Achieving selective focus stopped down

[Robclarke]

Hi I have just taken a photo where I was using front and rear swing to get selective focus with the sides blurred. It looked great on the ground glass but I then stopped down to f32 to get a long exposure to blur any passing cars. However I have just realised that this might negate the selective focus effect. I was using max swing with a linhof master technika and a 80mm lens. Does anyone know if I will still get the selective focus effect of will depth of field be too large? Thanks Rob.

[jp]

You'll want to either use slower film or ND filters to get the aperture you want.

[Robclarke]

Yes you are right I see this now having made the mistake. I am still interested if any one knows if I will still get some selective focus effect at f32?

[Jac@stafford.net]

Yes you are right I see this now having made the mistake. I am still interested if any one knows if I will still get some selective focus effect at f32?

Rob, the best thing to do is to process the film so you have solid evidence of the outcome.
.

[jp]

My opinion is that you have to shoot a lot of film (perhaps 100 sheets or ten outings) to get a feel for what a lens will do at different apertures and different scenes.

[Tim Meisburger]

It depends on the distance from the focus point of the surrounding objects. If you were in a room or enclosed space its possible that stopping down will include those things in the enlarged depth of field, rendering them sharp; but if they are distant they should still be out of focus.

[ic-racer]

The nice thing about view camera photography is that you can immediatley see exacty what the film sees. What did you see on the ground glass? Maybe you need a better focus cloth.

[soeren]

Or just develop that sheets asap and see how it looks :)

[Tim Meisburger]

Yes, if you stop down to the taking aperture WYSIWYG, more or less. f/32 might be difficult to see, but maybe not.

[Ted R]

here is the basic depth of field calculator for the film format and lens of your choice http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

as I understand it the use of swing will dramatically change the distribution of blur, but the blur due to DOF cannot be less than the values given by the DOF calculator for 4x5 80mm f32 at the focus distance in use.

PS On second thoughts the swings make such a big difference that all bets are off, the focused image on the ground glass is the only guide.

[Drew Wiley]

What you see on a groundglass is basically what you get. If the image gets to dim stopped down, use a modest magnifier to check the details. But I'd suggest just
getting out in a garden or park on a relatively sunny bright day and just spending a lot of time looking through that groundglass with your lens of preference, and
getting accustomed to it at various distances and apertures, before unnecessarily burning a lot of film. I see zero use for depth of field calculators. They are just
an aid for hypothetical focus, which takes into account neither the effect of tilts and swings, nor how the image looks aesthetically, which is the whole point anyway.

[DrTang]

oh...for the want of polaroid sheet film