. It's called My Printer Is Too Dark and it's on the CHROMiX Color Wiki.
"If you do not set up your system so the white of the paper and the white of the monitor are as close as possible, you will not get a good screen-to-print match." - Pat Herold of
CHROMiX
Color-Managed Web Browsers
Move your mouse over the image to the left. The colors should not change. If the colors remain the same, then your browser supports embedded color profiles. That's good.
If you see a difference, then you're probably using either Internet Explorer, Google Chrome on Windows, or an obsolete version of Firefox. That's bad.
Lesser browsers do not support images which contain embedded color profiles. They should, but no matter what kind of image you view, they present it in the same color space: sRGB. They presume that your image is in that color space. So if you want to post images on the web, be sure to convert your images to sRGB before you post them, because a lot of people still use older browser technology, and Internet Explorer in particular. It may be best to work in that color space from the start, so that you don't have to correct later.
If you're a graphics professional, you know about the importance of "embedded color profiles". With embedded profiles, you specify the color space of your image, confident that whoever sees it, will see the colors exactly as you intended them. It's a standard that has been around for years, but until recently, only certain browsers on the Mac actually supported it. Standards become very important when you want to print your images, or view them on a variety of devices. Business would be impossible without them. If you want to see how this works in practice, have a look at the Web Browser Color Management Tutorial.
Until recently, the only browsers that supported accurate viewing of graphics ran on the Apple platforms: Safari and OmniWeb. Now that Apple has ported Safari to Windows, you can get the same complete viewing experience elsewhere. (Google's Chrome browser uses the WebKit rendering engine, but as of April 2011, has still not provided support for profiles on Windows. It's a nice browser, but on Windows it's useless for imaging professionals.) Firefox supports Color Management, and do does Chrome on the Mac platform.
Favorite Vintage Lenses for Portraits and FlowersNotice the diaphragm in these vintage lenses, and how many leaves they have: The aperture is almost circular at all settings. This helps retain lovely out of focus rendering - something overlooked in many modern lenses. Nowadays, most lenses have only 5, 6, or sometimes 8 blades. When everything in an image is in focus, diaphragm shape doesn't matter. But for portraits and close work, where blurry points of light will appear in the image, having a round diaphragm makes a difference. You can see an example portrait here, and an example photo of flowers here.
A venerated choice of portrait photographers,
Heliar lenses are as tack-sharp as most modern lenses, but when shot at wide apertures, they render out-of-focus regions with a special quality. Designed in the year 1900, the Heliar has slightly exaggerated
bokeh, the Japanese term for "blur". At wide apertures, the design results in un-corrected aberrations. At smaller apertures, those aberrations disappear.
This image nicely demonstrates the unique "signature" of the Heliar. Made on 4x5 film with an uncoated 150 mm f/4.5 Voigtlander Braunschweig Heliar, which probably dates from the 1920's or 1930's, the edges of the rose and the vase fade smoothly into the background. The photo was made with the lens wide-open. When the Heliar is stopped down to smaller openings, it becomes like any other modern lens: sharp, sharp, sharp. Back when Kodak set the standard, many of their best Ektar lenses were based on the Heliar design. (Their Commercial Ektars were f/6.3 Tessars). Here is another example, made with a vintage 210mm Heliar lens on 4x5 film. With Large Format, even 100-year old lenses make razor-sharp images.
Another classic design from the early 1900's, the
Tessar is also very sharp, with smooth blur. Were it not for its limited circle of coverage, there might have been no need for any other design, after the year 1902. Some contemporary lenses are
still modeled on the Zeiss Tessar - including the one in my Sony digital camera. Not bad for someone using little more than a slide rule and a pencil!
I prefer Tessars over Heliars, because the blur they gives is moderate, not exaggerated. Tessars have a smooth, velvety quality which is great for portraits.
Although "Tessar" is the name of a lens design, only certain licensed manufacturers were permitted to use it as brand name. Other companies manufactured similar lenses under different trade names: Leitz Elmar, Schneider Xenar, Agfa Solinar, Rodenstock Ysar, Kodak Ektar, Yashica Yashinon 80mm, and Minolta Rokkor 75mm.
This image shows off the lovely bokeh of the Tessar. It was made on 4x5 film with a 250 mm f/4.5 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar barrel lens, whose diaphragm has 18 blades. Note how sharp the flowers are, compared to the leaves in the background - and notice how the leaves are rendered: it's hard to describe, and it's hard to get this look with many modern lenses. Here is another example, made on 4x5 with the same vintage lens.
