Large Format Landscapes

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Originally Posted by Ulophot

Well done. I like the time it takes to discover what is in the scene.

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Originally Posted by John Power

That is bending my mind!! I'm sure I don't understand what each scene was, but the end result is fantastic!

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The location has two quarries separated by a wall, in which there are two arches. The further quarry is filled with water. One shot was of the two arches (and I asked two strangers to pose for me), but the wall above the arches went above the top of the frame. The second shot was from inside the LH arch looking across the water - and I forgot to reverse the dark slide. You can see the trees inside the RH arch repeated on the 'land bridge'!

On my screen the exposure looks very pleasing the way it is, John. Gorgeous!

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Originally Posted by John Power

Got away to the coast on the weekend, second time out! I got some miles in hiking with the Horseman in the backpack and I'm very happy with it.

I think I should have put the polariser on here, but still, happy with it as a start to colour. The spot is totally magnificent.

Any feedback would be great! I tried to get the camera up as high as I could and used about 20mm of front standard drop to get more of the rocks into view. I think I under-did the tilt, too, with only about 5deg on. My loupe flares at the base so I can't see the edges... maybe next purchase!

Horseman L45, Schneider 135mm at F22, Portra 160, 30s. Metered off the rocks (reflective) in front of me.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ebdc598c_b.jpg

Horsehead rock before sunrise by J P, on Flickr

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Nice image, well done. I think the composition is good, and the camera height is appropriate to give good separation of fore-, mid- and background. I also like how the arch frames a section of the misted sea, rocks and sky. I do have a couple of suggestions though:

The rocks in the lower left quadrant are quite dark and thus a little unbalanced tonally with the rest of the image IMO. Some selective dodging there would help make a more cohesive whole I think. Also that same patch of rocks appears to have a bit of a blue-purple cast which could be corrected with a masked curves layer. Finally I can't help noticing the odd pink-purple patch in the upper left corner (due to uneven processing maybe?), which is also quite distracting; I would clone this out.

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Originally Posted by John Power

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...212d3875_b.jpg

Camel Rock post sunset by J P, on Flickr

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Originally Posted by John Power

I'd be keen to hear whether you would have exposed a bit longer here for the rocks?

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On my screen I think the black rocks are treated well. Nowhere is there a distracting black hole with insufficient texture, but there is enough darkness for a touch of drama and mystery.

What I like best is how the foreground sand (and tidal pool) reflect the pink of the sky. :D

And you must have been very patient to capture the crashing wave at the right moment.

Lovely scene, John.

Are you developing C41 at home? How is it, compared to B&W?

The apricot of the sky contrasts perfectly with the mauve of the sand. Well done!

I think the darkness of the rocks and flash of white spray work perfectly together to create contrast and excitement.

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Originally Posted by LocalHero1953

This might be my best shot, ever! Accidental double exposure from Hodge Close Quarry, Lake District, UK.
Gandolfi 4x5, Nikkor SW 90 f8, Portra 400 (colour was uninteresting, so I converted to mono).
:D

Attachment 216343

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Amazing!

Reminds me of what Sally Man describes as "fortuitous accidents" that she invited in to be part of her process.

Really cool image, I still haven't figured out what it is, but it's neat.

Thanks everyone, again! Great feedback that I will do my best to remember when I'm next out and about. I think I'm learning about lighting a bit, and can see a bit clearer now where BnW will do a better job. I made a lot of errors trying to capture high contrast colour, especially with ektar, and it just struggles to show much colour at all in the shadows.

