Why do you like Large Format photography? (Philosophy Talk Time)

[Mr_Toad]

All,

My apologies if posted before, but planning a vacation has me pondering.

Question: What is it about Large Format photography that makes you do it? It's not convenient or fast or inexpensive or discrete or any number of things...yet you keep going back....

Caveat: And no, I don't mean in terms of technical debates of LF versus 35 mm or digital, blah, blah, blah...

Example: While taking a Monument Valley 4x5 image some years back, I remember the extensive time I spent composing, setting up, adjusting, deciding, focusinj, bracketing...all while a dozen families zoomed by only to fall out of a rental car, snap-snap-snap-snap, fall back in the car, and off they go without have spent even a minute really seeing the landscape while they are physically a part of it. Each time I now see the resulting print on the wall, it's not just an image I see.. but all the memories I recall from that experience. (...and the cigarette butts I removed from the foreground, so okay I cheated and cleaned the image.)

Thanks!

Robt.

[Vlad Soare]

Here are the reasons why I got into large format, ordered from the most important to the least:
1. Perspective correction
2. Individual development of every frame
3. Focus plane adjustment
4. Thick and stiff negative - works with glassless carriers better than smaller formats do
5. Big negative

...and the reasons why I sometimes want to quit doing it and to return to my RB67, also from the most important to the least:
1. Dust
2. Dust
3. Dust
4. Doesn't work with moving subjects
5. Price of film

[Mr_Toad]

Thanks, Vlad!

But may I follow-up by asking... are there aspects of the Large Format photographic or artistic experience that you like?

Not to challenge your post, but I'm asking that folks to move away from the technical pros and cons of the equipment, and over to what the actual image capture experience and end product means for them. ...or however they could describe it.

I guess I'm failing to get my point across.....

[Vlad Soare]

Yes, I do like the slowness and the contemplative approach, but this is something I can always achieve with the RB67. I use my RB67 in the same manner, and not in point-and-shoot mode, so my switching to large format hasn't changed a thing in this respect.
So, even if I do like the way of seeing and shooting in large format (slow and methodical, that is), I don't find it to be an intrinsic property of large format, and it's not in itself a reason to shoot large format. Not for me, at least.

A good thing about LF is that it forces me to think and to work methodically, while with smaller formats I must fight against a certain tendency of sloppiness. For instance, with my RB67 I often find myself thinking "oh, to hell with that tripod, I'll just shoot handheld this time".
But in most cases I'm able to overcome this impulse and to work with the Mamiya as slowly and methodically as with the 4x5 camera. Besides, I'm not even sure this is specific to large format in general. Give me a Crown with an accurate rangefinder, and I might start point-and-shooting.

[Vaughn]

LF (now 8x10) just happens to be the vehicle that allows me to learn about, and improve my ability to see, light. Part of that is the tight connection between what I see, how I can distill that onto the ground glass/film, and then how it is recreated into a "straight" alt process print.

While some of it is tied to the general experience of the time of the photograph, it is more about how I experienced the light at that time. This comes from a simple realization I had many years ago while taking a photo class from a incredible individual. It was not something he directly taught, but all of a sudden I realized that we do not see objects, but instead the light reflecting off objects. From there I walked through the landscape seeing forms the light can create, seemingly independent of the actual objects reflecting the light.

So from that moment (actually a gradual change I suddenly reconized) some 28 years ago, I have been wandering through the landscape enthralled and mystified by the light...using a LF camera and film to encourage my mind's eye to explore this light and making prints as a way to hone what I learn and to share what I have learned with others.

LF is just the best tool I have found to do this.

Vaughn

[Vlad Soare]

Another thing I like about LF, which may marginally relate to the artistic experience you're talking about, is that everything is mechanical and manual. I just love to be able to make all the decisions myself, so that in the end I can look at a photograph and say "I made this. It looks good thanks to my experience and patience, and not to a computer chip".

However, this is not intrinsic to large format. The RB67 is fully manual and fully mechanical, and even in 35mm I only use all-manual, fully mechanical cameras. So this wasn't a reason to go into large format, at least for me. I can always get the same feeling with smaller formats, too.

[ljsegil]

I am a relative newbie to LF, and derive much more pleasure from it than other formats. I think it is the challenge, from seeing before me an image that may potentially compose well on the ground glass, manipulating the camera to best create that image (and no other format is both as difficult and as rewarding as a view camera for this purpose, other formats can produce beautiful images but not with all the potentialities allowed by the movements and film choices permitted by an LF view camera). For me the need to continually learn and improve my technique adds a great deal of satisfaction to the previously simpler act of shooting a picture. Of course the primary reward is an image that pleases me, usually not obtainable by any other photographic technique and superior in quality to what I could have previously achieved. But the simple acts of recognition of an image, acquisition of the image, and ultimate viewing of the image through the challenges presented by the use of LF seem to have recreated photography anew for me, and for that I am very grateful (rudimentary darkroom skill acquisition will be the next addition to the challenge and excitement of LF that no other format would have taken me to).
Ultimately, it simply comes down to that fact that for me LF creates new fun in photography because of the simultaneous challenges and potentials opened up to my (hopefully) growing craft. For my next trip I will be schlepping my full 5x7 kit, and leaving behind my digital, 35mm, and MF kits, even though my results are more reliabe with the latter equipment, because using the 5x7 just gives me a pleasure (while risking the end results) that I do not find shooting the other formats. Given my current skill level, the 5x7 is the riskier proposition (and certainly more troublesome to transport, more isolating from those around me as no one goes on a casual walk to photograph with an LF photographer), but worth the risk for the pleasure to be derived (and hopefully some further, albeit likely small, increment in skill) from the shooting. And with luck, the results will ultimately also justify the extra effort, though at my stage this is actually a secondary goal to simply shooting more LF, whatever the results.
Best,
Larry

[Walter Calahan]

I love 8x10 because it slows me down.

I love the ground glass of an 8x10 because it is a window, not a viewfinder.

I love 8x10 because I meet so many nice people while shooting.

The quality is pretty good, too.

[Bill_1856]

I've been shooting LF for over 60 years, (and except for a few nice Polaroids), have yet to make a significant image with it.
I don't know why I get such enjoyment -- maybe it's just the challange.

[MIke Sherck]

Large format taught me to see. Smaller formats could have, maybe, but they didn't. LF didn't have to, I suppose, but it did.

It works better for me than the smaller formats for many things. Not for everything, but most of the time I reach for a view camera.

If I were a sports or fashion photographer, I'd probably have a different viewpoint. But I'm not, so I don't.



Mike