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Thread: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

  1. #21
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    I just close one eye and I can see how it's going to look represented in 2 dimension. Then I can guess how much I will zoom with my feet, or which lens I will use.

    I can use the removable optical finder that attaches to the top of my speed graphic, but I generally don't and leave it in place.

  2. #22
    Glenn Mellen
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    I use the Linhof 45 Multifocus Viewfinder that Vlad wished he had. Expensive way to do it perhaps... but it came with the camera. Saves considerable time in not only choosing a lens but also in choosing exact locations in which to set up and whether the image works better in vertical or horizontal.

    Negative to having one is that when shooting with others that use fingers, guesswork, or cardboard cut-outs one finds themself waiting for the viewfinder-less to finish with it.

    Awfully expensive to buy new, but can be had used for $400-$600 for the new version and less for the older. Honestly one of the best "accessories" to be in a kit.

  3. #23
    Octogenarian
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    Hey Glenn.

    If that expensive Linhof viewer hadn't come with your camera, and you had never used one of those accessories before, would you have purchased it anyhow?

    I've been with you when you walked about a scene peering through that Linhof viewer, and never even bothering to set up your camera. The rest of us came away with a couple of very nice shots of the scene after framing it with our fingers.

  4. #24
    Glenn Mellen
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    Gem:

    a) Yes, I would've purchased one (no doubt used).

    b) The use of the viewer has never prevented taking a photo wanted, except to indicate that setting up a camera was a waste of time and film, in my personal opinion.

    c) As far as "nice shots" being missed... what is or what is not an image one desires to capture is a very subjective matter.

  5. #25

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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Hughes View Post
    I look for a scene that will fit inside my camera. If it's too big, I move back ...

  6. #26
    Octogenarian
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    I wonder if Ansel Adams used an optical view finder to compose his photos.

    Anybody know?

  7. #27

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    Tucson, AZ
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    I have a 5x7 black mat board with a 4x5 hole cut out. I tied a string to it and marked off my focal lengths with a sharpie. The string is a loop so I can hang the thing around my head. Most of the time I have it with me, though sometimes I don't. I like using it because it lets me practice composing even when I don't want to photograph something. I find it useful, but it's not a crutch and I don't always use it.
    Laurent

  8. #28
    Large format foamer! SamReeves's Avatar
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Ellis View Post
    For some reason whenever I tried that method the good light always disappeared while I was changing lenses. : - )
    Aww c'mon, you gotta be faster than that at sunset! J/K

  9. #29

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    Baraboo, Wisconsin
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    Quote Originally Posted by anchored View Post
    I use the Linhof 45 Multifocus Viewfinder that Vlad wished he had. Expensive way to do it perhaps... but it came with the camera. Saves considerable time in not only choosing a lens but also in choosing exact locations in which to set up and whether the image works better in vertical or horizontal.

    Negative to having one is that when shooting with others that use fingers, guesswork, or cardboard cut-outs one finds themself waiting for the viewfinder-less to finish with it.

    Awfully expensive to buy new, but can be had used for $400-$600 for the new version and less for the older. Honestly one of the best "accessories" to be in a kit.
    I owned the new version, used it for about six months, sold it, and went back to the viewing card I mentioned in a previous post. I never found a convenient way of carrying it since I couldn't store it on my camera in my back pack. It was fairly big and bulky, too bulky to wear around your neck or on your belt. It also took longer to get on the camera and to the right point for the desired composition than the viewing card because my hand had to be in an awkward position to turn the ring or knob that moved it back and forth. I just found it inconvenient and time-consuming to use compared to a card, not to mention vastly more expensive. I actually thought just from looking at pictures that the older version might have been easier to use. But they're nice instruments and I can see why some would like them especially if they had never used anything else.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  10. #30
    Virtually Grey Steve Gledhill's Avatar
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    Re: Your method for matching lens to landscape composition

    This is the third time I've posted this - a year or two ago and a few weeks ago - it works perfectly - and is very cheap:
    http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=41735

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