Macro Lens for Large Format

[Natha Congdon]

A couple of questions regarding macro lenses in LF:

1. What are recommended lenses in this area? Are Nikon/Schneider/Rodenstock, e tc. all pretty comparable?

2. How much of an advantage does a macro lens provide over, say, an Apo Sironar -S or Nikkor-W at 1:1?

3. Practical approach to metering and lighting at long bellows extensions?

[Larry Huppert]

Can't comment on questions 1 & 2.

Regarding Question 3:

Check out:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/bellows-factor.html

for good information on bellows factors, etc. Regarding metering, I use incident metering. Reading + bellows factor are my starting point for the first Polaroid. The Polaroids serve as my guide for determining the final exposure (and Type 55 is great for checking your focus, composition, lighting, etc. as well).

Lighting is art, and there is no easy answers. There are however several good books on lighting (Light Science & Magic by Hunter and Fuqua / Matters of Light & Depth by Lowell).

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

RE: # 3, Calumet (and probably others) make a wondeful bellows extension compensation "calculator", a 1" square of plastic that you place by the subject in the focused area and then measure the size of it's image on the G.G. to get a guide of how many stops to add to your exposure. I use it extensively for B&W but haven't tried it on chromes. I have a friend in a studio outside D.C. and I believe they do use that system for chromes, but they Polaroid first of course.