20x24 In Practice

[SLVRGLTN]

I'm looking for people who shoot ULF 20x24 specifically if your using traditional negatives to make platinum/palladium prints or any other alternative prints. Please share your images and any thoughts on the practice of using the format in practice for landscapes,still life and more. Also share the lenses and cameras you currently use or are available in today's market. I'm interested in any information that can be shared, it's greatly appreciated

Thanks Brian

[Monty McCutchen]

Brian,

Good luck with your pursuits, 20 x 24 can be quite a bit of fun, but its not without its warts. Time, energy, and space all become exponentially more present in your thought process. I find those thoughts manifesting themselves most often in how it relates to inertia. Once I overcome that there is nothing better than working with the big ground glass and all of the work is of course worth it to me. There are times though when its all just more than I want to handle and I'll find imagery that day/session that will work with my 10 x 12 and/or 7 x 17 formats. I shoot both traditional silver negatives (Ilford fp4 and the occasional hp5) and Wet Plate Collodion (most often ambrotypes, tintypes, and alumitypes) with the 20 x 24. Not sure what you have worked through yet and don't wish to talk down to what you have already considered but darkroom space becomes a big issue, at least to work in this format with a system that is conducive to not fighting the room. Of course any obstacle can be overcome with enough zealous desire to be successful so my thoughts relate to best case scenario in which your concerns are about the negative shadow/highlight details etc and not whether you are going to spill water, chemistry, etc. because your set up is too small--it takes space and plenty of it. I have 18 feet of 36 inch deep sinks. I wish I had one more run of that to be honest but the room wouldn't allow it. 22 x 30 Hypo trays are what I develop in (Jobo too when its not throwing a fit). The Hypo trays are built thicker and have high walls to accommodate the momentum of the volume of liquid that is sloshing back and forth. You will lose the battle with the tray if you get traditional development trays as the water/chemistry has too much slippery strength to control, YMMV of course. If you get a print washer (outside of said Hypo tray with a syphon) it will be very big as well. Enough there I suppose.

I have been shooting 20 x 24 for close to a decade and when I bought there were less company's offering such large cameras. I bought an Ebony. Now of course you can get a Richard Ritter camera, Canham has an all metal version, Chamonix makes beautiful cameras, and you might still be able to find Lotus making large cameras, and Ebony still offers theirs.

I had two AWB holders made that have fared very well. He also made my Wet Plate holder which is starting to show the wear of the large amounts of silver which is corrosive.

My lens kit is 1000 mm Germonar, Schneider 550 xxl Fine Art, and a 355 G-Claron for 2x's life size portraits for the Negative captures,

and for my Wet Plate work a Dallmeyer 8D, Dallmeyer 30 inch RR.

May be way more information than you were looking for.

Here are some examples;




The first two are Wet Plate Collodion, the last two Gumover Platinum/Palladiums

I'll post some landscapes in another reply

best of luck,

Monty

[Monty McCutchen]

Sorry the digital files I had for those landscapes are too big for the guidelines here.

If you pm me I can send via email some examples of landscapes if that interests you.

I don't digitize much of this work as it is just too big for a scanner job and taking good digi pics of them is a frustrating skill that most often shows my limitations with a digital camera.

Monty

[Ari]

Yikes, Monty, these are beautiful!
Back to tech talk.

[David Lobato]

Monty, where do you find a contact print frame that big? Make it yourself? Or use a vacuum based frame instead?

I have a derelict 12x20 camera that needs more TLC than I have time for, and came with a good film holder (which is as large as my 25 inch monitor, no kidding). So I can appreciate the size logistics. Not until I have ample darkroom square footage will I attempt to rebuild and use it.

[Monty McCutchen]

Ari,

Thank you.

David, for years I used a NuArk 261ks but the light fall off towards the edges was noticeable in landscapes and architecture shots. Not so noticeable in Portraits but enough in the other disciplines that I ponied up and bought the Amergraph a couple of years ago. It has a bigger bed which allows for a paper relief which is also nice and the light distribution is much more even.

