What is the absolute worst piece of advice about Large Format you have ever gotten, read or overheard?
What piece of 'common knowledge" turned out to be just plain dumb when you looked into it?
What is the absolute worst piece of advice about Large Format you have ever gotten, read or overheard?
What piece of 'common knowledge" turned out to be just plain dumb when you looked into it?
Without any doubt,Merklinger's focusing tome!("Focusing the View Camera")What a long winded pointless piece of literature!Page after page of formulas & charts & graphs,all trying to tell you to tilt the front board a bit!IMHO,this is a concise compendium of stale bullsh-t! Ive yet to meet any one that has benefited from the good profesor's words.
I did a stupid thing yesterday out at Lake Travis in Central Texas. I pulled out the dark slide and set it on top of the camera to help block light from the film holder. I turned my back for a minute, looked up, and it was gone. I didn't want to admit that it could have blown into the lake, but it had. Thankfully, I managed to retrieve it before I left.
I would have to agree with Edsel... the thought of a bevy of photographers in the field, debating whether to use the hinge rule or the Scheimpflug rule, and trying to estimate "J" is frightening.
Merklinger's book, which I read and enjoyed (his other one, "Ins and Outs of Focus" is even better), would be totally unnecessary if it weren't for the fact that EVERY other large format book that mentions the Scheimpflug rule fails to mention that this rule gets you only half the way to where you want to go. Like every other large format photographer, I focus by eye, and not charts, but some understanding of the theoretical underpinnings is helpful when you are first trying to grasp what is happening on the ground glass. Unfortunately, most books stop at the Scheimpflug rule. All that rule tells you is your plane of focus will be somewhere in all the universe of possible planes that intersect with the lensboard/camera back intersection. It doesn't tell you anything else, and it is completely useless (by itself) for teaching anyone anything about how to focus a view camera. This was extremely frustrating to me, because I knew there had to be another factor, but all the books (including Stroebel's) acted like the Scheimpflug rule was the end of the analysis. I couldn't tell if I had a massive brain tumor or all the books were wrong -- each was equally (un)likely.
Merklinger proved the books were wrong, and gave me the other half of the equation. Of course by the time I found his book I had given up on the theoretical underpinnings and was just focusing by eye, but his book explains very well what happens. His other book is great at resolving that other problem: why whenever I use the hyperfocal distance scale on my roll film cameras my pictures are fuzzy. And no, he doesn't just do the standard circle of confusion math and conclude you should use the f8 scale when you are shooting at fll. Both his books are excellent works, but I agree, you wouldn't want to apply the theory directly to practice. Nobody really does that, I suspect: the book is about teaching you the why and how of what happens, so you can apply the theory in the field by eye.
The worst advice I ever got was to buy stuff new. Or wait, maybe the worst advice was to use TMAX.
I know I'm in the minority, but I much prefer a reflex viewer to a dark cloth.
Someone told me early on that reflex viewers were worthless, and that no serious photographer would use one. Rather than trying it for myself, I struggled with a technique that didn't suit me.
On the positive side, that experience helped evolve Rule #0: If it works for me, it's good. Phooey on what everybody else thinks.
Early in my 4x5 experience, I attended a weekend workshop during which I set up a shot in which there were a series of perfectly vertical trees in the foreground flanking a steep downward slope leading to a waterfall. I wanted to get the slope and the waterfall in perfect focus and so tilted the rear of the camera to establish a Scheimpflug relationship. Noticing that the tops of the trees were now way out of focus, I asked the teach how I could correct the problem. His response was to tilt the front of the camera in the opposite direction to compensate for the rear.
That LF makes you better, you make yourself better, 35mm brings out one quality, MF brings out another, using LF, you rise to the occasion, but it was always in you, the demands of LF are just an excuse to bring it out or you wouldn't have voluntarily bought a LF in the first place.
Also the idea that Kevin touched on, that some folks scoff at the idea of using a reflex viewer with a LF camera. My binoc. reflex hood works for me, besides, I grew up in LA, so bending over and then putting a dark hood over my head is being too trusting a soul for me, although my hat's off to anybody who does it that way.
I also read the Merklinger articles, and they are a nice explanation of why things work, but I still just eyeball the glass. It's faster and easier. I don't care how big angle J is. My bigger problem is with Zone System "gurus" who go into excruciating detail without telling you anything. For instance they may say "decrease the f- stop" but never say if you are to use a smaller aperture (higher f- number), or use a smaller f-number (wider aperture). Then to compound their crime, when you do the math, the effective EI always seems to go *down*, no matter if they are talking about N+2 or N-2 (or whatever). I'm not dumb. I understand that pushing film increases contrast, pulling film decreases contrast. So why all the double-talk?? Of course many are just trying to hook you into buying their latest book (probably more double-talk).
"Don't bother with large format. You can do everything you can do with sheet film with medium format better and cheaper. Large format is dead."
I originally received several comments like this from "enlightened" individuals when I was first considering moving up to 4x5. I wonder what they'd think if I told them I was doing all my personal work in 8x10 now.
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