Quote Originally Posted by DennisD View Post
Thanks for your reply, Michael. Could you elaborate on this:

"Now I don't see the picture until I am looking on the ground glass"

This seems like a statement of the obvious for any serious LF photographer, unless I'm missing the point.

Don't most photographers first observe "a big picture" ready for gg interpretation. It's only after that " big picture" is on the gg and I have a chance to work with my subject matter that the true image appears, I.e. my personal vision, ready for exposure. I don't think I ever saw a picture (precisely) until it was on the ground glass.

I'd like to know what others think. If I've missed the point please tell me.

Thanks
I don't know that you're missing the point, it might be just a question of degree or terminology. But you refer to seeing "a big picture" and to working with your "subject matter," then using the ground glass to "interpret" it or to find the "true image." What I took away from Micheal and Paula's workshop was more than that and involved literally moving the camera up, down, left, right, and all around to find the "big picture" or the "subject matter" in the first place. I'm sure Michael could explain better than I can.

I don't think most photographers work that way. I think most photographers see something that might make a good photograph before setting up the camera and then use the ground glass to refine the photograph they already have in mind. I say that partly because of the various threads here over the years about using viewing cards and other similar gadgets to find or compose a photograph. But I could be wrong, who really knows how "most" photographers work.