For further insights and great photos shot with a wide variety of vintage lenses, see the work of
Jim Galli.
Long Lenses For The Best Blur
Large Format cameras use longer lenses.The longer the lens, the easier to get beautiful blur or bokeh in the background. Large Format photography is really bokeh heaven !
As depth of field diminishes, blur or bokeh increases. It's a reciprocal relationship.
A 50mm lens at f/1.4 has the same depth of field as a 100mm lens at f/2.8, a 200mm lens at f/5.6, and a 400mm lens at f/11. A 300mm lens at f/8 has the same blur as a 150mm lens at f/4 and a 75mm lens at f/2.
These numbers are not affected by film size, sensor size, or shooting distance. They are determined by the laws of Optics. Small cameras have small lenses, which get more depth of field. More depth of field means less blur at the same aperture.
If we are accustomed to think in 35mm terms, it's easy to remember that 4x5 lenses are basically 3x the length of their 35mm counterparts. They have 1/6 the depth of field. A 300mm lens on 4x5 is equivalent to a 100mm lens on 35mm. It will have the same "magnification" or field of view. However, you'll have to stop it down by 1.5 f/stops to get the same depth of field. If not, you'll get 6 times the blur.
Portrait Lenses
Portrait lenses - also known as "Soft Focus" lenses, are designed to produce images with aberrations: blur, glow, diffusion, halos, etc. These lenses were popular in years past, because they soften imperfections in the skin, and render the subject with a pleasant ethereal quality. Jim Galli and others on the Large Format Photography Forum have done extensive shooting with vintage portrait lenses, some of which go back to the 1800's (Read discussion here.) Some of these lenses allow you to control the "softness" by rotating a dial which moves one lens element relative to the another.
There are also modern portrait lenses, such as the Cooke Portrait PS945. It's a wonderful lens that is still being manufactured by Cooke, a venerable name in the world of still and cinema optics. The Rodenstock Imagon and Fujinon SFS are no longer made, and give similar results - but every portrait lens has its own "personality". With these modern designs, uncorrected aberrations diminish as you stop down the lens, so you can "control" the effects by your choice of aperture. Stopped down sufficiently, they behave like ordinary lenses: razor sharp. The Imagon and the Fujinon SFS also come with special filters which modify the look and shape of highlights and halos.
Not everyone is fond of the full diffusion effect. To some, it looks contrived and distracting. However, when opened to just the right aperture, these lenses provide a sublime blur rendition and a very mild "soft focus" effect. Here is a photo made with a 180mm Fujinon SFS lens. Shot at f/9, it shows just a trace of the special "portrait" effect in the highlights.
Here is a set of photos I made using a 9 inch Kershaw Soft Focus lens, provided by portrait photographer Eddie Gunks.
The Sinar Copal Shutter and Barrel-Mounted Lenses
Some of the finest lenses are mounted "in barrel". They have have no shutter of their own: just a diaphragm. Many vintage and modern lenses are
available in barrel. Some are wonderful old portrait lenses. Others are modern process lenses taken from high-resolution engraving machines - like the APO Nikkor series, which are affordable, easy to find, small, light, and razor sharp at all distances. Buying barrel-mounted lenses can save you money, size and weight.
The Sinar Copal Shutter lets you shoot with vintage and barrel lenses. It fits onto the front standard of Sinar cameras, just behind the lens board. You set the shutter speed with the dial at the top. The Copal shutter is self-cocking, and precise exposure times go from 1/60 to 8 seconds. Of course, you can still use lenses that are mounted in a standard shutter if you like: just leave the Sinar Shutter open.
Here's a link to the Instruction Manual for the Sinar Copal Shutter on CameraEccentric.com.
Sinaron DB-Mounted lenses (like the one on the right) are mounted to work directly with the Sinar Shutter. They hook up automatically. You set the aperture, not on the lens, but on a large dial at the side of the shutter. With DB-mounted lenses, you can operate everything from behind the camera: there is no need to walk to the front to close or open anything. No need to cock the shutter, because it is self-cocking. You can preview depth of field by gently squeezing the cable release: Otherwise, the lens stays wide open for best focus and viewing. Pictured at right is a 210mm Sinaron DB, a Sinar-mounted 210mm Rodenstock Sironar-N lens.
