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Thread: Is there any real utility to ULF?

  1. #11

    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    Re:Watkins... The California State Library has a great collection of Watkins' mammoth prints. Historian Kenneth Star gave a photo class I was enrolled in years ago a tour of the library's photography collection. With gloves Star turned page after page of Watkin's (and Muybridge's) huge contact prints. Lot's of Yosemite. We were allowed to view the work close, with good light and with no glass. MMMMM.... If one was serious he could probably make an appointment for a viewing. "Carlton Watkins The Art of Perception" can be purchased at discount prices from the usual sources. Excellent monograph.

    -David Kashuba.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    Right now, I shoot 8x10. That's because it's all I can afford. In the future, I plan on moving up to 11x14, and maybe one day to 16x20 or 20x24. I already have a 14 Commercial Ektar which, stopped down, will cover 11x14 - or so I am told.

    Ever since enlarging became commonplace, there hasn't been a NEED for ULF. Mainly because above 12x20, all you can do is contact print. Unless someone out there DOES have a larger enlarger.

    But there IS a visible difference between a contact print and even the best enlargement. There is just something special - a quality of 'presence' if you will - about a contact print. I love an 8x10 contact print, and whenever I read about ULF, I know that I have to do it as soon as I can justify the cost.

  3. #13

    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    What does you wife say about your work now? Can you show her and have you seen contact prints from ULF? Can you bear to forgo some of your old equipment to go in this new direction?

    It is a good thing to put your unused equipment back into circulation. The more people shooting film the better! Compare the losses in (possible) versitility and differences in what you paid fir it to what you can get for it to what is gained in getting the new.

    Figure the loss goes to “film support”. If the film economy is good, if people are using all the film equipment out there then the art of shooting film is going to continue.

    From a psychology POV, everyone has to have some goal and sense of accomplishment. I get this from my photography and not from my work. I don’t have any children and if they did their lives are their own anyway. It is a very different thing making something from raw materials, pulling images from out of the air.

    Make some art and make it for reasons YOU feel are worth it and see if others share in it when it is done. IF you have children and do ULF (you must have a pretty darn good job too then...) it is still a unique thing you can bring to your wife and children - these images of your own construction and style. It opens up the world in a very personal way.

    On the other hand, if you are only looking for some balance in image quality, convenience and price then by all means farm out your work. There is no need to acquire all the equipment and skill if you are not very personally involved in what you are doing. Digital is then "good enough" and has infinite change available and even enforced. Time will tell if ULF will be surplanted by a new technology, but I DO see people that still paint 150+ years after photography gave us this new way to create the sharpest, truest images ever...

  4. #14

    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    The only reason I can think of for using ULF is if you are a retro-geek like me. I can't see the difference between a contact and an enlargement and I *still* plan on buying an 11x14 very soon.

    Like a ULF builder/salesman told me last week, ULF is thriving (relatively speaking) because those buyers are 'fleeing digital'. That would be me. After 8 hrs/day in front of this dang computer, I want a hobby that is exactly the opposite.

  5. #15

    Join Date
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    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    "What you got back home little sister to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you've got little say pitiful portable picnic players. Come with Uncle and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited." - Anthony Burgess

  6. #16
    Resident Heretic Bruce Watson's Avatar
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    Sep 2003
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    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    Actually, there is. If you want a fairly large print, and you demand the ultimate quality you can get from a contact print, the only way to get there if via ULF. Of course, you are going to have to be a hell of a dedicated photographer to get prints this way that are better then enlarger or digital prints. But it can, in fact, be done -- so they tell me.

    You'll never catch me going there though! I like putting it all on my back and taking a nice long hike through the woods or up the mountain. For me, the real utility is 4x5. It should be amazingly stunningly clear that YMMV though.

    Bruce Watson

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Oslo
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    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    "I?m having a hard time justifying the cost"

    Wide angle lens (360 Apo-gerogon) $60, find it on ebay or a 450mm Nikkor or Fujinon (will need wider box) Shutter 77mm lenscap (and a black hat) Card board box measuring 360!x510x310mm $10 Bottle of post-it "3M ReMount Spray Adhesive 6091" or "Gepe fix-o-flex" spray for making the film and dust stick to the wall $12 Bottle of dull black spray paint $20 Film http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=404&pid=5875 25 sheets $178

    total: $280 plus development and contact copy cost. plus time.

    Make a hole the bottom and a slit in the top of the box to make room for the lens, add plywood? to strengthen the inside of the lens side of the box camera and glue. Spray dull black paint inside both top and bottom. Use the post-it glue to fix the film and any dust inside. Mount the lens on the box, and your ULF-camera is ready. Consider a plywood bottom and one side to add tripod-fixing. Use the lens on 180-256 and it's usable from 20' to infinity (wild guess)

    Øyvind

  8. #18

    Is there any real utility to ULF?

    While I agree with everything said about the quality that can be achieved contact printing a ULF negative made in a camera, there are several other issues. A friend who contact prints pt/pl negatives recently went up to 12X20. He says that he would prefer spending his time in the field taking pictures on 12X20 negatives rather than spending his time at home enlarging smaller negatives up to 12X20 size. In my own experience going from 4X5 to 5X7 to 8X10 and now 11X14 I find that each increase in size makes me more selective in what I want to photograph and I spend more time with each photograph the larger the format size. One takes fewer pieces of ULF film into the field and the whole process is much slower. As a result the quality of the images seems to improve - at least for me.

  9. #19

    Re: Is there any real utility to ULF?

    Is ULF worth it?

    Wait till I get ahold of one, then I'll tell you.

    I dream of staggering large prints, with crystal clear clarity. (I'll have to homebuild an enlarger).

    I know I'll probably never own a testarossa ferrari, or do the do with a supermodel, but someday I'll know the joy of using ULF. In my mind's eye, it's really in that class.

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    9,599

    Re: Is there any real utility to ULF?

    ULF is fun! A heck of a lot of fun. The aerial image on a 12x20 gg is better than a big screen tv. I get the feeling I could "fall" into a picture. A 12x20 negative isn't a piece of plastic---its farmland! And the experience of loading a 12x20 film holder is mind blowing to say the least.

    I wouldn't give up my 8x10 for ULF, but darn it ULF is a joy to work with (close to the car!)
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

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