Focusing, glasses, & LF

[Paul Ron]

once you get a dark cloth, you will see a big improvement seeing the image. that will make a world of difference.

i pull my shirt over my head n camera as a dark cloth. it works very niceky but scares the wildlife n passer byers.

[6x6TLL]

Thanks for the great suggestions! I'll do a search and see what dark cloths are recommended here. I have tried with a shirt and a hoodie, and found both too fiddly, kept falling off, and I still got a lot of light from underneath, but maybe that's to be expected.

A few months ago I made a 4x5 viewing frame out of cardboard and gaffa tape. I plan on tying a string to it with a few knots on it, one at 90mm, 150mm, 210mm, and 300mm to indicate focal length. It's a lot easier as Peter and Doremus pointed out to wander around with a viewing frame than the entire camera and tripod. I do try and pre-visualize each shot, and am slowly improving.

The loupe I use is great, Rollei (Schneider) 3x for 6x6 viewing, I can see the smallest detail pretty easily with my progressive lenses. But it's really difficult to compose with a loupe, so will try looking into some reading glasses to get something that I can use for viewing the ground glass as a whole and for composing.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with less than perfect vision around here, there's hope for me yet!

[Paul Ron]

check the "how old are we" poll? this is a retirement community n just about everyone is half blind.

[Graham Patterson]

" ...just about everyone is half blind."

I think my half-blind half takes over when I make photographs!

[6x6TLL]

Hi Greg,

that's a great tip and something I'll follow up. I need to get my eyes checked again anyway, and will see what I can have made up that will work.

A custom reader that takes your astigmatism into account will work better than progressive bifocals for working on the gg. It will provide the clearest vision with the widest field of view. A company like Warby Parker will make one and ship to your house for $95 total. Over the counter readers are only available as positive strengths, but if your distance vision is a -5, your readers need to be algebraically calculated and include the astigmatism correction.

[Luis-F-S]

I had a pair of 5x reading glasses made by my optometrist. This was Fred Picker's suggestion 30 years ago and it's worked well ever since. I usually us it in combination with a 4x Toyo loupe.

[Corran]

I'm very near-sighted so I sometimes focus with my glasses off, and often compose that way. I can see the focus area pretty well close to the GG. This also helps reduce eyestrain from focusing my vision too close.

I use a jacket for a darkcloth. A slightly larger "real" darkcloth for 8x10 and 8x20 but I don't carry massive pieces of cloth out into the woods if I don't have to.

I use a 10x loupe for critical focus. I bought this loupe from someone selling me a couple LF lenses and I've used it ever since - it's tiny and works great. I use the loupe with my glasses on - not sure how you would do it otherwise. Just make sure it is focusing on the GG properly.

And I'm in my 30's thank-you-very-much .

[Michael Kadillak]

Easiest thing to do for ease of focusing is move up to the 11x14 format and stand back from the GG about two feet and focus with the rear standard knobs you can reach under a large dark cloth that can close out all extraneous light. You don't need any loups or focusing devices at all. It is like watching a big screen TV. (Tongue in cheek.....)

[6x6TLL]

I like the sound of that, just not the idea of carrying it all!

I was on the fence about starting with 8x10 instead of 4x5 because of the bigger GG and my eyes (as well as that huge negative), but the 4x5 won out in the end due to weight, portability and price. I may well go 8x10 yet, but want to spend a few years really getting familiar with 4x5 first.

Easiest thing to do for ease of focusing is move up to the 11x14 format and stand back from the GG about two feet and focus with the rear standard knobs you can reach under a large dark cloth that can close out all extraneous light. You don't need any loups or focusing devices at all. It is like watching a big screen TV. (Tongue in cheek.....)

[neil poulsen]

. . . First thing I need to do is get a dark cloth, . . .

Holy diopters, no wonder you're having a problem!

I tried this once, when I had left my dark-cloth at home. It was near to impossible to focus, much less copose.

Consider getting a good loupe that's intended for focusing on a ground glass. You can find them made by Schneider, Rodenstock, Fuji, or Toyo. Or, others? For me, it was literally a revelation when I went from a cheap loupe to a good one made by Schneider.

Especially as I get older, I've found that a pair of glasses optimized for about a 11 inches to be essential for viewing. An optometrist can prescribe these. Or, I purchased two drugstore glasses, one for the left eye and one for the right. With difficulty, I can switch lenses on one side for correct viewing in both eyes. (Depends on the brand.) Prescription glass work better; but, the drug-store glasses will suffice.