Sinar chose Rodenstock lenses for their Sinaron line, but you can mount any lens of reasonable size. I've had George Brown mount several of the lenses I use most often, on Sinar DB boards. This includes a Fujinon 240A and 300A, a 150mm Rodenstock APO Sironar-S, and a 210mm Rodenstock Macro Sironar. George is an excellent resource for Sinar equipment, repairs, and general know-how.
Favorite Monochrome Films
You will love Kodak
TMAX 400 and Ilford
FP4+ and
HP5+ films. These films have long straight response curves, which means they give realistic detail throughout the tonal scale. They also have a very linear response to changes in development time, which makes them easy to use in both high and low contrast lighting.
If you are familiar with the Zone System, this means that they are easy to "expand" and "contract" with changes in development. Ilford offers their film in a wider variety of sizes than Kodak, and at lower prices too. Lately, I use Ilford HP5+.
Tabular grain films like Kodak TMax and Ilford Delta have grain that is flat, or tabular - rather than round. The result is a cost savings for the manufacturer, because a thinner layer of Silver is required. Tabular films require more sensitizing dye, and thus require longer washing times to remove the dye. Traditional films like Tri-X, Ilford FP4+ and HP5+ need less washing, because there is less dye.
Testing Black and White Film
Most people look for the ideal film, or the ideal developer. What they don't understand, is that every film behaves differently, in every different developer. So what we need to explore, are film/developer combinations.
Every film/developer combination has its own personality: effective film speed, contrast, grain, etc. Every photographer has their own water, thermometer, method of agitation. Scanners, enlargers, and lenses all differ. If you work in the darkroom, then your choice of paper and paper developer contribute to the flavor of the final image. If you scan and print digitally, then your choice of printer, paper and ink will give you different results.
For beautiful images, it's important to find out the right developing times of each film/developer combination - using
your equipment from beginning to end. Here's a short article entitled
Testing Black and White Film, based on what I have learned from my teachers, and a few intervening decades of experience. This method is quick and cheap, and doesn't require any fancy equipment.
D-23 has only 2 ingredients, but produces very clean negatives with fine grain, excellent tonal separation, and full film speed.
It's so simple, you can mix it fresh every time. There's no need for a stock solution - nothing to expire on the shelf and surprise you.
Ansel Adam's classic image "Winter Sunrise from Lone Pine, 1944" was developed in D-23.
Click here to read more about D-23 and this lovely photograph.
Divided Pyrocat for Extremely High Dynamic Range
For situations of extreme contrast, Divided Pyrocat HD performs miracles. It's genuine divided developer: developer is absorbed in Solution A, and activated in Solution B. Developer is quickly exhausted in the high values, but continues in the low values. As a result, you scan shoot scenes where the contrast ratio is 14 stops or more, and still retain full definition across the scale.
To learn more about it and see a number of sample images, see this thread on the Large Format Photography Forum. There's another discussion concerning rotary development, here. Mixing instructions can be found on the Pyrocat HD Forum.
Odorless Stop Bath
You can make your own Odorless Stop Bath using Citric Acid. The Kodak SB-8 formula calls for 15 grams per liter, or 1/2 oz per quart. Or you can also use plain water for stop bath if you like. Using an acid stop bath, development is stopped instantaneously. Using water, it is stopped also, just not as abruptly. I use a weak solution of Citric Acid: 1 teaspoon per liter. Citric Acid is very cheap and harmless.
Favorite Fixer
| Ingredient | Stock | Working |
|---|---|---|
| Ammonium Thiosulfite | 800 ml | 160 ml |
| Sodium Sulfite | 60 g | 12 g |
| Sodium Metaborate | 5 g | 1 g |
| Water to make | 1 liter | 1 liter |
If you use a non-alkaline fixer, you can easily make your own washing aid: just use a teaspoon of Sodium Sulfite per liter of water, and toss it when you are done.
According to Anchell and Troop, in The Film Developing Cookbook, Alkaline Fixers have the following advantages over more traditional Acidic formulas:
- Less danger of over-fixing
- Shorter washing times
- More archival
- Greater capacity
- More stable
- Can be formulated to have low odor.
It's safer to make your Fixer fresh, and toss it when done. There's no stock solution, nothing to go bad on the shelf - and no worrying about capacity.
The T-3 Alkaline Fixer formula is intended to be diluted 1+4. Instead of making stock, you can making a working solution by dividing the amounts by 5.
It's fun - and far less expensive - to mix your own chemistry. Many of the
classic formulas are available in books, and on-line at sites like
Jack's Photographic and Chemistry Site.
