Focusing after back swing

[xkaes]

The rear swing, tilt, shift, alter perspective.

Rear swing and tilt alter the perspective, but shift & rise/fall do not. That just moves the film to a different part of the IC -- or vice-versa.

The Depth-of-Focus at the film plane is very narrow -- unlike the Depth-of-Field at the subject. Swinging or tilting the rear standard will quickly move the edges of the film out of the narrow Depth-of-Focus. This is very apparent on the ground glass. To get it back in focus -- if that's what you want -- the front standard is moved back toward parallel with the rear standard.

Re-focusing and stopping down will help, just as it does when tilting or swinging the front standard alone. The difference is that tilting or swinging the front standard does not alter the perspective -- just where the Depth-of-Field lies.

[Alan Klein]

Hello everyone,

probably there are a ton of threads to this topic but I didnt find any via using the search function, so Im sorry for spaming...

I literally took my first LF shot with my new Chamonix F2 and made a photo of my living room.

I used the back standard to swing, so that I transformed the image, that the left of the image would be closer in my composition (because it was too far away and I did want to bring it closer).

What would be the rule of thumb to readjust focus after using the back swing?

Do I have to swing the front standard parallel to the back standard or vice versa? I king of ended up that way, so that I had the left and the right side of the image in focus (after checking it with the loupe)...but Im not sure if I did everyhting correct.


Also Im not quite sure what the difference between the back standard tilt with the (using the black knobs) and asymmetrical tilt (grey metal knobs) is. As far as I see it, the asymmetrical tilt allows tilting without the need to refocus, right?


I think learning by doing is the generel answer, but after doing a vew movements I kind of lost track of my steps and what I need to do next to get to a result where everything is in focus after applying the rear standard swing.

Thanks in advance!

I have a Chamonix 45H-1 that has asymmetrical tilt on the back standard as your camera does. The way I do it is to adjust both standards parallel to each other and plumb. Then I pick a far point on the bottom line where the back standard axis rotates. That line on the ground glass is about 1/4 to 1/3 up from the bottom. The next step is to adjust the back stand to get a near point in focus usually requiring a small forward tilt. Since I focused the rear standard on the asymmetrical axis point, no refocusing of the camera will be necessary.

If the far point is not on the axis line, then I raise or lower the front standard until it is. Then I focus the camera. Once done I return the front standard back to its original position and proceed with picking the near point described in the last paragraph. Make sure the standard are parallel and plumb during this whole procedure or the focus will be off.

Another option rather than raising and lowering the front standard, is to tilt the front standard back a little after focusing the camera. Thats require numerous iterations of going back and forth ith refocusing and is described elsewhere.

[Kevin Crisp]

In my opinion a great truth is that most of the time for landscape photography, you don't need a lot of movements. New users tend to go overboard with movements, and get frustrated by it.

Personally, some front rise is handy and some occasional front tilt. 90% of the time, that's it. But my camera can do so much more.....but it doesn't have to.

[darr]

^^
+1

[xkaes]

I have occasionally needed some back standard adjustment to straighten out some of those pesky, perfectly-proportioned, Ponderosa Pines from time to time, but that's about it.

[Alan Townsend]

[QUOTE=Melissen-Ghost;1676570]Hello everyone,

"Also Im not quite sure what the difference between the back standard tilt with the (using the black knobs) and asymmetrical tilt (grey metal knobs) is. As far as I see it, the asymmetrical tilt allows tilting without the need to refocus, right?"

No, the symmetrical tilt allows that provided you focused on the center of the ground glass, and wanted sharp focus in front of that point above, and behind on the bottom side. So the direction and amount of tilt bring in to focus items that are on a plane that is tilted compared with the film plane. In a room, you might want the floor in focus on the bottom of the photo, and a distant wall in focus at the top. So the back is tilted back enough to do this. You judge how much by looking at the ground glass while tilting. Then stop down to F32 and take the photo.

Alan Townsend

[Ben Calwell]

In my opinion a great truth is that most of the time for landscape photography, you don't need a lot of movements. New users tend to go overboard with movements, and get frustrated by it.

Personally, some front rise is handy and some occasional front tilt. 90% of the time, that's it. But my camera can do so much more.....but it doesn't have to.

I agree.

[Alan Klein]

[QUOTE=Alan Townsend;1700598]

Hello everyone,

"Also Im not quite sure what the difference between the back standard tilt with the (using the black knobs) and asymmetrical tilt (grey metal knobs) is. As far as I see it, the asymmetrical tilt allows tilting without the need to refocus, right?"

No, the symmetrical tilt allows that provided you focused on the center of the ground glass, and wanted sharp focus in front of that point above, and behind on the bottom side. So the direction and amount of tilt bring in to focus items that are on a plane that is tilted compared with the film plane. In a room, you might want the floor in focus on the bottom of the photo, and a distant wall in focus at the top. So the back is tilted back enough to do this. You judge how much by looking at the ground glass while tilting. Then stop down to F32 and take the photo.

Alan Townsend

I believe you;re describing a camera where the axis is in the middle. with Chamonix cameras, the axis is about 1/4 to 1/3 up from the bottom so the focus planes are different.