how many to get one?

**lungovw** · 23-Oct-2008, 13:10

Let us say that you are in a portraiture assigment. Shooting in 4x5 or larger. The objective is to end up with one nice shot. How many sheets do you normally expose? I shoot 2 to 4 at the most, many times only one. What is your average? Does it change for you if the sitter is paying or not? I am not professional but recently some people I am not acquainted with, asked me for a B&W potrait. I am wondering how should I proceed in that case because I am charging them. I know there is no rule for that. This is only for sharing what others do.

LF greetings

Wagner Lungov

**Scott Davis** · 23-Oct-2008, 13:55

I always shoot a variety of shots of someone, even if I know them very well already. I need to see their face and their posture in multiple poses to decide what looks best to represent them. Everyone's face has two sides, and many expressions. You need to see them through the camera lens to help decide which shot to take. Sometimes you'll find that the shot you THOUGHT was best when looking through the camera is not what you expected/wanted, but some other shot you took is actually the grand prize winner from the session.

**Ash** · 23-Oct-2008, 16:14

As many sheets & holders as I have available!

**jnantz** · 23-Oct-2008, 16:54

i usually pack about a dozen +
and shoot until i don't want to anymore.
sometimes that is after 2 or 4 and other times
that is after all of them.

sorry for being vague.

john

**Walter Calahan** · 23-Oct-2008, 17:26

As many as it takes.

**Maris Rusis** · 24-Oct-2008, 15:09

As many as it takes but every shot counts.

My last portrait session used up 9 exposures and all were good and all were different. My subject got all 9 as archival gelatin-silvers on fibre base; signed, titled, dated, stamped, and annotated. What I delivered was a portrait "profile" rather than one picture. But if one picture was enough that's all they would get.

I find there is a confidence in using a large format camera for portraiture because of the size and clarity of the viewing screen. I've heard that one advantage of digital cameras is that one can "chimp" the screen AFTER the exposure. It seems to me that I can go one better with a large format camera. I can "chimp" the screen BEFORE exposure and then decide to "click" or not.

**Daniel_Buck** · 24-Oct-2008, 15:19

I am just starting to get into portraits, and I'm coming to find out that aside from the technical things (exposure, focusing, composition) timing is very critical. facial expressions that can be held for a decent length of time usually look a little 'fake' or 'uncomfortable', and expressions that can be provoked or called upon in the moment don't last very long. A split second sometimes makes a huge difference, especially with someone who is not comfortable infront of a camera and may only let out an 'unforced' expression every now and then. So my guess is, shoot however much you have so that you can catch that instant of perfect expression, especially if the person is not used to being in front of a camera, or is not very natural/comfortable infront of a camera.

That said, I have done a few potraits where I shot one sheet of film, and I got a result that I probably could not have been happier with! But I would not like to bet on this every time.