Favorite Scanner and Printer
You can scan your negatives with an affordable flatbed scanner like the
Epson V750, and the Epson drivers which ship with the scanner. A 4x5 inch negative, scanned at 2400 spi (samples per inch), gives a 115 megapixel image. A 5x7 inch negative, scanned at the same resolution, gives a 200 megapixel file. Is that enough ?
At such high resolution, image fidelity is very good, and the tones are... rich ! Tiny JPG files, viewed on the monitor, just can't convey the feeling. An 11x14 image made from one of these negatives is truly lovely. Here are some larger images, in case you would like to see what some real prints look like: see here. Even these files, have been down-sized for the web.
To get the most out of the Epson scanner, use the Variable Height Mounting Station from BetterScanning. It lets you place the film exactly in the plane of focus. It keeps a space between your film and the scanner glass, and uses special Anti-Newton's Ring glass. For a personal sample of how the BetterScanning holder improves focus compared to Epson's holders, see how I adjusted mine.
I make minor adjustments in Adobe Photoshop, and print on an
Epson R2400 printer. Epson UltraChrome inks are rated to last a long time, when stored or displayed properly. On a truly glossy paper such as Epson Premium Glossy, the image quality rivals the best Silver-based papers you will ever use. On a beautiful 100% Rag paper like Canson Platine, your photos will last longer, and won't be subject to color shift under different lighting.
Graphics professionals know that if your monitor isn't calibrated, "what you see", may not be "what you get". To calibrate your monitors, use an
Eye-One Display 2 with Color Eyes Display Pro software, which you can purchase from
CHROMiX. They have a great newsletter, know everything about digital imaging, and are extremely friendly and helpful.
You Don't Need a Super Computer
A 4x5 image, scanned in 48-bit Color at 2400 spi, gives you a 660 MB file... and that's before you make any adjustments ! If you work with large image files - but don't have a super computer with tons of RAM - here's a great video tutorial from West Coast Imaging. Called the Guide File Workflow, it shows you how to work with a small copy of your image. You perform all corrections as adjustment layers on the small "guide file" version of your image.
The "guide file" can be as small as you like - a tiny fraction of the original size - and your humble machine will have no problem with it. When you are done, you transfer the adjustment layers to the original. With this technique, an older machine with less RAM can still be used for working on scans of 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 negatives.
Sharpening Dark and Light Layers Separately
There are many ways to sharpen an image. Large books have been written on the subject. Here's a simple method that really works well for monochrome as well as color: sharpen the dark and light areas of the image separately.
1. Flatten the image. Duplicate the layer two times. (Windows: CTRL+J Mac: CMD+J)
2. Select the Layer Style of layer 1, and choose the lower end of the scale.
3. Sharpen layer 1 - the dark layer - to taste.
4. Select the Layer Stye of layer 2, and choose the upper end of the scale.
5. Sharpen layer 2 - the light layer - to taste.
You can create as many layers as you like, and sharpen them separately. You can avoid certain areas of the tonal scale if you want. Recommendation: sharpen the low, middle, and high values in 3 different layers.
Favorite Backup Software for Mac
Carbon Copy Cloner lets you schedule tasks to back up your files - from one disk to another - as many disks as you like, as often as you like. Back up all your files, or copy only what has changed. Move a copy of your digital files to a backup disk. Back up your OS X system files to another disk. Copy your large Photoshop files to another disk. I schedule these tasks to run in the middle of the night, while I'm sleeping. It's much better than Apple's TimeMachine. It's shareware: you send a voluntary donation if you like it.
Favorite Tripod and Head
This tripod is neither the largest, smallest, heaviest, or lightest - but the Bogen 3021 BN Pro is an affordable all-around solution for holding up Medium Format, 4x5, 5x7, or 8x10 cameras. It's built strong enough, and light enough. It's not made of carbon fiber, but unless you are a trekker... who cares !
Have a look at the Manfrotto 3275 410 tripod head. It lets you make geared fine adjustments in 3 directions, independently. It's small, light, and strong. It's a treat to make adjustments this way: there is no drift.
Here's a cold-weather tip: wrap some pipe insulation around the legs, and hold it down with some inexpensive duct tape. This will keep your hands warm when you carry the tripod. Pipe insulation is very inexpensive, but you will find this very helpful in winter time. It also helps if you want to carry the tripod on your shoulders: it's soft on the body.
Leveling Head - What a Relief!
