The Wee-est of wee petzval's. 96mm on 4X5

[Jim Galli]

The *LGM's brought me a box of wee petzval's earlier this weekend and I promptly bathed and sold some of them.

But 2 of them were really dinkies. I guessed at about 96mm but after using one of them today I think that may even be optimistic. They may be about 85mm. So what good is an 85mm Petzval? It won't cover 4X5. Not even close. It would cover 6X9. But to get the nice petzval effect I thought perhaps it would work on half frame 4X5, or 2 1/2 X 4.

So after messing around fitting a shutter on the front I made these 6 pics earlier today. The surprise was that I think I prefer the full circle image on the 4X5. When I print them, I think I'll print the entire circle, not crop to half frame.

What think ye? (Yes, the scans suck. Epson 2450 for these)

* Little Green Men

[BarryS]

Those are really nice--they look good as half-frames and shown with the full image circle. Very nice and moody stuff--the Nash looks positively evil.

[Anupam]

Lovely shots. I do prefer the smaller format, though.

[wfwhitaker]

Some of the subject matter is definitely appropriate. Don't crop. These are good.

[ljsegil]

Very evocative, particularly the shots with more depth to them. I vote full frame for maximum effect, but great results all.
LJS

[Jim Galli]

Thanks all. These were fun to do. About an hour and a half of fiddling, and an hour and a half of shooting. I like the Nash the best but I'm a gear head.

[Mark Sawyer]

Another vote for the full circle versions!

"I challenged myself to "go and see" which is something I almost always do with relish!"

Yes, we all have to "go and see", with most of the emphasis on the seeing. The circular image with the Petzval effect is a whole new way of seeing, and works really well with these images. They have a bit of an other-worldly effect, so maybe something from those little green men is rubbing off on you.

Re: the short bellows extension issue, I thought of reversing the board so the lens would be inside, and wondered, has anyone tried a reversed Petzval before? I'm not sure what the effect would be...

[Jim Galli]

Here is what the antique lens looks like, it's components, and how it looked to accomplish the pictures.

[Brian Bullen]

Jim, I'm with you, the photo of the Nash is stellar! I really dig the wrought iron fence too, as always excellent work.

[rippo]

Jim, it appears on this forum that there are some people who will tell you're done wonderful work, no matter what you post.

I'm not that guy.

That said, I'll say that some of these work, and some don't. Vignetting like this can be very heavy handed, and I think it works best where the borders are darker anyway. So the vignette isn't so apparent, more like an extended darkening of the shadows. As Brian points out, the Nash kicks, er..."ash". The backhoe, "whitewashed grave" and "leaning cross" also seem a bit over the top, vignette-wise. "End of the line" and "Soiled Grave" totally work though. Perhaps it's because the full circle of the vignette isn't apparent? It can get pretty claustrophobic otherwise, and act as a barrier to the viewer (this viewer anyway). But "Nash" is firing on all cylinders, because the darkness, and the halo of light that curves with the roof of the car, create a feeling of impending vehicular doom.

Perhaps that's the secret to vignetting lenses. Match the curve with a real-world curve, and have it part of the composition.