Just a little crop talk

[Michael Clark]

The Good doctor has a point!!

just carting the stuff around makes it so

[Deval]

I think as long as cropping is identified and not egregious, it shouldn't be a big deal. Relative tonality, i think, would be different even on a 4x5 cropped to 6x9 than a natural 6x9 because development/metering usually takes into account the entire frame not just the cropped area(but I'm not 100% sure on that point).

+1 on what Dr. Tang said, large format is a lot more than just about what size film is on the back plate...its about the process involved.

I think it would be helpful sometimes to include a non-cropped version to understand why the photographer left out the rest of the frame so that we can add to often lacked discussion part of Images Sharing and Discussion sub-forum.

[Tin Can]

if you stuff 4x5 film into a holder.. it's LF even if you end up using a 16mm frame size of it


that's what I think

just carting the stuff around makes it so

And didn't scientific users of LF film crop to tiny in order to focus on the important part of an image. Still LF.

Cropping is one reason to use big film or big pixels.

Let the artist decide...

[Peter Lewin]

I think its worth taking a step back, and asking what the point of this forum is. As I understand it, it is to bring together a community of people who enjoy using view cameras, and are involved in the process from image making through presentation. If my understanding is correct, the amount of cropping needed for the final presentation is irrelevant, as long as one has gone through the "large format process."

[Jmarmck]

I agree with DrTang.
If I had the need to do a 2:1 or greater crop of a 4x5 because it is a much more appealing image, I would hate to have it disqualified from what it really is. Besides, as Randy said, using LF and cropping is part of the point.