A leveling head like the Manfrotto 438 sits between the tripod head and the tripod. It lets you provide a level platform without having to adjust the legs of your tripod. This piece of equipment doesn't weigh very much, but makes life much easier - especially when shooting in the field, where the ground is rarely level.
On the right you can see the leveling head in action. The tripod itself is not level - as the red line shows - but the tripod head is level, because we have adjusted the leveling head beneath it.
With such an arrangement, we can move the 3 gears of the 410 head in any direction we like, and we don't have to correct anything. To adjust the leveling head, just loosen the lever and use the bubble level. It's much faster than changing the length of the tripod legs. If you've tried to work with a tripod that isn't level, you'll appreciate this improvement.
Some photographers buy expensive cases and packs to carry their gear. I prefer a canvas bag and a beverage cooler. The Sinar P folds down small enough to go into the bag, upside down. The Sinar is built like a tank. The only thing it needs, is a carrying strap, and that's what the bag is for. Everything else goes into the cooler, which has a nice sturdy strap to go over your shoulder. The cooler keeps the equipment cool in summer, and warm in winter... How does it know ?
Even more importantly, it looks like a beverage cooler, to anyone who might see it in the car. Some people like to flaunt the name of their camera, as a status symbol. I prefer the safety of my gear looking like nothing more than a case of soft-drinks.
If you look closely, you'll see that the camera has a Sinar Shutter on the front, and a blank home-made wooden lens board to protect the shutter blades. The Sinar Shutter adds very little weight to the camera, all things considered - but makes it possible to use barrel lenses in the field. It's generally the film-holders and large lenses which add bulk to your gear.
Note the pipe insulation on the tripod legs, held on with duct tape. Pipe insulation is very light in terms of additional weight, but vital when shooting in cold weather: it can keep your hands from freezing when you carry the tripod !
Affordable Equipment for Film Development and Washing
Some people purchase expensive custom equipment to wash their film. Nowadays, you can construct your own washer out of inexpensive and widely available materials.
A Dish Rack Film Washer costs only a few dollars. Your film just soaks, in a bunch of standing water. There is no need for a fancy syphon or drain system: Just let the film soak, and replace the water now and then. Save the water, and let diffusion do the work for you. You can use a similar technique to wash roll film too.
Photo trays are great for developing prints, but you can do things better - and cheaper - with items available almost anywhere.
Plastic Food Containers are more affordable, use less chemistry, prevent scratches, and require less room. Once you try them, you will wonder why you ever used traditional "Photo Trays".
1-Degree Spot Meter
You can certainly survive without one if you must, but there's nothing nicer than determining the luminosity value of something small, from a distance, directly. The Pentax Digital Spot Meter lets you directly measure the reflected light from within a 1-degree circle. It makes it effortless to use the Zone System for determining perfect exposure and development with precision and confidence. With an instrument like this, you can measure the bright and dark areas of subjects from miles away if necessary.
Here is a recent example where I was able to measure all the values in spite of difficult lighting: even the light bulb. Since the bulb was was in a shaded area, and the girl was peeking out of the shaded porch, I'm not sure how the values could be easily determined with an incident meter - particularly from where I was standing (behind the camera, at a distance). With a spot meter, it was easy.
It's hard to tell how someone could have metered this distant landscape any other way. Where the camera was standing, the sky was overcast. In the distance, the morning fog was clearing, and light was breaking through the clouds. There was no way to walk up to the distant barn and take a reading. The light where the camera was standing, was entirely different, so you couldn't point a meter at a white sheet of paper, even if you had one. With a 1-degree spot meter at hand, getting the right exposure was trivial and quick - fortunate for me, because the light was changing all the time, and the clouds were moving quickly.
When shooting a subject like
this one, it was easy to meter the individual brightness values of the water, the rocks, and the boats, and make sure they were all correctly exposed to convey a genuine feeling of light, without losing any detail in the low or high values. If I had to give up all my "extra" equipment and use only one lens, I'd want to keep this meter. That's how important it is. To learn more about the Zone System, read
Zone VI Workshop by my mentor Fred Picker, and
The Negative, by his teacher Ansel Adams.
Infra-Red Monocular: Seeing in the Darkroom
Once you start using something like this
ATN Viper Night Vision Monocular, you will have a wonderful time developing, loading, and unloading black and white film in the dark. You can see
everything, without fogging the film. If you're cramped into a small space, there's no chance of knocking things over.
