What is NOT missed from the 8x10 days, Size, Weight, Bulk of all involved with 8x10 image making. Then again, 8x10 and larger contact prints remain quite special IMO. Those where the days of Kodak AZO paper, bar light bulb exposure and those finger darkening developers cooked up via powder.
Long past and done with all that
Bernice
Oops, I stand corrected.Originally Posted by Oren Grad
I sometimes want to get an 8x10, and only make contact prints, from here on out. Judith Joy Ross is quite inspiring, in that sense, but I think 4x5 is as large as I'm going...What is NOT missed from the 8x10 days, Size, Weight, Bulk of all involved with 8x10 image making. Then again, 8x10 and larger contact prints remain quite special IMO. Those where the days of Kodak AZO paper, bar light bulb exposure and those finger darkening developers cooked up via powder.
Long past and done with all that
Bernice
I disagree it’s a myth. I’d instead say it isn’t a huge difference for the very experienced photographer that has mastered the tool, but it is a huge difference for the newcomer to 8x10 (newcomer as in someone that hasn’t have that many hundreds or thousands or shots in that format). I go back and see how it took me many shots to get my compositions right with 4x5 but 8x10 was a breeze. Your physical/optical relationship to what you see in the GG and how you see it can’t be ignored.
The cost and difficulty also brings more attention — when I’m on my 6x9 MF Fuji i shoot a lot more but my keeper ratio is lower than when I do 4x5 or 8x10. And let’s not talk about my keeper ratio with digital... there’s something to be said about giving your best when you’re surrounded by constraints and the cost of “failure” is high.
Not to mention something that is key: your excitement. I get excited taking out my 8x10 far more than I get with my 4x5. That makes a difference. It will likely wear out at some point after I take thousands of sheets like you have, but until then it does make a difference even in going out to take shots, let alone in the output.
Maybe that’s why people go up and up in size — not for technical reasons but to find the enjoyment that has been “lost” with the “smaller” format.
What about wet plate photography that the finished varnished plates are the final things that can't be shared via computer screens? And all the old lenses that you can only use with larger cameras?
I was dismissive of that stuff, in my "amateur years", avoiding anything "nostalgic"... until I worked for this photographer named Stephen Berkman 10 years go, who is using that process with a Dallmeyer lens, constructing theatrical sets in his back yard in Pasadena CA, with a glass coater at the ready... Beautiful stuff, and it gave me newfound respect for the process and the incredible amount of care that is taken, when shooting this way. Stephen is one of the few that I know of, who has a commercial photography career using that process.
The current Photography fashion of reverting back to the earliest days of Photographic image making. Good stuff, typically BIG sheets of film contact printed..
All good.
Bernice
Have some of his 57 contact prints also. They’re like little jewels. I’d forgotten about his changing his 57 back. Thanks for the reminder!
Most new endeavors are exciting, challenging and all that. Difference between those new to LF and those who have done this for decades is much about the learning curve. Once enough skill, ability and more has been achieved the artist-photographer would have developing their way and means and preferred tools to achieve their goals. This IS the difference for those that have been at this for decades and done this during a time when film was THE only means to achieve photographic image making excellence. This is no longer true today. What was once common and easier to achieve is essentially no longer possible. This fact alters the photography experience for those endeavoring into film photography today.
As for "the cost of failure is high".. This is what using a view camera can teach and develop so well, the ability to see, decide and enforce meeting the image goals in a single frame. There are those who can do this with any image recording device from phone camera to BIG sheet film camera, the skill set and the ability to achieve this is much the same regardless of photographic image recoding device.
Bernice
Interesting perspective - the opposite of what I’ve observed. I can’t argue with the enjoyment part though. Some people might simply enjoy working with the biggest camera/ground glass they can physically manage.
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