Large Format Photography Forum FAQ

The purpose of the forum is to provide a place for discussion of topics of particular interest to large format photographers. We especially encourage questions which will help build a repository of knowledge about the tools and techniques of large format photography, as opposed to "shopping" questions. For the purposes of this forum, we define "large format" as being essentially 4x5, or larger, sheet film. We do, however, allow what would otherwise be considered "medium format" sizes, IF exposed in a view camera (e.g. with a roll-film adapter), technical, or old-style press camera (e.g. the various Graphic cameras).

The forum has a long history (in "Internet time") of civil discussions of LF-related topics, even when opinions on a topic differ. Here are a few guidelines that contribute to maintaining the friendly environment:

• The forum is only for questions specific to LF photography (see above).
  General photography questions and questions related to photography with other formats should be asked in The Lounge here, or on other general-photography forums.
• Before you post a basic question to this forum, please make sure you have quickly browsed the LF page, searched the site using the search box on the main page and search the Forum. You will find the answers to many basic questions there.
• Be sure to give a descriptive title to your question. For people searching or browsing the archives, a nonsensical or uninformative subject (like "Oops!", "Read this!", or even "Lenses") just makes it harder for people to find answers to questions.
• Classifieds (for sale or wanted ads) should only be posted in the "For Sale/Wanted" sub-forum, which is open only to those who have been members for 30 days or more. Classified ads are limited to the personal equipment of registered users. Posts by dealers are not allowed. The sales price must be clearly stated in the original post. Auctions are not permitted. Links to other auction sites such as eBay or other points of sale are prohibited and will be deleted without notice. Please prefix all post titles to indicate intent: "WTB", "FS" , "FT" (for trade), etc. Use of the "For Sale/Wanted" section is completely at your own risk. Readers of "For Sale" posts should refrain from intruding on the thread by making negative comments about the item or the price being requested. Doing so is rude, and thus in violation of general forum guidelines.
• Profile "signature" content - While it is OK to include a simple link to your personal (preferably LF-related) Web site in your profile "signature", please do not include descriptive text that might be interpreted as an advertisement of whatever services or products you might provide. People who register for the purpose of publicizing links to non-LF sites will be banned and the posts deleted.
• Links to published articles - Direct links (i.e. not through index pages that contain promotional text or blatant advertising) to on-topic published articles are OK to post, as long as those pages are freely available to all (i.e. no paid subscription required), and do not require further contact with the poster to gain access.
• When posting links to material on other web sites, please provide a link to the material, not the home page of the site. Repetitive postings of links to other discussion boards are not appropriate.
• Do not post test messages. If you want to participate, just go ahead and post a question. You can use the "Preview Post" button to see what the post will look like.
• Maintaining Forum Decorum. To have a healthy and informative forum, it's essential that participants maintain a respectful and professional decorum. Name calling, personal attacks, character assassination, coarse or inappropriate language, or enticing/baiting others to violate forum guidelines will not be tolerated here. Generally speaking, in responding to a posting, try to respond only to the content of the thread and not to the individual.

  Our moderators are volunteers and are not able to constantly monitor threads throughout the day. If you find a post offensive, please notify the moderator group by clicking the icon at the lower left of the offending post, or through the "Contact Us" link at the very bottom of the page. This is the only accepted way to report posts.

• Conferences, Workshops, Books and Gallery Openings - Announcements of conferences, LF-related trade shows, workshops, book releases and gallery openings may be posted to the Announcements sub-forum (one per event only, please).
• New products and services - Announcements of new products and services of specific interest to large format photographers may be posted to the New products and services sub-forum. Promotional posts (as defined below) require moderator approval.
• Other Commercial Posts - Except as noted in the two entries above, other "promotional" posts promoting your own business enterprise, or one to which you are financially connected (e.g. owner, employee, contractor), are not allowed.
• Your Responsibilities - By accessing this site, you agree:
  • to keep your posts on-topic and civil, and
  • not to abuse other site users - including posting offensive comments (like personal attacks or insulting language), sending them threats, unsolicited bulk email or commercial solicitations, or baiting/enticing them to violate forum guidelines.
• Reports about buyers and sellers - Any reports about the outcomes of transactions with providers of products and services to large-format photographers must be made in the "Buyer/Seller Advisories" sub-forum. The purpose of this sub-forum is to provide a service to large-format photographers who need to know whom to trust in a small market. All posts in other forums complaining about specific transactions will be moved to this forum, and repeated mispostings by a person may result in moderator action. Threads in the Buyer/Seller Advisories forum must be:
  • Factual
  • Unemotional
  • Related only to what actually happened. Comments about the character or honesty of the person described will be deleted without notice, and repeated negative personal comments will result in moderator actions. Remember, personal attacks and abuse to other site users is not allowed on this forum. Demands for action are also not appropriate anywhere on the Large Format Photography Forum, and will be removed. The LFPF does not provide any mechanism for seeking resolution of an unsatisfactory transaction--resolution must be pursued outside the forum. This sub-forum is for simple reports of outcomes of transactions here and elsewhere. If the transaction occurred elsewhere, then it must involve transactions of products or services relevant to the large-format community.
• Posts that fall outside the guidelines are subject to deletion. Participants who repeatedly violate the guidelines can have their right to participate suspended or permanently revoked at the sole discretion of the moderators. The decisions of the moderators are always final, even if they are wrong.

