Large format assignments?!

[Kirk Gittings]

a lot of photographers shoot digital and correct the lines in PS.

What makes you think that you can't correct perspective with a digital camera? Have you ever heard of perspective correction lenses or Tech cameras? More dogma foolishness.

And for what its worth I know top tier commercial architectural photographers all over the world and every single one of them started with film and now shoots digital. I don't personally care either way. I hear all kinds of hobbyist film shooters say things like I know someone who still shoots architecture with film. Well I don't and this is my business and I have broad contacts in the industry through professional organizations and teaching at two universities. Its images that count, but you are hamstringing your self in terms of workflow in todays market with film.

[Łukasz Owsianka]

Actually doing it in Photoshop takes me far less time than it used to take to get everything perfectly parallel and perpendicular in camera. I'm not a pro though, maybe professionals who do architecture for a living and have an established system can do it faster in camera. For me, I've spent as much as 15-20 minutes photographing a window, for example, on the second story or higher and getting all the lines right.

But apart from that, the architectural photographers I know (all four of them : - )) don't just use Photoshop to get things right. They use a tilt-shift lens on their digital cameras. I just started using one as well and even with my limited skill I find that the combination of that lens and Photoshop is quicker (and IMHO at least as good) as doing it in camera with a LF camera. I'm frankly surprised that any professional architectural photographer would still use a LF camera.

Ok you have got a tilt -shift lens but do you see what are you doing in your viewfinder? LF screen is big and you can mark points on it. I would like to see a comparison of two shoots of the same subject made by LF camera and digital with PS - I am wondering if you can see and fix all error in perspective using PS. Fix maybe so but find all of them? Maybe another person will see something else? - I have no experience with correcting perspective in PS so I am asking is it possible?

[Łukasz Owsianka]

And about PS and commercial photography see this:
http://sztukatulka.pl/index.php/2012...hopowe-wpadki/

The site is in Polish but you understand what I am saying

[Mark Sawyer]

BetterLight is still in business and selling lf digital backs, (and four of their six models are sold out). Given the cost of the backs, I'd guess most of them are sold for professional use.

If you go to the Arizona Highways photp submissions page, ( http://www.arizonahighways.com/photo...ubmissions.asp ), it states: "In order to achieve the high-quality reproductions in our publications, we prefer large format (4x5) transparencies, especially for the large scenic landscapes for Arizona Highways is famous. "

[Brian Ellis]

Ok you have got a tilt -shift lens but do you see what are you doing in your viewfinder? LF screen is big and you can mark points on it. I would like to see a comparison of two shoots of the same subject made by LF camera and digital with PS - I am wondering if you can see and fix all error in perspective using PS. Fix maybe so but find all of them? Maybe another person will see something else? - I have no experience with correcting perspective in PS so I am asking is it possible?

Using Live View on my camera I see the image on a 2" x 3" viewing screen that's backlit. It's of course not as large as a 4x5 inch ground glass but it's a decent size, certainly much better than just looking through the viewfinder. It's also brighter than a ground glass because it's backlit and I can magnify it to 5x or 10x, much like I'd use a loupe with a LF camera. It seems to work well.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by asking whether "you can see and fix all error in perspective using PS. Fix maybe so but find all of them." If you're suggesting that there's a problem seeing the errors, no that's not a problem. I'm afraid my errors are all-too-obvious. : - ) And there's no problem fixing them in Photoshop as long as you knew at the time you made the photograph that you'd need to fix them and left enough room to do so. Which is normally the case.

It actually isn't "perspective" that usually needs to be fixed, at least not as I use the term "perspective." It's two or more lines that should be parallel to each other but aren't, it's lines that should be parallel or perpendicular to the top, bottom or sides of the frame that aren't, that kind of thing.

[Kirk Gittings]

I have 0 problem correcting perspective in camera with a t/s lens on a DSLR. 99% of the time no additional correction is needed in PS. All you do is use a level and a grid focusing screen. What a level and a grid? Yes a level held on the viewing screen just like I do on the ground glass of my VCs and a grid to view through. Revolutionary.....

[Łukasz Owsianka]

I like a view camera because perfect perspective for me is one that does not conspicuous. The topic jumps out of the photography. View camera helps me to achieve that. PS procesed pictures looks all rigth for me but I feel that something is wrong - I can not point the finger but something is not right. It looks not natural for me.

[Bill Koechling]

I do not think that digital is faster because their picture quality is low and you have to spend lot of time using PS. If you scan LF film to raw and process in PS - you can do anything! I like to do it a traditional way but like you said everyone wonts files. Digital capturing is in my opinion not good way to go, and not faster.

Wow... That's simply not at all right. If you've ever struggled with a LF film camera, camera filters and accompanying filters on lights and over windows, filter factors, Polaroids, a film lab, a scanner, and then Photoshop you simply wouldn't say that. As far as quality, that only depends on the photographer, not the tools.

Kirk, I'm sorry to hear that Gamma has been a problem. I've apparently not used them enough in recent years to make a fully-informed assessment. My last E-6 processing was in 2010 and they did a great job with that batch. I began with them in 1973 when they were running their little orange cars all over the city and suburbs and I could have 2-3 runs per day coming to my studio with great results.

Current product work is done so much easier with Nikon, Canon or Schneider TS lenses but if a client needs extreme enlargement I occasionally break out the 4x5. I still enjoy some portraits with the LF camera in B&W.

[Kirk Gittings]

Once again Lukasz. I have 0 problems getting "perfect perspective" in camera with digital. That is how I make my living.......

[Kirk Gittings]

And about PS and commercial photography see this:
http://sztukatulka.pl/index.php/2012...hopowe-wpadki/

The site is in Polish but you understand what I am saying

You think those kind of errors started with PS? Crappy composites have existed since the origins of photography.