You can perform Development by Inspection (DBI), not in the old fashioned way (where you get only a brief peek under a dim green bulb), but throughout the entire process: development, stop bath, fix, etc. You can do tray development with ease, with far fewer scratches, and with total confidence that things are "turning out right". This tool pays for itself - the first time you use it !
Important Note: As development proceeds, the film looks darker and darker. If you examine only the emulsion side, you will get the erroneous impression that development has proceeded too far, too quickly. To determine development, do not judge the emulsion side. Examine the shiny side of the film. Be sure to practice before risking any important work, and use your darkroom timer too.
There are many kinds of Infra Red Night Vision viewing devices, and this one is simple and affordable. You can get one new from
Optics Plus on eBay - for
much less than list price. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Calumet Shutter Tester
Thanks to Boston-based Architectural Photographer Peter Lewitt, you can see the manual for the Fidelity Calumet Digital Shutter Tester, which is no longer offered by Calumet Photo. The Shutter Tester allows you to test the shutters on a variety of cameras and lenses. Even though it is no longer sold, you can click
here to read the manual. Perhaps you can purchase one on the used market.
If you like to control the visual quality of your photos, and you acquire equipment from others, it's nice to know how close it is to the correct speed.
Polarizer + Yellow Filter for a Natural-Looking Sky
When shooting in Black and White, many people have been taught to use a Red or an Orange filter, to darken the sky and clear the haze. Sometimes, this can be the ideal solution, but rarely. Why ? Because red and orange filters not only remove blue light from the sky: they also darken the
green light in vegetation.
Unless you want a vivid look with ink-black skies, it's better to use a polarizer - and perhaps a weaker filter. With a polarizer, you can control the amount of darkening,
while maintaining a normal balance of colors. It's great for color photography for that reason. If you need even more richness in the clouds, then reach for a medium yellow filter, or a light orange filter, and place it
on top of the polarizer. That's how
this image was made. Note the tones in the grass and the trees: the yellow filter has actually
enhanced the details. If you really want to go all the way, then a red filter, or a red filter + polarizer, will give you the strongest results.
Favorite Modern Lenses for Use in the Field
You will appreciate these lenses for their compact size, light weight, extreme sharpness, and wide circle of coverage. That's what you need for images of landscape and architecture, especially when shooting in the field. This image, taken with a Fujinon 300A (see below) would probably not have been possible with a vintage design, for all these reasons. To include the top of the building, extreme rise was required. Because the lens has such generous coverage, even the lightning rods at the top of the building, are tack-sharp in the negative.
The
200mm Nikkor M is my favorite lens for use in the field. It's very small, and weighs only 180 grams. It comes in a Copal 0 shutter, and takes 52mm filters. Unlike longer lenses, it renders images with only a slight sense of compression and distance.
Lenses don't create perspective or flatness: subject distance does. With shorter lenses, we need to move in closer to the subject. If we move in too close, we get a distorted "wide angle" look. If we step back too far, the subject looks compressed. There's a reason why the most popular focal lengths are of moderate length: they give a "look" which is least contrived and distracting. Here are some pictures made with a Nikkor 200M lens.
Concerning the
Rodenstock 150 APO-Sironar-S, noted lens expert
Kerry Thalmann writes:
Out of all the lenses I own, this is the last one I would ever part with (you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands)
. Many photographers agree that there is something special about this lens. The MTF charts for this line of lenses is quite impressive: click here to see the Rodenstock lens catalog.
This 4x5 image was made with a Rodenstock 150 lens. The tonality and detail is...delicious. As you can see from the detail section, this lens is so sharp, it's crazy ! It weighs only 230 grams, and takes tiny 49 mm filters. Yet, it covers 231 mm - enough to cover 5x7 as a wide lens, and plenty for 4x5 as a normal lens. It does nicely for close-up shots as well.
The
Fujinon 240 A is part of Fuji's "A" series: highly color-corrected lenses which perform superbly at close range as well as distance.
This 4x5 photo was taken with a Fujinon 240 lens. In the 12x15 print, you can clearly see details in the
legs and wings of the fly on the lower right.
It weighs only 245 grams and takes 52 mm filters, yet it has a 336 mm circle of coverage: enough to function as a portrait lens on 4x5, a normal lens for 5x7, a wide-angle for 8x10, and an excellent close-up lens for all 3. This lens is so small, it's a delight to carry into the field, and is ideal for portraits in 4x5. It does nicely for 4x5 landscape too.
