What is the absolute worst piece of advice aboutLarge Format you have ever gotten, read or over heard?

[Jim Galli]

I've gotten this one more than once, and 2 of my personal best pics are the results. A workshop teacher says "you're wasting your time, that shot will never work, the highlights will be all blown out", and a second one, I'm setting up for an interior shot by tipping my lens through a broken window pane of a long abandoned pipefitters shop that has stopped in time and a couple of guys with medium format's and tripods are saying "What the hells in there to take a picture of??" So come on you nay-sayer's, I need another good shot!

[Struan Gray]

"It's not worth the trouble and expense."

"Nobody can tell the difference unless you make ridiculously large prints."

"No one does that these days."

"Why would you want to use that camera?" (A Sinar Norma) "It takes terrible pictures." (True enough, if you insist on only using three-year out of date polaroids)

[Don Sparks]

In 5 or 10 years there won't be any film...everything will be digital.

[Joe Lipka]

.1 over film base plus fog. That, and filling out little notecards on zone placement for every exposure I made. The first piece gave me marginal negatives for years, and the second just wasted a lot of time.

But Ellis, need to do the flip side on another thread - What about the best advice?

[Edsel Adams]

Im always amused by the "techies",that shoot LF.They would have you believe that only a yaw free camera with a modern($)multicoated piece of glass will do.The truth being that an old battered bellows & a funky single coated,vintage lens can give you the same or better results!The smaller formats & (of course digital),is all about technology.Fast glass & automatic everything is great,when you need it.There is a simple purity to LF work,that the other formats dont have.Trying to modernize LF is an effort in futility.LF is all about the images,not the cameras!Seeing those gorgeous prints is what its all about.Sure a yaw free body & a $2K lens are nice,but unnecessary!

[clay harmon]

I can't resist this one. About 3 weeks ago I was taking some nightime shots at a university campus and a japanese exchanage student sees me fiddling with my 7x17. He began berating me. 'What are you doing! There is no picture here. This is nothing. Why are you doing this!' He walked away and actually spat on the ground in disgust. Needless to say, the photo has now been printed in palladium and is beautiful, in my opinion. This is the first time I've actually encountered hostility about a composition.

Clay

[Ellis Vener]

Im always amused by the "techies",that shoot LF.They would have you believe that only a yaw free camera with a modern($)multicoated piece of glass will do.The truth being that an old battered bellows & a funky single coated,vintage lens can give you the same or better results!

Not necessarily. It depends on the work you are doing atthe moment. But for most fB&W landscape and portrait photograsphy I have to agree with you.

[James Webb]

Usually advice given is meant to help someone, but if I had listened to and implemented all the ideas proffered about photography and life in general, I would either be a lawyer, or someone who is strapped in a hospital bed feeling the spittle inch down my chin. Here is a sampling of well-meant advice that my poor life has received throughout the years :

?Why do you read so much? You should watch more TV?.

?Your going to give her this for her birthday? It?s a picture of weeds! I?d dump a man if he gave me this!?

?With the amount of hours you spend in the darkroom, your going to burn out.?

?I wouldn?t buy an expensive camera if I were you. You will probably fiddle with it for a few months, and then never use it again.?

?Your overexposing your film by 3 stops?!? followed by incredulous laughter.

?Leave the print in the developer between 1 1/2 to 3 minutes.?

?I use wood glue when mounting my prints.?

?Get a job.?

[Michael Kadillak]

Worst piece of advice - Start and stay with 4x5 as it is the most popular format and is the only possible remnant for conventional photography in large format. Buying a 5x7 camera? Have you heard of the Edsel? 8x10 and larger is completely unnecessary in every aspect.

Worse piece of "Common Knowledge" - Use film/developer combinations that the pros use as they have done all the work for you.

[Ron Shaw]

'An uncoated lens isnt good for color'.