6X6TTL, yep, C-41 at home is no worries. (Take this with a grain of salt as I'm very new to shooting film and only a month into developing any film at all!)
I use a kodak flexicolor kit and its cheap enough... I'd say about AUD 0.70 per sheet in a paterson tank/mod54... in a JOBO it would be a good chunk cheaper, stearman press too.
I was initially worried about temperature, but it seems near enough is good enough, despite the super-tight range given in the instructions. I just have a 15L plastic tub that I put my bottles in, fill with hot water from the tap, wait til a $10 meat thermometer reads about 38C when i put it in the dev bottle, then go for it.
Colour seems more straight forward than black and white, there is one set of instructions and you just follow it. I've done kodak consumer and pro film, fuji pro stuff, none of it seems to be "off". But maybe my eye just isnt trained yet :)

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Originally Posted by John Power

...I'd be keen to hear whether you would have exposed a bit longer here for the rocks? I was thinking the sky would lose saturation if I did that?

Wind was smashing it through, and my towel-as-dark-cloth was a bit of a pain. I might try to sew one up with some heavy stuff in the edges...

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John, most color films do not take to high contrast scenes well, requiring an exposure that renders desirable highlights and lets the shadows fall where they will, but I can suggest a technique to help with getting texture in the shadows. It amounts to a simple double exposure. It’s a technique I was taught at a AA workshop in the late ‘60s by one of Ansel’s assistants (Al Weber, RIP). The first exposure is made by holding a standard gray card (18%) perpendicular to lens axis (beware of shadows on the card) and take a reflection meter reading of the card, then hold it in front of the lens and exposing by closing down three stops from its meter reading. This creates a pre-exposure over the whole format area. Then expose for the scene as you’d normally do. This technique has no effect on the highlights but does help put texture in the shadows.

Since you’re going to do some sewing anyway, here’s what I did. Place a layer of black fabric over a layer of white fabric and sew all edges together. Using this as a darkcloth with the white side on the outside, you’d be amazed at how much cooler you’d be while viewing the groundglass in warm sunny conditions. Regarding windy conditions, you might also find that sewing the edges together behind your head will help and attaching a few short Velcro (hook & loop) strips along the lower edges of the darkcloth will create a dark tube and prevent the wind from getting underneath the cloth and creating a sail.

The Portra 160 he is shooting has enormous latitude though (as does the higher speed versions). Using it one can easily expose an extra stop over "normal" to lift the shadows a bit, and the affect on the highlight tonality will barely be noticeable.

Slate quarry in Coppermines Valley, Coniston, UK
Gandolfi 5x4, Nikkor SW 90 f8, Portra 400
Attachment 216409

Interesting photo. Colors are interesting.

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Originally Posted by rfesk

Interesting photo. Colors are interesting.

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I'm willing to take the first comment as positive and the second as negative:). The yellow colour of the rock is accurate, but I may have left the slate grey as a bit too blue.

I think it would be interesting to bring out the yellow tones even further, in contrast with the grayish rock.

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Originally Posted by LocalHero1953

I'm willing to take the first comment as positive and the second as negative:). The yellow colour of the rock is accurate, but I may have left the slate grey as a bit too blue.

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Originally Posted by LocalHero1953

Slate quarry in Coppermines Valley, Coniston, UK
Gandolfi 5x4, Nikkor SW 90 f8, Portra 400
Attachment 216409

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Fabulous

The colours in the rocks are amazing (positive comment :-))

No doubt it is something to do with the mineral seepage from the local mineral rocks - but wonderful none the less.

Martin

No. As to "interesting colors" I meant it in a positive manner. The colors are great.

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Originally Posted by rfesk

No. As to "interesting colors" I meant it in a positive manner. The colors are great.

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Thank you!

Linhof Technikardan S45, Nikkor-M 9/300, Ektachrome E100.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f3edcba3_h.jpgLayers by atomstitcher, on Flickr

Excellent, a rather Pre-Raphaelite vibe.:)

I'm curious about your workflow, though, especially what you're calling the "HDR" aspect. I'm imagining, say, three separate bracketed exposures that you apply layer masks to in order to brush-in your dodge/burn edits. At any rate, a great use of a long focal length...