The forum is organized into sub-forums, similar to the "categories" of the old text-based LF Forum. Posts can be viewed either within the sub-forum hierarchy or through a "unified view" that shows the individual posts of the last 30 days in the sequence of most-recently modified. The sub-forums include:

Site-related Forums

News - Announcements and news about the LF Photography site, including home page articles, Forum changes and downtime. Only moderators can start new threads, but registered users may add posts to existing threads.

Feedback - Questions and answers about the LF Photography Home Page and Forum.

LF-related Forums

Announcements - Non-repetitive announcements about gallery openings, new books, trade shows, specific workshops, etc. (See also "Resources" below.)

Business - Business aspects of LF photography, including legal, marketing and promotion.

Cameras & Camera Accessories - Large format cameras of all types and sizes. (Note: lenses and lens accessories have their own sub-forum.)

Darkroom Equipment - All about darkroom hardware: enlargers, lenses, easels, exhaust fans, etc.

Darkroom: Film, Processing, and Printing - Traditional film, film processing, lab processing, chemistry, paper, traditional printing processes and conservation.

Digital Hardware - Large format digital hardware (cameras, backs, scanners, printers, etc.)

Digital Processing - Software, printing, and workflow issues related to digital image processing and printing.

Gear - Questions about photographic accessories (not lens or camera body accessories) like tripods, bags, meters, etc.

Lenses & Lens Accessories - Discussions about Large Format Lenses & Lens Accessories

LF DIY (Do It Yourself) - discussions of how to build, restore or repair large format cameras and equipment or accessories for handling large format negatives (4x5 and larger).

Location & Travel - Discuss questions about places to photograph, including conditions in transit and how to travel with equipment.

On Photography - Discuss aesthetics, philosophy, history, photographers and photographs.

Resources - Labs, education, general workshops, services, stores and places to find information on LF photography. (Note: individual workshop announcements should be posted to the "Announcements" section, while a general workshop venue resource would be posted here - once.)

Style & Technique - For questions about exposure, meters, Zone system, or advice on photographing specific subjects.

Community

For Sale/Wanted - Open only to members registered for at least 30 days. Classified ads are limited to the personal equipment of registered users. Posts by dealers are not allowed. The sales price must be clearly stated in the original post. Auctions are not permitted. Links to other auction sites such as eBay or other points of sale are prohibited and will be deleted without notice. Please prefix all post titles to indicate intent: "WTB", "FS" , "FT" (for trade), etc. Readers of "For Sale" posts should refrain from intruding on the thread by making negative comments about the item or the price being requested. Doing so is rude, and thus in violation of general forum guidelines.

Unsatisfactory transactions from threads in the the "For Sale/Wanted" sub-forum may be reported using ONE post that states the following: "Unresolved issue with _______ on this sale." It must be reported in the specific thread in which the item was offered, and must not provide further details.

Buyer/Seller Advisories - Any reports about the outcomes of transactions with providers of products and services to large-format photographers must be made in the "Buyer/Seller Advisories" sub-forum. The purpose of this sub-forum is to provide a service to large-format photographers who need to know whom to trust in a small market. All posts in other forums complaining about specific transactions will be moved to this forum, and repeated mispostings by a person may result in moderator action. Threads in the Buyer/Seller Advisories forum must be:

• Factual
• Unemotional
• Related only to what actually happened.

Comments about the character or honesty of the person described will be deleted without notice, and repeated negative personal comments will result in moderator actions. Remember, personal attacks and abuse to other site users is not allowed on this forum. Demands for action are also not appropriate anywhere on the Large Format Photography Forum, and will be removed. The LFPF does not provide any mechanism for seeking resolution of an unsatisfactory transaction--resolution must be pursued outside the forum. This sub-forum is for simple reports of outcomes of transactions here and elsewhere. If the transaction occurred elsewhere, then it must involve transactions of products or services relevant to the large-format community.