Like the others in the A series, the
Fujinon 300 A is a "super-apochromatic" lens, and is remarkably small and light, considering its performance. It has a generous 420 mm circle of coverage. It takes 55 mm filters, and weighs only 410 grams: much less than comparable lenses for the 8x10 format, for which it serves as a
normal lens.
300 mm is my favorite focal length for 5x7, equivalent to a 200 mm lens on 4x5.
When used on 4x5 or 5x7 cameras, it becomes a wonderful longer lens for portraits, and gives tremendous accommodation for view camera movements (Check out this vertical rise). It is also superb lens when used close-up on any format. This lens was discontinued by Fuji, but you can see it listed in this 1981 catalog.
This 4x5 image was taken with the 300A, with a lot of rise. A small section from the top shows plenty of detail, way off-center. This portrait of Richard Ritter was made with the 300A on 5x7. So was this one.
The
Fujinon 450C is a compact lens with long reach and tremendous coverage. Mounted in a Copal #1 shutter, it weighs only 270 grams, takes 52 mm filters, yet covers 486 mm, enough for the 11x14 format. It makes a nice
portrait lens for 8x10, a long lens for 5x7, and it's a very long lens for 4x5, but it's smaller and lighter than most lenses. The 300C is another in the same family: C stands for Compact !
This image was made on 8x10 with a 450C. It tells the whole story.
The
Fujinon 400T is a
telephoto lens for 4x5: even though it gives a 400 mm effect, it requires only 250 mm of bellows draw. It works great on cameras like the Tachihara wooden field camera - which is otherwise limited to 300 mm lenses of "normal" design. Mounted in a Copal #1 shutter, it takes 67 mm filters and weighs 700 grams.
This 4x5 image was made with the 400T, at a great distance from the subject. Here is a detail section of the negative. Here is another one taken with this lens: sharp as a tack. If you want a long lens for 4x5, but your camera has limited bellows extension, then this is a great option.
Shooting Up Close: Macro and Process Lenses
Normal lenses for landscapes and portraits (like the ones above) are optimized for infinity distance, or a ratio of 1:20 or more. For 4x5 film, this means shooting a subject that is roughly 8x10 feet in size or larger. Most lenses are of this type, corrected for shooting at an average distance. For close work, however, normal lenses do not perform at their best.
Process lenses are designed for shooting flat surfaces, at 1:1 magnification. They don't have a lot of coverage, but they are very sharp, and can often be used at infinity when stopped down sufficiently. The Schneider G-Claron, Nikon APO Nikkor, and Rodenstock APO Ronar lenses fall into this category. They generally open to f/9, and are thus comparatively small and light. They are usually available in barrel - without a shutter, because they were designed to work in "process" cameras for photo engraving - and are thus priced lower than other lenses of comparable focal length. If you have a Sinar shutter, you can use them as-is. Some people mount them into a shutter. Here's a photo made with a 150mm APO Nikkor lens. I have mounted it on a cardboard lens board, and use it with my Sinar Copal Shutter.
Their optics are rather simple: 4 or 6 elements in 2 groups, a symmetrical design, with modest coverage - which works very well when shooting straight ahead. This image was made with a 240mm APO Nikkor, at around 1:1 magnification. Because they open to f/9, they can be a little difficult to focus when working at a close distance in dim lighting. For other applications however, f/9 is plenty wide enough: this image was made outdoors, with a 360mm APO Nikkor, on 5x7 HP5+ film. Here is a photo made with a 610mm APO Nikkor, on 4x5 TMY film.
Macro lenses are designed for shooting in ratios of 1:3 through 3:1. They are great for "table top" photography, where you the subject is rather small and close. Macro lenses have a more complex design: more elements, more groups. They are similar to general-purpose lenses, but modified for close shooting. They produce a wide image circle, enabling full use of view-camera movements for control of perspective and depth of field. The Rodenstock APO Macro Sironar, Schneider Macro-Symmar HM, and Nikon Macro Nikkor-AM (ED) lenses fall into this category.
Most Macro lenses open to f/5.6, which makes it easy to view the subject and achieve precise focus at close distances, even under poor lighting. They usually come mounted in a shutter, or like mine, mounted on a Sinar DB lens board. This photo was made with a 210mm Rodenstock Macro Sironar N, at around 2:1 magnification.
