Photographing Buildings.

[Keith Tapscott.]

What functions of a view-camera do you consider important when choosing a Camera for photographing buildings and what lenses would you choose?
I want to discuss 4x5 mainly.

[vinny]

rise, shift-both front/rear. shorter lenses with lots of coverage, super anglulon xl's, nikkor sw

[Armin Seeholzer]

47 XL, 72 XL or 75mm, 90mm, 135mm, 210mm, 300mm

Just one of the big names!

Cheers Armin

[Kirk Gittings]

What functions of a view-camera do you consider important when choosing a Camera for photographing buildings and what lenses would you choose?
I want to discuss 4x5 mainly.

Allot of rise, flexible bellows and the ability to use wide lenses on flat boards.

[Brian Ellis]

Interiors or exteriors or both? I didn't do a lot of interior architecture but I would think a wide angle lens - something in the 80mm range or less - would be important. I didn't do enough interiors to know about movements.

For exterior it depends on how you plan to photograph - e.g. the entire building for some kind of historical project? Details only? Windows and doors mostly? All of the above? I did a lot of exteriors at one time. Sometimes you don't need any movements. Sometimes you only need front rise. Sometimes you need front rise and front and back tilt (e.g. with a tall building to which you're standing fairly close and want to include the top of the building without a lot of foreground). But in general I'd consider front rise and front and back forward tilt as important (though often not absolutely necessary) for exterior photography with a LF camera.

My widest lens was an 80mm and I found that sufficient for the things I did.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Lots of rise in the front, swings front and back, slide in the back... don't care about slide in the front, and finally, tilt front and back. Short lenses with lots of image circle like XL's, especially for interiors.

[lenser]

If you are shooting buildings that require a lot of rise, then you've got to opt for wide angle lenses with huge image circles. Otherwise, you may be able to get the tops of the structures, but with severe vignetting. As Kirk says, flexible bellows, preferably a camera that allows for a bag bellows.

[johnmsanderson]

110xl on 810

[Heroique]

Sometimes the best movement is up the staircase of a nearby building w/ a good window on your subject.

Front rise of a different sort.

[John Kasaian]

The last church I photographed took all the rise my camera could muster, plus the Mr Deardorff's amazing sliding lensboard.

[Leonard Evens]

I agree that the most i mportant thing is the ability to use short focal length lenses with large image circles. To make good use of such lenses, you need a lot of rise with relatively short bellows extension. That almost certainly means the use of a bag bellows.

A good wide angle lens for general architectural photography is the 72 mm super angulon Xl, but it is heavy and not all view cameras can handle it. I wish I had one and my camera could use it effectively.

[Kirk Gittings]

That 72 is a great lens for sure-I never owned one but lusted after one all the same, but I would say the most useful WA is a good 90. There used to be a saying going around when I was starting in the ;ate 70's (I think I first heard it at a Shulman workshop I took). It was "90% of your images will be made with a 90mm lens" (speaking 4x5 of course). In my experience that certainly turned out to be true.

[Lynn Jones]

Its my friend Keith, my answer is all of them, that is why I still have 4 of them. Always great to hear from you.
Lynn

[Robert Opheim]

front rize and fall are very important for camera movements that I most often have used for interior and exterior images. Sometimes I will use front tilt if I need it. for depth of field. Occasionally if I am lazy I will use front or rear shift instead of resetting the camera angle or location- or if I am trying to get around an obstruction in the way of the shot. The lens varies depending on the situation. For interiors most often the idea is to show how large the space (room) is so I most often use a wide angle to very wide angle (58mm to 90mm). For exterior images the lenses vary more - it depends on what obstructions there are - what opportunities there are to get the information that I am trying to record. If there are buildings that block using longer lenses than a wider lens - if there is a street infront of the building or view than what lens works from across the street etc. I tend to shoot a lot with a 90mm and a 135mm and a 180mm for exteriors - sometimes with a 75mm but the wider the lens than there is more distortion of round objects in the corners and edges. I would expect that there are situations where a 240mm, 300mm, or a 450mm would work best -depending on the available camera locations and distances from the building or buildings.