The Lounge - An area for off-topic (non-LF, but preferably photography-related) discussion and socializing. Topics and discussions of politics and religion are not allowed, here or elsewhere on the forum, and the forum's general behavioral standards apply here, too.

Introductions - An area to introduce yourself to the other forum members.

Groups & Meetings - Information & questions about organized LF groups & unofficial meet-ups.

New Products - Forum for announcements of a commercial nature from approved vendors. Posts are "moderated" - meaning they must be approved before they display on the forum. Once posted, registered users are free to ask questions or discuss the product announcement in a manner consistent with general forum guidelines.

You can post a new thread by simply going to the LF Forum home page. Find the sub-forum that best fits your question. Be sure to read the forum descriptions.

Click on the sub-forum where you want to add your question. In the thread list click on the "New Thread" button that can be found near the top and bottom of the page. You'll be presented with a standard editing form to enter your question.

For posting pictures:

There are three methods to post pictures.

1. Upload and store the picture on the forum, when creating the message that will display it.
2. Store the picture on your own site or server, reachable by IP address, and then link to it.
3. Store the picture on a third-party picture storage site, such as Flickr and Photobucket, and then link to it. (We do not provide instructions for this method because each hosting service is unique and they change unpredictably. The stuff related to this forum is provided in Method 2.)

Instructions follow:

Method 1. Uploading and Storing the Picture on the Forum.

a. Create and store the picture as a "JPG" or "JPEG" file on your computer, to be no larger than 250K. The forum will resize the longer dimension of your picture 750 pixels if it is larger, so if you size it that way to begin with, you won't suffer resizing errors that the forum software sometimes causes. BMP, GIF, and PNG files are also accepted, but limited to 150K and must fit within a 650-pixel box to avoid resizing. JPEG is preferred.

b. Then, when creating a post, click the picture icon on the icon bar right above the text entry box, which will read "Insert Image" when you mouse over it. That will bring up a Insert Image dialog box that will have two tabs. Click the tab that says "From Computer". Then, click the "Select Files" button at the bottom of that dialog box. That will bring up your operating system's typical file selection dialog. Navigate to the image file you created in Step A above. Click "Open". That will add the file to the file list in the Insert Image dialog box.

c. You may click "Select Files" again to select another image. You may upload as many as four images in any one post.

d. When you have finished selecting images, then click "Upload File(s)". You may also "Clear List" and start over.

e. Add whatever additional text you want to your message, and click "Submit".

The images will be stored on the Large Format Photography Forum server. A thumbnail that fits in a 150-pixel box will be displayed in an image attachments box, and forum readers can click on the thumbnail to open a picture viewer window.

Method 2. Store the Picture on Your Own Site or Server.

If you have server space or your own website, and your picture can be reached from the general internet, then you won't be subject to as many restrictions as when storing the picture on the forum.

a. Create and store the picture as a "JPG" or "JPEG" file. There are no size limitations, but please respect others, and size pictures not to exceed normal viewing screens. And by more normal viewing screens, we don't mean your 1920x1280 wide-screen, but rather my 1280x900 laptop display. Fitting within an 800-pixel box is a useful maximum size.

b. Following the instructions provided by your web hosting service for your site or server space, upload the picture there. It must be stored in a place that allows a direct link to the actual jpg file, which should look like: "http://YourServerURL/YourPictureFile.jpg" For example, a URL to a picture on the site of one of the moderators looks like this "http://www.rickdenney.com/Island/stairs_lores_bw.jpg".

c. Then, when creating a post, click the picture icon on the icon bar right above the text entry box, which will read "Insert Image" when you mouse over it. That will bring up a Insert Image dialog box that will have two tabs. Click the tab that says "From URL". That will provide a single line entry box for a URL. Enter the entire URL, from "http://..." to "...jpg", as shown in Step B, inside that box.

d. UNCHECK the box that says "Retrieve Remote File and Reference Locally". If that box is checked, it will move the picture file to the Large Format Photogaphy Forum server, subject to all the restrictions in Method 1. (For more advanced posters, it is possible to use this method, with the box checked, to include attachments inline in the text of your message, and still store the picture on the forum servers. But they will still be shown as thumbnails.)

e. Click "Okay".

Alternate Steps:

a. Insert image tags directly by adding the following text to your messages:

[img]http://YourServerURL/YourPictureFile.jpg[/img]

Putting the complete URL to the picture inside IMG tags will cause that image to display within your message. This approach works no matter where the image is stored, including on third-party image hosting sites, though you must follow their instructions to determine what the image tag contents should be.

