Testing the equipment, first LF photos.

[alexvaras]

Hi all,

Thank you to all the people who helped with advices in my two previous posts.

Here you have 4 photos (two double holders) from my test shooting with Nagaoka 4x5 and Heliar f3,5 135mm.

I forgot to set up the aperture in this picture, newbie thing, I guess it won't the last.








So far holders, camera and lens work well, I liked the results but I feel so clumsy trying to not forget anything that it takes me ages, thats why the sun got me in the last picture.

Please comments are welcome, I want to do it better.
Thank you for watching.
Alex

[swmcl]

Ha !

You're a pro already !

Brilliant start. Well done.

[koraks]

Yes, looking good! The motions will become second nature, don't worry about it. It may seem daunting now, but it becomes routine quite quickly.

[Pere Casals]

Congratulations, this is a very good start !

Remember that plane of focus tilts and swings in the same sense that you move the lensboard, and the counter in the back, but the tilt swing in the back don't moves the center or the image circle like it happens with the front standard.

Here you have a nice guide for perfect exposures: https://kenrockwell.com/tech/exposure-large-format.htm

[chassis]

Looks good! Let’s see more.

[John Layton]

Looks good! And your "mistake" regarding aperture in the first photo actually looks good also (at least to me), in that the background elements are less in focus (wider aperture equals less depth of focus), and perhaps a bit less distracting, than in the second photo. Maybe print this first photo just a bit darker. But with each of the first two photos...maybe crop away the top, to just over the top of the hat - but leave everything else as is.

As for the sun in the last photo...you might, after you've removed the dark slide from the holder, hold this dark slide so that it throws a shadow over the lens while I'm making the picture. Carefully though - you don't want the dark slide to appear in the photo!

[alexvaras]

Here you have a nice guide for perfect exposures: https://kenrockwell.com/tech/exposure-large-format.htm

Thank you Pere but this guide is saying Im doing something wrong shooting higher speed than 1/15, truth is I did not recalculate the aperture after focusing, probably I did a wrong lecture of the light and accidentally I nailed it. I read other ways to re-calculate the aperture from this very same forum.
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ws-factor.html

Looks good! And your "mistake" regarding aperture in the first photo actually looks good also (at least to me), in that the background elements are less in focus (wider aperture equals less depth of focus), and perhaps a bit less distracting, than in the second photo. Maybe print this first photo just a bit darker. But with each of the first two photos...maybe crop away the top, to just over the top of the hat - but leave everything else as is.

As for the sun in the last photo...you might, after you've removed the dark slide from the holder, hold this dark slide so that it throws a shadow over the lens while I'm making the picture. Carefully though - you don't want the dark slide to appear in the photo!

Thank you for the tip of cropping, I will try it. The trick wouldn't work on this photo, the sun was just in upper border of the photo, next time I need a thicker tree to shadow the lens

[Peter Collins]

I still make those kind of mistakes. I'm 73.

[alexvaras]

Thank you all for your comments, today I tested 3 more lenses, let's see how it goes.

[aaronnate]

My first images were either totally clear or totally black. I told people I was establishing zone 1 and zone 10.

I would say you are doing great.