Yes -- excellent! A wonderful use of color as part (just about all, really) of the composition. Love the way the pink form on the left color-contrasts with the green form of the right, with both being contrasted by the white in the middle. All tied together by the red leaves (left-over fall maple leaves?)

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Originally Posted by CreationBear

Excellent, a rather Pre-Raphaelite vibe.:)

I'm curious about your workflow, though, especially what you're calling the "HDR" aspect. I'm imagining, say, three separate bracketed exposures that you apply layer masks to in order to brush-in your dodge/burn edits. At any rate, a great use of a long focal length...

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Thank you :)

The "HDR" refers to blending of 3 bracketed exposures of each segment of the film during digitisation and stitching. I just merge all the files to an "HDR panorama" in Lightroom, then make my RAW adjustments from there. I only do this with slide film. At base ISO the D810 I use for digitisation has a dynamic range of over 14 stops, so it is capable of recording the entire Dmax range of even Velvia 50 with a single exposure, however I have found that having an extra couple of stops of information provided by a blended HDR raw helps to reproduce accurate shadow and highlight detail of the original (especially the highlights).

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Originally Posted by Vaughn

Yes -- excellent! A wonderful use of color as part (just about all, really) of the composition. Love the way the pink form on the left color-contrasts with the green form of the right, with both being contrasted by the white in the middle. All tied together by the red leaves (left-over fall maple leaves?)

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Many thanks.

Those deep crimson-purple leaves are not left over from Autumn, as this was shot in early May. That is just their colour; I believe the tree is a "Crimson King" acer, but am not 100% sure.

Excellent, it must take a bit of horsepower to handle those files! Otherwise, it's a great study.

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Originally Posted by CreationBear

Excellent, it must take a bit of horsepower to handle those files! Otherwise, it's a great study.

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Yes, I stitch 9 overlapping segments, and the resulting images are about 90 megapixels. With multiple layers/masks etc the final edited 16-bit files can easily end up being several GB each, but my machine can handle it pretty well.

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Originally Posted by CreationBear

Excellent, ... , it's a great study.

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Fully agree

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Originally Posted by otto.f

Fully agree

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Thanks :)

https://kaushixphotos.s3.us-west-2.a.../flatirons.jpg

Boulder, Colorado flatirons.
Fujinon 240mm + Toyo 45CF + Kodak 320XP + HC-110

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5624fab5_b.jpgMount St. Helens by Austin Granger, on Flickr

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Originally Posted by austin granger

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5624fab5_b.jpgMount St. Helens by Austin Granger, on Flickr

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Excellent!!!

An example of good reasons NOT to use a filter sometimes, where the distant haze look is allowed, and not a total loss of darker details in foreground ridge...

Bravo!!!

Steve K

Thanks, Steve!

Like It!

Attachment 216791

These leaning Ponderosas made me think my camera wasn’t level, but it was perfectly level.

My Tachi’s front rise was begging for mercy, while the Schneider was quite calm.

Way up in the Cascade Mountains, Wash. state.

Tachi 4x5
Schneider XL 110mm/5.6
Ilford FP4+ (in D-76 1:1)
Epson 4990/Epson Scan

Red Rocks, Morrison, Colorado.
Toyo 45CF + Sinaron 135mm + Arista EDU 100 + HC-110.

https://kaushixphotos.s3.us-west-2.a...redrocks-1.jpg

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Originally Posted by austin granger

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5624fab5_b.jpgMount St. Helens by Austin Granger, on Flickr

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Were the tree trunks in the fore ground knocked over in eruption in 1980 ?

It's hard to comprehend the forces involved.

Martin

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Originally Posted by Martin Aislabie

Were the tree trunks in the fore ground knocked over in eruption in 1980 ?

It's hard to comprehend the forces involved.

Martin

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If so surely they would have rotted down by now. It might just be due to soil erosion.

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Originally Posted by Martin Aislabie

Were the tree trunks in the fore ground knocked over in eruption in 1980 ?

It's hard to comprehend the forces involved.

