What’s your most “unpopular” opinion about LF?

[Michael R]

Yes, it’s visualization. Pre-visualization is like I got out of bed this morning before I visualized something.

It is a fancy word for imagining what you would like your image to look like. Design might be a better word.

[Doremus Scudder]

Most unpopular opinion? That using a view camera is really cool. I quit believing that when DSLR photographers started looking at me, not with admiration, but with the kind of pitiful gaze reserved for those who are hopelessly behind the times.

Oh boy, does that ring true for me!

I remember working in the Steens Mt. area in Oregon once when a group of photography students from the University of Oregon came by with their Holgas and digicams (with their instructor too, I might add). They though I was out of earshot, but I could clearly hear the disparaging remarks from, "what a dinosaur," "who does he think he is anyway, Ansel Adams?" etc., etc. I'm still angry.

Doremus

[xkaes]

It works the other way too.

I was once at the famous GOOSENECKS overlook in Utah -- very very early one morning. Trying to get a shot under the perfect sunrise. I was all alone -- or so I thought. A little old lady came up from behind and asked, "Are you Ansel Adams?"

She was NOT kidding.

[Sal Santamaura]

Also, the term pre-visualization makes no sense.

...it’s visualization...

Yes, but I predict you'll have no more luck correcting that than I've had helping people transcend their persistent use of the meaningless word "art."

[Vaughn]

It works the other way too.

I was once at the famous GOOSENECKS overlook in Utah -- very very early one morning. Trying to get a shot under the perfect sunrise. I was all alone -- or so I thought. A little old lady came up from behind and asked, "Are you Ansel Adams?"

She was NOT kidding.

The average National Park visitors are in awe of LF cameras....they'll line up to be able to have a turn under the darkcloth. During my AIR in Zion NP, some of the most appreciative comments I got were for 20-somethings.

I would not worry about the anti-LF mumblings of digital camera users. They are most likely trying to justify the big bucks their equipment costs and the thought of the 10000 images they'll have to go through when they get home. If the digital camera users are thinking photographers, they'll appreciate and respect how other photographers work.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I would not worry about the anti-LF mumblings of digital camera users. They are most likely trying to justify the big bucks their equipment costs and the thought of the 10000 images they'll have to go through when they get home...

Not all photographers using DSLRs are the same. I record only a few more images on memory cards than sheets of film exposed at the same/similar locations. I've spent no more than five minutes each time selecting the optimum frame from those handfuls of files.

...I...use my D810 like a view camera, on a tripod, live view, magnifier zooming the display in/out around the ground glass the same as a loupe, manually focusing...

[Richard Wasserman]

Oh boy, does that ring true for me!

I remember working in the Steens Mt. area in Oregon once when a group of photography students from the University of Oregon came by with their Holgas and digicams (with their instructor too, I might add). They though I was out of earshot, but I could clearly hear the disparaging remarks from, "what a dinosaur," "who does he think he is anyway, Ansel Adams?" etc., etc. I'm still angry.

Doremus

I just had the opposite occur. I was out yesterday photographing with my 4x5 Chamonix in an industrial area near a fright train yard, and a 20ish man was paying attention to what I was doing, but from a distance. I waved and he waved back and he came over to chat. He was heavily tattooed—arms, neck, face (not that that really relevant)—and was the sweetest guy I've met in a while. He recently bought a Minolta SLR and was excited that I was shooting film. His girlfriend came over to join us and she was equally enthusiastic, and asked me to photograph them kissing near a train. We all had a great time!

[John Kasaian]

Hmmmmm.....I'll play.
1) That a print that you make with your hands using manual tools is different than a print that comes out of a machine because the energy comes from your own hands.
2) That traditional LF photography can be worth the pursuit just because it is something you enjoy doing, not dependent on any perceived improvement over later technologies

[Alan Klein]

"Pass them along before we die..." This resonates. Thinking about how much money I'd lost last year when I let my Hasselblad gear go to a dealer (a very reputable one...and no disrespect), it almost makes sense to just give this stuff away - but (and here's the rub that might make this yet another "unpopular" opinion)...this "free" gear should go to those who truly deserve it the most, with the methodology to make such an evaluation left up to the giver of the equipment. In my case I think it would amount to requiring an essay (in the case of a beginner), or maybe a project proposal from someone more "advanced" and needing specific gear (but who cannot otherwise afford it), along with some supporting documentation (and maybe photos) and proof of "need." Yeah...I know...this may seem a bit "power-trippy," but I would hate to just give truly high quality gear away to someone, for example, who just wanted it as "bling" and nothing else.

Living in a 55+ retirement community, I know loads of other older people here have probably thrown most of the film stuff out. Some have kept it especially the more expensive stuff like Leica's. Half the people here don;t even know film is still being used. Most are using digital, happily, and have moved on. It's the young mainly who have taken up film and keeping it going. I have a friend who donated his darkroom to a film student at a local college. But that was 15 years ago and I;m not sure the college does film any more.

Put it in your will I suppose. But realistically, is your family going to bother trying to sell it unless it;s really worth a lot? A yard sale with other crap?

[Alan Klein]

Previsualization is a reality. One chooses both tripod placement and choice of lens after considering the scene visually before set up, no? Having said that, a corollary to Vaughn's single lens concept is to choose one lens to work with when venturing into new territory and explore forcing oneself to see with that AOV. It imposes a discipline which inevitably will provide s freedom of visual acuity. Perhaps compare it to choice of golf club to perform in a certain way, or to learn bird songs to accentuate one's ability to identify a species (a somewhat useless skill but for he fact that I cannot help myself as it is innate, being musically inclined).

Don't oil paint artists decide where to put the subject effectively deciding which lens angle to use? Sculptors? Why should photographers have any less choice?