camera moves

[drums1977]

Hi everyone,

I am a beginner in large format, an I have 2 questions about camera moves that, I think, might be quite basic. Here they go, I hope you can help me:

1. This is the scenario, I am photographing a tall building (about 10 floors) from its base. The whole of it is in the screen. I tilt the back standard to "correct" perspective. The width difference between the bottom and the top of the building is reduced. The back is tilted but NOT VERTICAL. Now, I would like to achieve sharp focus on the whole surface of the building, I suppose I should tilt the front standard also following the Scheinflug principle, is that correct?

2. Same scenario, but I tilt the back in order to correct the building perspectiv completely, which means the back standar is VERTICAL, paralell to the building surface. Because of thet wo surfaces being paralell, the Scheinflug principle cannot be applied. If I want complete focus of the surface, should I tilt the front so it's fully vertical too?

So, in general, the question would be: If I tilt/shift the back standard in order to correct perpective completely (so it is completely paralel to the surface of whatever I am picturing), should the front standard be moved into the same position as the back in order to acieve focus on the whole object plane?

Thank you very much in advance!!

J.

[lenser]

The final question is the appropriate one for a tall building and your assessment is correct. Both the front and the rear standards should be parallel to the building when you wish the building sides to remain parallell. No need to apply the Scheimflug principal in this usage, only front rise to be sure that you include all of the building, but beware of the coverage of your lens. Even some wide angle lenses have limited image circles and you may get vignetting as the rise is applied. Backing up (if possible) will get you far enough away to correct this coverage problem.

If your front rise is limited and you find that you need to tilt the entire camera upward, then return the front and rear standards to their normal 180 degree vertical position (relative to geography, not to the camera bed or rail) to be back at parallel to the building and then apply rise as needed.

In architectural shooting, you may encounter a use for the Scheimflug principle when shooting long and low level buildings that recede from the camera and then you might wish to apply swings to the camera to keep the entire receding line of the building in the plane of focus. This applies Scheimflug around the horizontal axis instead of the vertical. Here again however, the front and back standards need to stay vertically parallel to the building for the vertical plane to avoid keystoning.

Try to find a copy of Steve Simmons "Using the View Camera" for excellent explanations of all view camera movements and applications.

[Joanna Carter]

Don't forget that, for very tall buildings, not tilting the camera back a little can induce an illusion that the building is wider at the top than at the bottom.

[drums1977]

Thank you so much! I just got a e-copy of that book. I hope my next tests come out right...