Folding Cameras - the Latest in 1950's Technology
If you want a camera that makes large negatives, and yet folds up small enough to fit in your pocket, then the only choice is one of the folders from the 1950's. They lack most of the modern conveniences, but pack the full punch of medium format. They're made of real metal, and are great for traveling, especially if you bring along a small portable tripod.
Many folding cameras were manufactured during this era, by such respected companies as Zeiss and Voigtlander, but in my humble opinion, Agfa seems to have come up with the most attractive design. Hold one in your hands and you'll know: they're the BMW of folders.
These photos were made with my 6x9 Agfa Record II camera, and
these with my 6x6 Isolette.
The Agfa Record produces 6x9 images, and the Agfa Isolette shoots 6x6 on the same 120 roll film. To advance the film, you watch though a little red window on the back, and wind until the next number appears. Then you cock the shutter.
The shutters on these cameras are almost inaudible. Depending on the model, you get manual focus, rangefinder focus, or even coupled rangefinder focus in later versions. Many models have double-exposure prevention, which locks the shutter release until the film has been advanced to the next frame.
Some shutters have built-in self-timers, which are perfect for making exposures with no vibration - and for including yourself in a group portrait. Newer models have flash synchronization, and can sometimes be purchased with original leather case, still in good shape.
Scanning at 2400 dpi with an affordable consumer scanner such as the Epson 4990, a 6x6 image comes to around 25 megapixels. A 6x9 image gives around 40 megapixels. With a dedicated film scanner such as the Nikon Super COOLSCAN 9000 ED, you can get much better image quality, and even more megapixels. The Nikon can scan at 4000 spi, down to the grain of the finest film, and get everything there is to see.
Here is a sample image, taken with an Agfa Record II, with its 3-element 105mm Apotar lens, a classic Cooke-Triplet design. The film is medium-grain TMax 400, and the picture was taken hand-held. The detail section is taken from the whole image, scanned with an Epson 4990 at its setting of "2400 ppi". It has been enlarged to a size of 14x26 inches at 300 dpi.
You can see the screw heads on the sign, even though the photo was taken from a great distance... hand-held ! For best results, use a fine-grained film like TMax 100 or Fuji Acros, place the camera on a tripod or a monopod, and shoot the lens at f/8 or f/11, where it is sharpest. (Most lenses are at their best, when stopped down just a few stops from wide-open).
The top-of-the-line Agfa Record III model came with a better lens, the 4-element coated Solinar, and had its own built-in uncoupled rangefinder. The Solinar lens was designed to give better results for color images, but as this sample photo suggests, even the 3-element coated Apotar on the Record II, is plenty sharp !
A great place to learn more about these cameras is
Medium Format in Your Pocket.
Jurgen Kreckel is the fellow from whom many purchase their folding cameras. He's a great guy, and restores them to perfection. His web site shows a great variety of folding cameras, along with a gallery of sample images taken by the cameras. See
Vintage Folding Cameras
Best Portable Medium Format Cameras
Among Medium Format folders from the 1950's, the camera with the
best optics was the 6x9
Voigtlander Bessa II with Color Heliar lens. Rolleiflex 6x6 cameras of that era had terrific optics, but they were not folding cameras. Add to that the additional enlargement (and subsequent loss of image quality) required for a 6x6 to match a 6x9, and the Bessa was a champion of its day. Even by modern standards, the Color Heliar lens is quite good.
If you want to get the
absolute best optics in a highly portable Medium Format camera, go for the
Mamiya 6 and 7 cameras, which were made in 6x6 and 6x7 formats respectively. They were manufactured right into the 21st Century. The lenses for those Mamiya cameras are among the best lenses
ever made, almost optically perfect ! With an ultra-fine-grained film like TMAX 100 or Fuji Acros (exposed at ISO 50), you can make images of outstanding clarity and fidelity. When scanned at high resolution, these cameras can match the quality of large format.
Considering that the Mamiya cameras come with a built-in light meter and coupled rangefinder focusing, they are really just as portable as their ancestors: the folding cameras of the 1950's. They may not be as... cute as the folding cameras, but with their ability to use longer and shorter lenses, they represent the Summum Bonum of Medium Format.
Here's something wonderful: The new 6x7 Voigtlander Bessa III. It's a modern folding camera - based on the venerable Voigtlander Bessa II shown above - with a coupled rangefinder, a modern Fujinon lens, and 21st century precision. It takes 120 and 220 film, and lets you shoot in both 6x6 and 6x7 format. It folds ! Fujinon lenses are superb. Please purchase two of these cameras: one for you, and one for me :-)
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