Monty

[SergeiR]

Sorry the digital files I had for those landscapes are too big for the guidelines here.

If you pm me I can send via email some examples of landscapes if that interests you.

I don't digitize much of this work as it is just too big for a scanner job and taking good digi pics of them is a frustrating skill that most often shows my limitations with a digital camera.

Monty

Love 2nd & 4th portrait. Just saying I got to solve space issues with my new location to start dabbing into 20x24 again!

[SLVRGLTN]

Monty,

Your pm box is full,

I'm going to do double duty on 2 ULF Formats I'm saving up for a 12x20 first but as I buy lenses I'm making sure they can cover both 12x20 & 20x24 formats. Both will be used in different manners depending on the subject matter but mainly I will be photographing Still Life,Abstracts,Landscapes and the occasional Portrait. I will be making mostly Alternative prints like Pt/Pd, Carbon,Salt & Cyanotypes. With the occasional silver gelatin, some may think I'm taking on to much but I love a challenge. I know that the darkroom space is a big factor but I'm looking at my options and figuring out what I will need and what I don't need.

[John Jarosz]

Even with a 'small' ULF format like 8x20 I find that processing is more crucial to success than anything else. Monty's response about process tray size is extremely important if you are interested in uniformity of development. 20x24 is immense. You must have darkroom space to be able to maneuver. Maybe this is obvious, I don't think it can be understated.

[zenny]

Brian,

Good luck with your pursuits, 20 x 24 can be quite a bit of fun, but its not without its warts. Time, energy, and space all become exponentially more present in your thought process. I find those thoughts manifesting themselves most often in how it relates to inertia. Once I overcome that there is nothing better than working with the big ground glass and all of the work is of course worth it to me. There are times though when its all just more than I want to handle and I'll find imagery that day/session that will work with my 10 x 12 and/or 7 x 17 formats. I shoot both traditional silver negatives (Ilford fp4 and the occasional hp5) and Wet Plate Collodion (most often ambrotypes, tintypes, and alumitypes) with the 20 x 24. Not sure what you have worked through yet and don't wish to talk down to what you have already considered but darkroom space becomes a big issue, at least to work in this format with a system that is conducive to not fighting the room. Of course any obstacle can be overcome with enough zealous desire to be successful so my thoughts relate to best case scenario in which your concerns are about the negative shadow/highlight details etc and not whether you are going to spill water, chemistry, etc. because your set up is too small--it takes space and plenty of it. I have 18 feet of 36 inch deep sinks. I wish I had one more run of that to be honest but the room wouldn't allow it. 22 x 30 Hypo trays are what I develop in (Jobo too when its not throwing a fit). The Hypo trays are built thicker and have high walls to accommodate the momentum of the volume of liquid that is sloshing back and forth. You will lose the battle with the tray if you get traditional development trays as the water/chemistry has too much slippery strength to control, YMMV of course. If you get a print washer (outside of said Hypo tray with a syphon) it will be very big as well. Enough there I suppose.

I have been shooting 20 x 24 for close to a decade and when I bought there were less company's offering such large cameras. I bought an Ebony. Now of course you can get a Richard Ritter camera, Canham has an all metal version, Chamonix makes beautiful cameras, and you might still be able to find Lotus making large cameras, and Ebony still offers theirs.

I had two AWB holders made that have fared very well. He also made my Wet Plate holder which is starting to show the wear of the large amounts of silver which is corrosive.

My lens kit is 1000 mm Germonar, Schneider 550 xxl Fine Art, and a 355 G-Claron for 2x's life size portraits for the Negative captures,

and for my Wet Plate work a Dallmeyer 8D, Dallmeyer 30 inch RR.

May be way more information than you were looking for.

Here are some examples;




The first two are Wet Plate Collodion, the last two Gumover Platinum/Palladiums

I'll post some landscapes in another reply

best of luck,

Monty

Awesome! Hats off to you!! Both inoformation and the print!!! I wish to be on your footsteps, ;-) Best of luck!