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Thread: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

  1. #11

    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    For those who are interested, I got a meter reading of 50/s with f11 and exposed 3 sheets of film f8/11/16. Turns out the Graflex does like being overexposed. F8 could even have done with a little bit more.

    So, for reference, +1.5 stops works well. This confirms the advice I had received from people before regarding large format and generally needing to overexpose.

  2. #12
    8x10, 5x7, 4x5, et al Leigh's Avatar
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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Quote Originally Posted by catrionagray View Post
    For those who are interested, I got a meter reading of 50/s with f11 and exposed 3 sheets of film f8/11/16. Turns out the Graflex does like being overexposed. F8 could even have done with a little bit more.
    So, for reference, +1.5 stops works well. This confirms the advice I had received from people before regarding large format and generally needing to overexpose.
    The "advice" you're heard is not correct. Exposure has nothing to do with the type of camera you're using.

    Exposure recommendations (i.e. "box" speed) are based on averages of many different scenes yielding negatives that meet certain defined characteristics.

    If you prefer different results, you change the film speed to yield the negatives that you want.

    This has nothing to do with the format. It's just as true for 35mm as it is for LF.

    - Leigh
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  3. #13
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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Quote Originally Posted by catrionagray View Post
    For those who are interested, I got a meter reading of 50/s with f11 and exposed 3 sheets of film f8/11/16. Turns out the Graflex does like being overexposed. F8 could even have done with a little bit more.

    So, for reference, +1.5 stops works well. This confirms the advice I had received from people before regarding large format and generally needing to overexpose.
    Be careful about drawing the wrong conclusions from a specific effect.

    What you see could mean a range of things. It could mean that the film you used, developed as you developed it, is slower than you thought. It could mean that the shutter on that lens is not correct. It could be a reflection of your metering technique (as in...where you point the meter and what is included in the metered scene, plus how you assign that metered value to the tones you intend in the final print.)

    Generally, one does little harm overexposing any negative material by a stop. I have a Ukrainian (medium-format) camera that has a shutter that is about a stop too slow on most speeds. I shot at box speed and the pictures have more color saturation because the negatives have a bit more density as a result of being overexposed. It's quite easy to compensate for that effect during printing. It keeps shadow detail from being lost, too. But for portraits, that error results in ruddy skin tones. Overexposing transparency film, on the other hand, might cause highlights to become clear bits of film without texture.

    How distant was the subject in your photo? What film were you using?

    Rick "wary of misattributing cause and effect" Denney

  4. #14

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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Hi, Catriona
    I am also learning to use the 4 by 5 Speed with the 6 by 9 roll film back with HP5+ and a Pentax 67 lens.
    Exposing using an Olympus M43 in spot mode, measuring the bright spots. at f/16 or so and copying the indicated shutter speed for the rear shutter.
    Develop with Microphen per the box.
    The rear shutter is about 1/3 to 1/2 stop slow by phototransistor/oscilloscope eg 1/50:30 millisec, 1/125:11 millisec
    It seems to work OK, per the histogram on this image in strong afternoon light (4MB .jpg)
    https://www.box.com/s/98dvx2lwnbq07kjynkq1

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  5. #15

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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Quote Originally Posted by catrionagray View Post
    For those who are interested, I got a meter reading of 50/s with f11 and exposed 3 sheets of film f8/11/16. Turns out the Graflex does like being overexposed. F8 could even have done with a little bit more.

    So, for reference, +1.5 stops works well. This confirms the advice I had received from people before regarding large format and generally needing to overexpose.
    What Leigh and Rick said.

    Which shutter are you using? Is it accurate? What meter are you using? Is it accurate? How are you metering?

    What film? Developer? Development procedure?

    That Graflex is an inert object. It doesn't "like" anything.

    Whomever told you LF "likes" to be overexposed is very poorly informed and you should not listen to them for any other advice.
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  6. #16

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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Hi Catriona and welcome to the forum

    There are so many variables in the and they all have their tolerances - the film is probably the best controlled of them all but exposure is frequently off due to shutter variations, developing variations (temperature control, error in temperature measurement, agitation, specific developer characteristics,) metering, and photographers preferences. Oh yeah, bellows extension is one of them but at reasonable distances (and with a 150mm lens that means anything more than a few feet from the camera) it's probably the least significant.

    I think it's more accurate to say that some large format photographers like to overexpose by a stop (to be sure to get more shadow detail, maybe) than to say that the large cameras like to be overexposed.

  7. #17

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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    "I think it's more accurate to say that some large format photographers like to overexpose by a stop (to be sure to get more shadow detail, maybe) than to say that the large cameras like to be overexposed".

    Correct. I typically "overexpose" black and white film by 2/3 of a stop (in formats fron 35mm to 8x10) to ensure good shadow detail, reducing the development just a bit (depending on the brighness range of the scene) to prevent blocking the highlights. But this does not mean that the cameras I use the film in "like" to be overexposed. That just doesn't make any sense at all.

    http://www.largeformatphotography.info/
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  8. #18
    Terry Christian's Avatar
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    Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Proper exposure is proper exposure. If the meter on a DSLR says that the correct exposure (and you agree) is ISO 100, 1/50 sec. at f/8, then theoretically that should also work for the same film, scene, and field of view on a 35mm camera, a medium format camera, or a large format camera. It shouldn't matter. If you decide to overexpose for various reasons, like E. von Hoegh pointed out, or make other creative adjustments, then you're certainly free to do so, but that has nothing to do with objectively correct exposure.

    My point is that exposure doesn't change based solely on the camera format.

  9. #19
    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    Quote Originally Posted by Terry Christian View Post
    Proper exposure is proper exposure.
    "Proper exposure" is a range of acceptable exposures.


    J. L. Simonds, 1961

  10. #20

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    Re: Exposures for Graflex Crown Graphic 5x4

    The box speed of film is the minimum exposure under average conditions. "Proper exposure" will depend upon scene brightness range, as St. Ansel pointed out in the book "The Negative".

    I don't know where the "large format needs more exposure" garbage came from, this isn't the first time I've heard/read it.
    One man's Mede is another man's Persian.

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