Martin

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Yes, those are the knock-down remains of Mount St. Helens' 1980 fury.

However, that's Mount Adams under the moon, not Mount St. Helens.

(Mount St. Helens is behind the camera.)

Austin's memory might be playing tricks on him. ;^)

Arca Swiss Discovery 4x5
Heliar 150/4.5
EFKE 25 PL
ID11
Cols d'Iraty, South-West France
Attachment 216821

same
Attachment 216822

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Originally Posted by Heroique

Yes, those are the knock-down remains of Mount St. Helens' 1980 fury.

However, that's Mount Adams under the moon, not Mount St. Helens.

(Mount St. Helens is behind the camera.)



Austin's memory might be playing tricks on him. ;^)

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Gah, you're right! Thanks for setting that straight. In my defense, this was a few years ago, and when I typed in the title, I was thinking of Mount St. Helens. Either that or my mind is going...

Regarding the trees, those are in fact the downed trees from 1980. Nearby Spirit Lake is still covered with a giant, migrating mat of bleached logs. It's quite incredible there, eerie and compelling at once.

Looking straight up, under the canopy of several palmettos (I think silver saw palmettos), in Myakka River State Park.
Mercury 4x5 / 47mm XL

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RNV74hVHu...2021-7051s.jpg

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Originally Posted by Corran

Looking straight up, under the canopy of several palmettos

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My favorite so far from sunny FLA (TM)--very Day of the Triffids though.

Reminds me of the more modern movie "The Happening."

Speaking of the plant apocalypse, here's a nice live oak that was looming over me. Same camera, lens, etc.:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o_uxUUmiw...2021-7052s.jpg

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Originally Posted by Corran

looming over me.

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Short of renting a scissor lift, that's definitely the right camera angle for that part of the world...:)

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Originally Posted by Corran

Looking straight up, under the canopy of several palmettos (I think silver saw palmettos), in Myakka River State Park.
Mercury 4x5 / 47mm XL

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RNV74hVHu...2021-7051s.jpg

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With alligators creeping around, I wouldn't spend too much time looking up. Nice shot Corran.

Thanks Alan :)
We saw a few that morning. I like to play red-light-green-light with them. They are just curious - when you look away, they will get closer. Then you turn around, they stop. It's really funny! Usually just 4-5 foot youngsters that are not looking for a meal, except maybe if someone has fed them illegally or you have a small dog...

Here's a photo from Big Talbot State Park's famous "Boneyard."

Wisner 12x20, Schneider Symmar 360mm f/5.6, Ilford HP5+ dev'd in HC-110 dil. H for 10 minutes:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R_4hJGq0e...2021-7065s.jpg

Bryan, is the Big Talbot shot recent? Is the park open again?

Just a few days ago. Was it closed? I always get there before it officially opens and park outside the gate, pay and hang my tag, and walk in.

It was a couple of years ago when I was last there. Erosion from a storm had damaged the trails. There used to be a place a mile or so south of the entrance where you could park and hike in, but again erosion made the drop off to the beach too high to climb down.

Brian...fantastic! That live oak photo is almost scary...like a huge wave about to crash down on my head! Nice use of a super-wide!

I do have a question about the 12x20 image. If I'm guessing correctly that the feet of your tripod may have been in some soft, wet sand...then how did you stabilize them to ensure that the camera did not move during the exposure? "Snowshoe" attachments, perhaps?

Thanks John! The camera and tripod sank into the sand when I set it up, but afterward it seemed steady enough. That mud or "black rock" as the state park calls it might be hiding underneath, creating a bedrock for the camera? IIRC the exposure was only a few seconds.

Here's a couple from the past weekend. Some very nice granite tors, moss and ferns. Again, feel like I pulled up well short of doing the place justice, but I was happy to spend some nice time there.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8d8a73a1_c.jpg

Granite boulders by J P, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...58d9b28a_c.jpg

Inside rockshelter by J P, on Flickr