Why don't my 4x5 images have that large format snap?

[armentor1@mac.com]

ok here it is, I'm invested now, 2 years in the lf world and finally getting the hang of this crazy camera. It is really fun but I feel as though I putting a lot of extra work for a bigger negative and am not seeing enough of a return in the image quality. I'm wondering why my images don't have better tonality, gradient and sharpness. they don't look like large format images?

the gear I'm using is:
4x5 chamonix (which is an amazing tool)
210 symmar - main lens
150 caltar - recently purchased used very little


Film;
started with
arista 400 / arista dev.

Moved to:
hp5 / d76 1:1

Now on: ( I really thought this was going to do the trick )
rollei 25
rodinal 1:50

The best result I've gotten was with ektar 100 - lab processed, however, it has not been printed just scanned.
The image quality is good but I was under the impression that it was going to be a huge difference from the 6x6 format, this has not been the case. My 6x6 image look equally as strong as the 4x5.



Any advice or thoughts?

dave

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Equally strong as what? Darkroom or hybrid prints? Under a loupe? Scanned? (what scanner?)

[Frank Petronio]

Have you shot the same set-ups with both and compared?

[Jon Shiu]

Are you printing in the darkroom? Print size? Fiber or RC?

Jon

[armentor1@mac.com]

I've printed these in the darkroom at 8x10 size using fiber paper Ilford warm. I've also scanned them in using a v700, however, I've yet to make any 4x5 digital prints. Never looked at them under a loop.

[darr]

I would do a test shoot side-by-side with your MF and LF. Same film, processing, scanning and printing if possible. If they still look the same, send the film for processing to a lab (not home processed). If still not a big difference, I might scratch my head.

[John Kasaian]

Do you loupe your gg when focusing? What kind of grain focuser are you using? What speed are you rating the film?

[armentor1@mac.com]

yes using an 8x loupe when focusing. I don't know the brand grain focuser, I use a shared darkroom space, it is one of those blue slender tall ones. I generally rate the film by the named iso 400 = 400.

I suppose I could do a side by side comparison but was thinking that the 4x5 would easily stand out without having to do this, but perhaps it will put it into perspective.

[ic-racer]

the gear I'm using is:

None of that matters. How steady is your tripod. How are you focusing? How do you choose the aperture? Any errors in determining the EI and development time? Is the enlarger properly aligned?

[armentor1@mac.com]

tripod is steady, mostly doing portraits so the lens is generally set to f8 or wider. enlargers are aligned as others use them with no problem. possibly errors in development as I'm new to sheet film. I started with tray processing and could never really get the hang of it so i moved to the plastic bucket style where you can process 6 at a time. I'm looking at a batch of negatives now and they are consistently dense. perhaps I need to lighten up on my dev. times or drop the water temp?