I have recently been enjoying myself by becoming more involved in portrait photography with my 4x5 camera. Being somewhat inexperienced in this area and attempting to learn how to control the strong light (facial shadows) I have mostly elected to shoot on overcast days. I do realize that I could use a reflector to fill the shadows but as there is only myself and the subject present and the fact that I hike a distance for some of these shooting sessions the idea of carrying an extra piece of equipment does not seem appropriate.

The problem I seem to be running into is that the focus frequently seems too soft when I am enlarging the negatives. At this moment I am attributing this to the fact that I am using a slow shutter in the 1/8th to ¼ range and thus the natural slight movement of the subject is causing this effect. Do you think that my assumption is correct?

The reason I find myself using these speeds is that with a typical f-stop of f/11 or f/16 I need to use speeds like this to obtain an exposure on my Tri-X rated at 160 ASA. The lenses I own and use typically start at the f/9 range. (approximately).

I have asked the subject (model) to resist moving during the instance of shooting but feel that this affects the natural posing of my subject as well as infringes upon the goodwill of my willing and friendly model. After all the subject is not a paid model and as such I do not wish to look a “gift horse in the mouth”. Would you have any helpful suggestion for helping me to improve my ability to produce a sharper negative in this situation?

Kind Regards,