Technique for focusing "into your scene"

[Michael R]

Some seem pretty good. Others not so good. But I'm still having problems with the "fiddly" nature of large format.

Practice/experience will help you, of course, but LF is fiddly. It's the way it is.

[Alan Klein]

Practice/experience will help you, of course, but LF is fiddly. It's the way it is.

There's a lot to be said for simplicity.

[AdamD]

Ok here are a couple new ones. This first image is the one I screwed up with my exposure. I think I did a reasonable job of recovering some detail. I also added a couple crop options. The second image came out really nice I think. Thoughts on that one??

https://fountainphoto.smugmug.com/Fi...Iron-Mountain/


I also dropped in a couple color shots. The river picture is E100 and the lantana bush is Velvia 100. The lantana picture was a fun one. I used a TON of tilt and looked for the spot I could get the entire bush in focus. The background of course is soft, but that's on purpose. Thoughts on these....

https://fountainphoto.smugmug.com/Fi.../Random-Color/

[Corran]

Perhaps you should mention what movements you used as well as the lens, aperture, etc.

[AdamD]

Perhaps you should mention what movements you used as well as the lens, aperture, etc.

Ok for the black & white photo of the edge of the mountain....
Delta 100. Normal development 5 min pre-soak, 6 minutes developer (HC-110), 1 min stop, 5 minutes Fix, 5 min rinse
150mm Rodenstock 1/4 sec. f/22 on an Arca-Swiss F-Line Classic
Far focus point was the top left of the mountain. Tilt (using MicroOrbix...not that that matters) was the horizontal Palo Verde branch at the center bottom of the frame
The darkest area of the mountain, just right of center metered 1/2 second at f/22 ISO 100, same with the lower dark area. The highlights in the sky was 5 stops brighter so normal development was OK. I used a yellow (#15) filter resulting in a 1/4 second exposure at f/22 (1/2 dark shadow, under expose that by 2 stops to set middle grey Zone V) and then compensate for the 1 stop yellow filter ended up with 1/4 second.

The lantana shot....
Velvia 100. Normal development per E6 no changes.
150mm Rodenstock 1/30 f/25
This used a TON of tilt. My far focus point was the back top of the bush and may near tilt point was the closest and lowest flower (from the lower right corner, move over 25% to the left and come up 20% and there a flower. I used that as my tilt-for object. Normally with MicroOrbix is a focus-tilt-and-done kind of operations. This one took a few iterations to get right. If I were to shot parallel, the f-stop would have been f/50!!

As for metering, I took a bunch of readings all over the place and averaged them and at f/22 I was getting 1/40. I converted that to f/25 at 1/30. My Nikon D810 was agreeing and the exposure looked good so....

[Corran]

I feel like the left side of your b&w shot is unreasonably soft for such a simple shot with no side tilt. At f/22 with a touch of forward tilt everything should be razor sharp and well inside the "DOF."

What did it look like on the ground glass? Are you sure your camera is parallel, was there wind, or is your lens possibly suspect, or scanner having an issue? Just some questions I think you should ask yourself because that's about as simple as it gets in terms of focus and that left side would make me question everything in the imagining chain, not focus technique. I could be wrong though.

[Michael R]

Since the thread was about focusing/tilts/DoF, the second colour picture includes a telltale tilt/swing artifact to make sure you are aware of. Notice how the railing is increasingly out of focus toward the bottom, even though it is essentially vertically square with the “viewer”. One naturally expects changes in focus due to DoF in a receding space, but not vertically at a fixed horizontal distance.

Before anyone loses their sh$t, I’m not saying this is absolutely verboten and ruins everything etc. etc., and of course it might be a desired effect too. I’m just pointing it out as something to be aware of and watch for on the ground glass. It’s one of those potential “gotchas” with tilts and swings. Probably not the biggest deal in this particular example since the bush is clearly the intended subject, but you don’t want to end up with something more distracting in a different picture with more important vertical elements.

Ok here are a couple new ones. This first image is the one I screwed up with my exposure. I think I did a reasonable job of recovering some detail. I also added a couple crop options. The second image came out really nice I think. Thoughts on that one??

https://fountainphoto.smugmug.com/Fi...Iron-Mountain/


I also dropped in a couple color shots. The river picture is E100 and the lantana bush is Velvia 100. The lantana picture was a fun one. I used a TON of tilt and looked for the spot I could get the entire bush in focus. The background of course is soft, but that's on purpose. Thoughts on these....

https://fountainphoto.smugmug.com/Fi.../Random-Color/

[Vaughn]

The latana image is interesting, but I would have approached it without as much tilt and allowed the background to go a little softer to match the degree of softness behind the fence (with tilting allowing for control of how out of focus the horizon line is.) I think this image depends a lot on what size it will be printed/presented to determine the right about of softness for the horizon. Interesting.

As a photographer, I see the background behind the fence and middle distances are out of focus, but the horizon and a few saguarros (sp) tops sticking up out of the middle ground are relatively sharp. It is a neat effect, and I think it creates some visual tension that actually might give the image a boost and make people wonder what is going on...without quite knowing why.

[AdamD]

I feel like the left side of your b&w shot is unreasonably soft for such a simple shot with no side tilt. At f/22 with a touch of forward tilt everything should be razor sharp and well inside the "DOF."

What did it look like on the ground glass? Are you sure your camera is parallel, was there wind, or is your lens possibly suspect, or scanner having an issue? Just some questions I think you should ask yourself because that's about as simple as it gets in terms of focus and that left side would make me question everything in the imagining chain, not focus technique. I could be wrong though.

VERY good catch. I noticed this in a photo I initially shared. I case of the earlier example, it turns out I had a touch (1/2 degree or less) of swing on the front standard. In this case with the mountain side, I can confirm there was ZERO swing. So, my conclusion was/is that the left side that is soft must have been caused by too much tilt and not noticing that on the GG.

I use a 4-peaks 4x loupe. Its very nice and wide field, but I sometimes think its too wide and I miss details.....

[AdamD]

Since the thread was about focusing/tilts/DoF, the second colour picture includes a telltale tilt/swing artifact to make sure you are aware of. Notice how the railing is increasingly out of focus toward the bottom, even though it is essentially vertically square with the “viewer”. One naturally expects changes in focus due to DoF in a receding space, but not vertically at a fixed horizontal distance.

Before anyone loses their sh$t, I’m not saying this is absolutely verboten and ruins everything etc. etc., and of course it might be a desired effect too. I’m just pointing it out as something to be aware of and watch for on the ground glass. It’s one of those potential “gotchas” with tilts and swings. Probably not the biggest deal in this particular example since the bush is clearly the intended subject, but you don’t want to end up with something more distracting in a different picture with more important vertical elements.

Michael R, no $hit lost here. I always like your feedback. Thank you.

Another excellent catch!! I love that you point this out because this was NOT intended in any way. I agree it was caused by too much tilt which easily through out the vertical in the fence. Yeah maybe I can get away with that here....but that's not why I'm posting these pictures. I want to detect these problems before I make them OR know what I'm getting into before I click. So, great feedback.

I did try swing only on this shot and I just could not seem to get the entire bush in sharp focus. So maybe a better approach would have been to use as MUCH tilt as possible WITHOUT blowing up the verticals on the fence and then stopping down more, say f/30 or maybe f/36 or whatever???

You guys are great!!