What is the Most Difficult Large Format Photography

[Tin Can]

What is the most difficult photography?

Not the most difficult location, such as Mt Everest, deep sea, balloon aerial, warfare

Perhaps the demanding visual criteria of high cost homes, buildings for sale and expensive interiors of yachts, airplanes

Perhaps LF Studio cameras may be the only way to

Apple Park?

[Gary Beasley]

I would think LF macro work rates up there with the hard ones to do.

[maltfalc]

I would think LF macro work rates up there with the hard ones to do.

i'm planning to do some LF MICRO photography with living subjects at some point. wish me luck.

[Dan Fromm]

i'm planning to do some LF MICRO photography with living subjects at some point. wish me luck.

You said MICRO. Do you mean working above 1:1 with an LF camera and its lens (macro or not) or with a microscope with a trinocular head or something equivalent?

If not with a microscope and the subjects are mobile, how do you plan to maintain focus and composition while inserting the film holder etc. ? I ask because I've fiddled with using focusing frames with a Graphic and gave up.

[maltfalc]

You said MICRO. Do you mean working above 1:1 with an LF camera and its lens (macro or not) or with a microscope with a trinocular head or something equivalent?

If not with a microscope and the subjects are mobile, how do you plan to maintain focus and composition while inserting the film holder etc. ? I ask because I've fiddled with using focusing frames with a Graphic and gave up.

i said MICRO in all caps to make it perfectly clear that i meant micro, with a microscope, not macro.

[Bernice Loui]

IMO, skip any view camera or this imaging need. Get a Leitz-Wild M420 with the lighting system needed and 4x5 film adapter if wanting to do film.
This image making system solved a LOT of problems with more optical capability than could ever be done using ANY view camera.. which is a lash-up at best.


http://www.savazzi.net/photography/wild_leica_m420.htm

The very best solution to macro-micro image needs to date. Higher magnification with other illumination needs can be addressed
with different microscopes set up for a camera. Lighting is a SERIOUS issue with microscopes.

If stuck trying this with a view camera. Use a monorail camera with the object to be imaged mounted on some method of support and lighting on to the camera monorail. Stability, vibration, setting image ratios and magnification will be "interesting"..


Bernice

i said MICRO in all caps to make it perfectly clear that i meant micro, with a microscope, not macro.

[maltfalc]

IMO, skip any view camera or this imaging need. Get a Leitz-Wild M420 with the lighting system needed and 4x5 film adapter if wanting to do film.
This image making system solved a LOT of problems with more optical capability than could ever be done using ANY view camera.. which is a lash-up at best.


http://www.savazzi.net/photography/wild_leica_m420.htm

The very best solution to macro-micro image needs to date. Higher magnification with other illumination needs can be addressed
with different microscopes set up for a camera. Lighting is a SERIOUS issue with microscopes.

If stuck trying this with a view camera. Use a monorail camera with the object to be imaged mounted on some method of support and lighting on to the camera monorail. Stability, vibration, setting image ratios and magnification will be "interesting"..


Bernice

i've got a speed graphic, a few basic student microscopes, a stereo zoom kyowa and an old as dirt ao spencer brewmaster with motorized focus and an lcd-based all-in-one darkfield, oblique, etc. filter... and zero budget for any new scopes or cameras. for lighting i'll probably be going with blue filtered flash and led.

[Dan Fromm]

i've got a speed graphic, a few basic student microscopes, a stereo zoom kyowa and an old as dirt ao spencer brewmaster with motorized focus and an lcd-based all-in-one darkfield, oblique, etc. filter... and zero budget for any new scopes or cameras. for lighting i'll probably be going with blue filtered flash and led.

Hmm. IIRC the standard monocular 'scope tube diameter is ~ 24 mm. There are inexpensive lensless "microscope adapters" for 35 mm SLRs. One might fit your basic student scopes. You could probably adapt one of the adapters to a Graphic board, but unless you can rig a beamsplitter for viewing you'd be shooting blind. How do you plan to manage that?

I have two stereo scopes at home, a Unitron and a B&L and have the use of a Leica SMZ 125 in the museum where I have a courtesy appointment. Also have access to Wild M-5s and a variety of other stereo scopes there. Haven't been able to find a way to attach a camera to any of them. Their eyepiece tubes are all too large to mount a cheapie lensless adapter or the nice Nikon one with lens that I've had for years.

FWIW, one of our visitors got what our curator emeritus said were "publication quality" shots by holding a cell phone's lens over a stereo scope's eyepiece. Remember, what matters is that you get usable images of your subjects. How you get them is secondary. Try y'r cell phone. My cheapie took poor shots through an eyepiece, but trying's cheap.

Thinking of subjects, please tell us a little about the moving subjects you want to shoot.

Now that I think of it, another problem for you to solve is mounting your Graphic so that it transfers no vibration to the 'scope.

[maltfalc]

Hmm. IIRC the standard monocular 'scope tube diameter is ~ 24 mm. There are inexpensive lensless "microscope adapters" for 35 mm SLRs. One might fit your basic student scopes. You could probably adapt one of the adapters to a Graphic board, but unless you can rig a beamsplitter for viewing you'd be shooting blind. How do you plan to manage that?

I have two stereo scopes at home, a Unitron and a B&L and have the use of a Leica SMZ 125 in the museum where I have a courtesy appointment. Also have access to Wild M-5s and a variety of other stereo scopes there. Haven't been able to find a way to attach a camera to any of them. Their eyepiece tubes are all too large to mount a cheapie lensless adapter or the nice Nikon one with lens that I've had for years.

FWIW, one of our visitors got what our curator emeritus said were "publication quality" shots by holding a cell phone's lens over a stereo scope's eyepiece. Remember, what matters is that you get usable images of your subjects. How you get them is secondary. Try y'r cell phone. My cheapie took poor shots through an eyepiece, but trying's cheap.

Thinking of subjects, please tell us a little about the moving subjects you want to shoot.

Now that I think of it, another problem for you to solve is mounting your Graphic so that it transfers no vibration to the 'scope.

two of my student scopes are this type.

the top screws off so i can just use direct projection straight up through my speed graphic with no obstructions. with the other monocular scopes i can just use eyepiece projection. i'll use the ground glass for viewing. i can switch off an led, load a film holder and trigger a flash pretty fast. i won't need to use the shutter and the flash should take care of any residual shaking from loading the film holder. i'll skip trying the cell phone. if i want digital photos i'll go back to using my dslr and the camera mount i made for the ao spencer. the subjects will be whatever i find in the nearest ditch.

[Dan Fromm]

... i'll use the ground glass for viewing. i can switch off an led, load a film holder and trigger a flash pretty fast. ... the subjects will be whatever i find in the nearest ditch.

Good luck. Whether you're quick enough is an empirical question. After you've answered it, please tell us what you learned.

I last looked at such creatures when I was around 7. Our GP lent me a nice Zeiss scope ... Paramecia, rotifers, cladocerans, copepods, nematodes and such move quite rapidly. I never found a Volvox. You might want to think about sedating your subjects.