Altering a Format

[Renato Tonelli]

Cropping the top of the ground glass vs. the bottom.

I would like to alter the composition on my 4x5 to a less 'boxy' composition.

Am I correct in assuming that it is preferable to crop the top of the ground glass?
I will be shooting landscapes, trees, structures such belltowers.

[John Kasaian]

Why not race a line or lines with a grease pencil on your gg to act as a guide when composing? Or better yet, get a hold of a 5x7 back?

[Renato Tonelli]

Funny you should mention 5x7; that's exactly what I am planning to do - as soon as I finish approx. 1000 sheets of 4x5:rolleyes: .

[Doremus Scudder]

Renato,

Assuming that the quality of the lens is best in the center and then degrades toward the edges (and that is a general assumption that is not valid for all lenses), then it would make sense to crop that part of your negative that is closest to the outside edge of the image circle. With the lens in "zero" position, it would be ideal to divide the crop on both sides of the desired image. However, if you use rise, then you should, theoretically, crop the top. Unfortunately, unless you use more rise than you need, this will counteract the movement...

I crop my images routinely. For me, the world doesn't come in 4x5-inch packages; every image requires its own dimensions. I try to use the center of the image circle as much as possible. For example, if I want a "panorama" format from 4x5, I try to crop both top and bottom. And, I try to "overuse" movements to keep the cropped image nearest the center of the lens projection (which may be off-center on the ground-glass, depending on the movement(s) I'm using.

I don't mask my ground glass, but have been known to cover up parts of it with fingers, etc. to help visualize. Usually, however, I have a pretty good idea of the cropping I want and I just try to make sure that the image is well withing the borders on both sides of the crop. I then deal with the cropping in the darkroom.

If you are after a composition tool, maybe a simple viewing frame will help. Just cut one out of black mat board in the dimensions you like. It can be quite small; the one I have has just a 4x5 cm opening. I can easily hold fingers or the like over an edge to change aspect ratios when visualizing.

Best,

Doremus Scudder

[ic-racer]

Cropping the top of the ground glass vs. the bottom.

I would like to alter the composition on my 4x5 to a less 'boxy' composition.

Am I correct in assuming that it is preferable to crop the top of the ground glass?
I will be shooting landscapes, trees, structures such belltowers.

If you have a camera without front rise/fall, then cropping out the top [of the subject] gives 'fall' and cropping out the bottom [of the subject] gives 'rise.'

[dave_whatever]

If you've got rise/fall then it doesn't really matter where you crop, because you will always be able to zero the lens on the film area you're using. If you've got a hard detent at zero rise which you want to continue to use, then just crop off both the top and bottom equally.

[Renato Tonelli]

I do have rise/fall and last night I found a couple of boxes of Polaroid film (I highly recommend Spring cleaning); a little experimentation is in order as soon as I have some free time.