The Announcements is intended for announcements of conferences, workshops, book releases, gallery openings, and the like. Regular participants may post announcements of these events (one thread per event only, please), and then respond to any questions within that thread. Reviews of the event may also be posted to the thread. If important aspects of the event change, simply post a follow-up response, and the event will cycle back to the top of the recently-modified threads. (One update/month only, please.)

Additionally, an entry for the Calendar may be submitted through the Calendar tab at the top of the forum menu, if appropriate. That entry should be limited to the event name and location.

Information that you include in your profile may be viewed by other members. Your email address, however, is not directly accessible. In order to facilitate communication between users, the forum provides for both forum-delivered e-mails and PMs (private messages) that reside only on our server. We do not, however, provide any of this information to external parties for any commercial purpose. By accessing a user's email through this web site, you agree not to use that address for commercial solicitations, or for sending bulk email.

By submitting materials to this site, you you are representing that are you are the owner, or are authorized by the owner to do so. As a consequence, all the material posted in this site is assumed copyrighted by their respective authors, and shouldn't be reproduced without permission and proper credit by any means, including framing. The site doesn't claim copyright to any material submitted by readers. However, by submitting materials to this site, you grant a revocable royalty-free licence to the maintainers of this site to publish that material on the largeformatphotography.info site. No other rights are granted, and this licence might be terminated at any time by written request of the owner. The site will not use your materials without proper attribution to you, nor will it edit them in a way that would misrepresent your intent.

In a word, no. By accessing the site, you agree not to hold responsible the site maintainers for anything that happens as a consequence of your use of the site. In particular, the site maintainers do not endorse or make any statement about the content posted by readers. They might not be even be aware of some material posted by readers. They reserve the right to edit or remove entirely your submitted materials from the site without notice.

The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) of 1998 amended U.S. copyright law in order to allow online service providers to limit their liability for information residing at the direction of a user on a system that the service provider controls.

largeformatphotography.info, in providing a server, network bandwidth, storage, and a public posting area as a forum, is a service provider within the meaning of DMCA. Any person who submits content to the largeformatphotography.info posting areas is a user. largeformatphotography.info claims the limited liability afforded by DMCA, and provides the following information.

As required by DMCA, largeformatphotography.info has designated an agent authorized to receive claims of copyright infringement, initiate takedown, receive counter-claims, and initiate restoration as appropriate. largeformatphotography.info has registered this agent with the U.S. Copyright Office and advertises the existence of the agent through a link on every page of its forum, which is its primary posting area.

All claims of copyright infringement should be forwarded to the DMCA Agent in writing by letter or email, and should contain specific information identifying the infringement and other information required by DMCA. Please note that email is not as reliable a method of communication as postal mail, so if you don't receive a response to your email please write by postal mail.

Upon receiving your claim, the agent will investigate the claim and take appropriate action. The Agent also will receive counter-claims from users whose postings have been alleged to be infringing.

The agent is identified below:

DMCA Agent
Quang-Tuan Luong
3159 Ravenswood Way
San Jose, CA 95148

To send the DMCA Agent an e-mail, please use the e-mail facility provided via the "Member List" tab at the top of the forum interface.

This forum was started in 1997, by Quang-Tuan Luong, using server, bandwidth, and forum software (Lusenet) provided generously for free by Philip Greenspun to the internet community. Since then, the forum moved to a new server, and migrated to software written by Tom Westbrook. We have now migrated to using the vBulletin forum management software. Additional historical information is available on the site's main page.

Moderators: current forum moderators include Ralph Barker, Rick Denney, Kirk Gittings, Ken Lee, and Neil Poulsen. The moderators can be reached en masse here.

Forum Technical Guru: - Tom Westbrook

Special thanks to Brian Reid, who provides the server space and bandwidth for the forum; to Bjorn Nilsson, who wrote an intermediate version of the software; and to the following, who helped test the previous software we used: Sal Santamaura, David A. Goldfarb, James Phillips, Saulius Eidukas, David Karp, Huw Evans, Matt Oulman, John Nanian, Jeffrey Goggin, Jorge Gasteazoro, Steve Hamley, and Skip Abadie.

The Large Format Photography Forum ("the board") requires users to supply their real name, email address and date of birth in order to complete registration.

The date of birth is only used to comply with US Federal COPPA (Child Online Privacy) law.

Your name is used only to identify users if they choose to use another name as their publicly visible user name on the board. The name is accessible only by the board's moderators.

You can choose to hide your age and date of birth in the User control panel settings (see "My Settings" link). We collect and verify your email address so we have a alternative way to communicate with our users.

Your email address is never visible to other users unless you choose to make it visible--the moderators urge you to keep your email address private. We have a Personal Mail system you can use to communicate with other members which does not expose your email address to the recipient.

No user information is or will be shared with third parties without the permission of the user.