Deploying the 4x5 quick and dirty...

[Leonard Evens]

I should add a "quick and dirty" method to use tilt. Just tilt a few degrees, say 3 to 5 degrees. Then focus so the desired plane of focus is not too bad. Then stop down to your desired f-tops and hope for the best.

[Ben R]

Leonard I love the quick method for hyperfocal focusing!

I printed up a tiny Hansma table, it's about 4mm by 20mm laminated and stuck to the camera with double sided tape. My EV table (also laminated, etc) is stuck to the flip up hood and the distance scale to the bed. Works great.

[Joanna Carter]

Thanks Joanna. I already have some Hitech/Formatt ND grads and I think the quality is great. So I was thinking of doing something similar. Not to threadjack, but which size Lee holder and what size filters do you use? All resin, or glass?

Hi Barry, I use the resin filters in 100mm (4") size. Although there are times when I wish I had the odd 130mm to cope with the 72mm XL lens

[Erich Hoeber]

A few things that help me...

I have step up rings on all my lenses, so I can just use one size filter.

Keep your lenses ready to go - preview lever and iris open.

Sometimes instead of a standard dark cloth, I just keep a black T-shirt around my neck, which speeds things.

[Kuzano]

I have discovered over a period of time that there are a number of semi-automatic shortcuts the decrease the time from identifying the subject to capturing the image on film.

1) Setup... never carry the camera or tripod in cases or packs.
2) Setup... neglect to mount the camera securely to the top of the tripod, or
3) Setup... do not lock down the tripod legs securely
4) Setup... unfold the camera but do not tighten down zero settings as a starting point.
5) Setup... forget about movements... ALL of them
6) Setup... Use one lens and lensboard... Forget about selection of other focal lengths.
7) Process... Use the camera on zero settings, one aperture and one shutter speed. Use rough sunny 16... very rough.
8) Process... Focus... fuggedaboudit! it's largely unattainable.
8) Process... Use the smallest aperture, like f128... everything will be in fair focus.
9) Process... If the sun is out use 1/500th, If cloudy use 1/250th. There's bound to be some detail that Photoshop can pull out of the image, somewhere.
10) Process... Dark slides. Interesting.... WhY?
11) Process... Ground Glass viewing and a loupe. Again, WhY? too time consuming.
12) Process... Dark Cloth... I use mine over the bellows to cover the pinholes.
13) Well, I think you see where this is going.

There are a lot of other little tricks I use to shorten setup time and get back in the car and on the road to the next location. Numerous art critics have pointed out that my art is the result of my efforts. I take that in consideration of the source.