What is the most movement youve ever used?

[Bruce Watson]

I've actually used all my camera could do on exactly two occasions. Both were basically architecture. Both were in Japan. Both were because I didn't have enough room to work in, and wanted to get the shot anyway (some of those shrines are just tiny!)

I used a 110 SS-XL, all the rise and shift I could (front one way, rear the other), then leveled and plumbed the back, and used front tilt and swing to bring the subject into focus. Camera looked like a pretzel.

One of those shots came out looking pretty good. The other died, but mostly because it was a dismal rainy day and the subject garden just didn't have any life to it (but, it was the one chance I had, so I tried it knowing that). That one also had a problem with bellows induced vignetting because of the extreme movements.

As to all the other work I've done... Mostly I keep the back plumb and level, and do a little rise/fall with a little front tilt. I really do try to keep it as simple as possible.

[David R Munson]

Depends on the circumstances. In most cases outside, I use only limited movements. Most cases in the studio I use a little more and occasionally a bunch. Once in a while, though, I'll work on something where I want extremely selective focus and use a whole mess of movements, usually in the "wrong" direction in order to get the plane of focus where I want it. Here is an example of what I'm talking about. The camera was looking pretty twisted most of the time when doing this image series.

[Ole Tjugen]

Most movements?

A lot. All I have, in fact. On a Technika 5x7" with 300mm lens. Even if I do mostly landscapes, the landscapes around here absolutely refuse to lie flat and require quite some "pretzelisation" at times. But most of the time I only use a little front rise. Or drop. And a little tilt, and a degree or so of swing...

[Gene M]

Chili and draft beer.

[jerry brodkey]

Once while photographing in the tomb of Menna in Egypt, the important picture that I needed to take was behind large panes of glass held in place by large posts cemented into the floor. The glass was removed but that left a sizeable post directly in front of the most important scene. However by shifting the lens far to the left and the film plane to the right, keeping both parallel to the wall, the required picture was taken and came out very well. I don't know if that's the most, but I remember it very well....

[Ryan M]

Hey Gene, Its 10:00pm here now and I just got back from consuming just that, well, more beer than chili - can't wait for tomorrow. Cheers

[Chris Partti]

I think it's probably this one:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=711234

In order to show the bridge, I had to be a certain distance from and an extreme angle to the window. It took some severe movements to correct the perspective of the window frame. Because my 8x10 didn't have enough shift and rise, I had to play with other movements, which threw off focus. My lens didn't have enough coverage, but since the corners were black anyway, the vignetting didn't show. I recall struggling for about 45 minutes with this set up. At least twice, I had got myself so screwed up I had to return everything to neutral and start over.

I made two platinum prints of this image, which showed real promise, before ruining the negative on an incompletely dried sheet. Later, I went back and took a picture from the same spot in about 2 minutes with a medium format camera. A couple of more minutes playing with the warp function in Picture Window Pro and I'd fixed up the perspective. That's the version linked above.

[Jean-Louis Llech]

Chris,
You'd better modify the legend of your photo.
The camera used to take it is supposed to be a Mamiya 6.

[Bob Salomon]

The most I have done was 3 point perspective on 45 of products at far less then 1:1.

The most I have seen done on a daily basis was at a studio in a paper plate and cup company. They had to photograph jumbo soft drink cups for McDonalds at 1:1 in true 3 point perspective showing the cup without distortion from the front top and side while being high enough above to show the contents and the ice. Shot with 360 and 480 Sironar N lenses

Done on an 810 GTL with 7 foot custom telescoping rail with a custom 810 to 57 reducing bellows attached to a custom 57 intermediate standard and then to a 57 to 45 bellows.

Required both the largest Linhof studio stand plus a Linhof Heavy Duty Pro tripod just to support the camera at extension.

The needs and the use of movements vary greatly depending on your interest.

Ask a studio product photographer and extreme movements may be everyday. A photographer shooting fine art for the Smithsonian may use no movements or just some direct displacement. Then add landscape, industrial, portrait, etc and the use is between these extremes.

The question you really want to ask is how much movement is needed for what you want to do?

[Chris Partti]

"Chris,
You'd better modify the legend of your photo.
The camera used to take it is supposed to be a Mamiya 6."

Jean-Louis,

The linked version was taken on a Mamiya 6. See the last paragraph of my post.